The HyperTexts
POEM IN FOCUS
Every month in The HyperTexts,
the poet, critic and our contributing editor,
Martin Mc Carthy, selects and comments on
a poem, old or new, that has attracted his attention.
Poem in Focus, May 2025:
Lament to the Spirit of War
by Enheduanna
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
You hack down everything you see, War God!
Rising on fearsome wings
you rush to destroy our land:
raging like thunderstorms,
howling like hurricanes,
screaming like tempests,
thundering, raging, ranting, drumming,
whiplashing whirlwinds!
Men falter at your approaching footsteps.
Tortured dirges scream on your lyre of despair.
Like a fiery Salamander you poison the land:
growling over the earth like thunder,
vegetation collapsing before you,
blood gushing down mountainsides.
Spirit of hatred, greed and vengeance!
Dominatrix of heaven and earth!
Your ferocious fire consumes our land.
Whipping your stallion
with furious commands,
you impose our fates.
You triumph over all human rites and prayers.
Who can explain your tirade,
why you go on so?
Commentary by Martin Mc Carthy
“Lament to the Spirit of War” is the very first anti-war poem, and a very
appropriate poem to publish right now, when wars are still raging all around us,
and eventual victory seeming likely to go to those with the best weapons. But in
this poem, it’s abundantly clear from the very first line and its strong
disapproving tone that this Sumerian poet/priestess does not approve of
warfare, or war gods, and all their barbaric acts of destruction:
“You hack down everything you see, War God!”
Then she goes on to describe the scene, the violence raging like a tempest, as
the pawns of those in power “rush to destroy the land”. Not only does Enheduanna
describe the destruction, but she directly names the very source that motivates
it all:
“Spirit of hatred, greed and vengeance!
Dominatrix of heaven and earth!
Your ferocious fire consumes our land”
and how powerless right-minded people, endeavouring to enact “holy rites and
prayers” feel in the light of all this violent, senseless tyranny.
Finally, she concludes her poem by asking, with Zen-like calm, what any
passionate anti-war protestor, confronting the very same atrocities and horrors
in Gaza and Ukraine would ask today:
“Who can explain your tirade,
why you go on so?”
What a truly remarkable poem this is! How timeless and relevant Enheduanna's
words are! And how little has changed in over 4,200 years, when it comes to
those who willingly serve the dark gods of warfare, who are still with us today!
Enhedaunna was the High Priestess of the goddess Ianna and the moon god Nanna.
She lived in the Sumerian city-state of Ur (modern day Iraq) over 4,200 years
ago, and is the earliest known poet ever recorded.
Originally published in
The New Stylus.
The HyperTexts