41 Comments
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Bjørn Olav Bøe's avatar

You Are right!

Michael R. Burch's avatar

I'm glad we agree.

Teàrlach's avatar

I tend towards the goddess of Enheduanna.

Teàrlach's avatar

She most fucking certainly does. She hit me very hard over the head with her hammer and woke me into something else. No haven’t but I will. I’ve read lady of the largest heart, translations of Enheduanna’s poems and any thing else I come across. She wears the robes of the old gods and that takes me back into times before things were written or where writings survived.

Thank you Michael.

Michael R. Burch's avatar

Thanks for your input, and for taking the time to read and comment.

Michael R. Burch's avatar

My favorite of her poems is "Lament to the Spirit of War."

She wrote the first anti-war poem 4,000 years before Wilfred Owen and company.

Please let me know what you think of my translations.

In a cool synchronicity, I am working on an update with several new poems of hers.

I will dedicate the new poems to you, my friend.

Teàrlach's avatar

Now I will reread your Sappho.

Michael R. Burch's avatar

Please let me know what you think about my Sappho translations.

Interestingly, Enheduanna wrote the first anti-war poem and Sappho wrote the first "make love, not war" poem.

Did Enheduanna return as Sappho?

Teàrlach's avatar

The anti war poem added another layer to Enheduanna. In what I have read of her she cared for those across many divides. A mystery to me is who the women who came across the river to worship were.

Michael R. Burch's avatar

Enheduanna either wrote or compiled hymns for a large number of temples, so she was probably quite tolerant.

There are many mysteries but the other women could have been priestesses with Enheduanna being the the high priestess. She was a very powerful woman and the daughter of King Sargon the Great as well.

Teàrlach's avatar

I’ll come back to you on this. It’s a long story. I can say this though. Your translation of Sappho is the only one I’ve read and it fuelled me. The white dress of Sappho’s muse.

Michael R. Burch's avatar

I like to think I have the best Sappho translations, but I may be biased. ;-)

Michael R. Burch's avatar

I'm glad you like it. I believe Martin Mc Carthy, who posts here often, especially liked that one too.

Teàrlach's avatar

Who can explain your

Tirade

Why you carry on so.

Teàrlach's avatar

Fabulous. She was a brave compassionate woman.

Teàrlach's avatar

I’m reading it right now ish

Teàrlach's avatar

I’m looking for your Sappho now. And my word blindness has led to me miss your name in a post

Michael R. Burch's avatar

Everyone calls me Mike, which is easy to spell and remember, but I publish as Michael R. Burch. No one calls me that but my publishers and critics!

Teàrlach's avatar

My current favourite is Inanna and Ebih….. when I first read it, it took the top off my head. Enheduanna rails against unnatural ideas of perfection. She also rails against the masculine intrusion into the feminine domain. It was a man who removed her from the temple. A move away from nature to the idea that nature can be controlled.

Michael R. Burch's avatar

I have called Enheduanna the first feminist because she put Inanna in charge of the alpha male gods!

Teàrlach's avatar

Yes. I very much get that.