Friday, November 10, 2006

New Stuff!

Hey, Everyone! Be sure to check out my complete profile, because I have a new blog and a new website up. Both of these new areas have been built to house my fiction writing and the journal I'm going to keep regarding said endeavor. Now, these two entities are just recently created, and there are a lot more features I plan to add as time goes on, but they're fairly spiffy as things stand now, if I may be so bold! It would be great if you came over!

Patrick M. Tracy

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was learning all about arm massage today in school. Got an amazing massage from this super-butch ex-cop lady! On an unrelated note, I was thinking what kind of thing you might dig and I thought you might like Sumerian poetry, as a sort of adjunct to your large storehouse of Northern European stuff. So I have to go haul my daughter to Girl Scouts, but leave me a note here whether you prefer something dark like Inanna's Descent or maybe light like some 8,000 year-old naughty poetry.

Regards,

Rachel

Patrick M. Tracy said...

Rachel,

Good to hear from you! I think I'd like both the dark and the naughty poetry. Sumerian poetry sounds cool in general.

Look forward to seeing whatever you decide to send!

Anonymous said...

Okay, here Inanna is preparing to visit the Netherworld. The places she is forsaking are all her temples in Ur. This translation is from Thorkild Jacobsen.

My lady forsook heaven,
forsook earth
went down into Hades.
Inanna forsook heaven,
forsook earth,
went down into Hades.
Lordship she forsook,
queenship she forsook,
went down into Hades.

In Uruk she forsook Eanna,
went down into Hades.
In Bad-Tibira she forsook Emushkalamma,
went down into Hades.
In Zabalam she forsook Giguna,
went down into Hades.
In Adab she forsook Ebaragdurgara,
went down into Hades.
In Kishi she forsook Hursag-Kalamma,
went down into Hades.
In Akkade she forsook E-ulmash,
went down into Hades.

The seven powers of office
she bundled,
hugged the powers,
kept them handy;
fetched out the stored-away
mittu-weapon.

Kaffieah and aghal,
the desert headdress,
she put on her head;
the wig of her brow she took;
held in the hand
the pure yardstick
and measuring line.
Small lapiz lazuli beads
she hung around her neck,
with yoked oval stone bead
she covered her chest.
Gold bracelets she slipped
over her hands;
and the breast-shields [called]
"Oh man, come hither, come hither"
she drew over her chest.
With the robe of office,
the robe of queenship,
she covered her back;
the kohl [called]
"Oh may he come, may he come"
she put on her eyes.



I thought, based on the magisterial quality of your latest bits of output, that this might appeal to you. So, anyhow, Inanna goes down to the Underworld, and Ereshkigal, queen of those parts, is not pleased. So here's how Inanna winds up:


The Annunaki, the seven judges,
rendered judgement to her face,
their verdict was a verdict
griping the bowels,
they cried out against her,
it was the call for punishment!
Killed she was, and turned
into a slab of tainted meat,
and the slab
of tainted meat
a man hung from a peg.


WHOA! Not to worry, eventually she is restored. But it's pretty grim! Well, I shall come back soon and give you some lettuces and barley stalks.

N.B. Jacobsen uses the term "Hades" as the translation of the Sumerian "Kur" which doesn't really have any translation; it means, sorta, "the realm of the dead in the fearsome mountains."

Patrick M. Tracy said...

Rachel,

Very cool! The realm of the dead in the fearsome mountains, huh? I think I've been there a few times. All the Sumerian words sound very foreboding. I think that the author could have left the word as "Kur" and explained the meaning.

The neat thing about the ancient literature is that it pulled no punches. The characters generally die if you read long enough. Neat.

Thanks for showing me the poetry!

M. Shahin said...

Thanks for pointing this out Firehawk. I will be checking out your work at your new location. Is this blog not going to be updated anymore?

Patrick M. Tracy said...

m. shahin,

I'll continue to update this blog, have no fear. I'm just branching out. I'll endeavor to get a poem up on this site every week, as I have been in the past. Thanks for coming over. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

MB said...

I'll check it out — congrats on your new branches!

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