Barge of Heaven

The Neo-Pagan song Barge of Heaven was adapted by Starhawk from Thorkild Jacobsen's rendering of a Sumerian song, labelled Dumuzid-Inana P, which describes the goddess Inanna's preparation for marriage - a bath, a song of praise for her genitals, and finally her union with the king.

For a long time I've wanted to compare the two, partly because there are some lines in Starhawk's version which have been borrowed from other similar songs, and partly because I thought I was being a bit clever in spotting an edit which shifts credit for the land's fertility from the king to the goddess. Or does it?

Here are Starhawk's lyrics:

1 Your crescent shaped barge of heaven
2 So well belayed, so well belayed
3 Full of loveliness like the new moon
4 Your fertile fields well-watered
5 Hillock lands well-watered, too
6 At your mighty rising
7 The vines rise up and the fields rise up
8 And the desert fills with green
9 Just like a living garden
10 In the heat of the sun, you are the shade
11 A well of water in a dry, dry land
12 Swelling fruits to feed the hungry
13 Sweet cream to quench our thirst
14 Pour it out for me, pour it out for me
15 Everything you send me I will drink

Jacobsen's translation appears on page 46 of his book The Treasures of Darkness, and accounts for lines 1-3, 5, 4, and 6-9. Here's his rendering of those lines, given the same numbering:

1 (my crescent shaped) "Barge of Heaven,"
2 so (well) belayed,
3 full of loveliness, like the new moon

5 my hillock land, so (well) watered

4 My parts, (well) watered lowlands

6 At its mighty rising, at its mighty rising,
7 did the shoots and the vines rise up.
6 The king's loins! At its mighty rising
7 did the vines rise up and the grains rise up
8 did the desert fill (with verdure)
9 like a pleasurable garden.

( Compare and contrast... )

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Jacobsen, Thorkild. The Treasures of Darkness: a history of Mesopotamian religion. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1976.

Kramer, Samuel Noah. Cuneiform Studies and the History of Literature: the Sumerian Sacred Marriage Texts. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 107(6), December 1963, pp 485-515.

Sefati, Yitschak. Love Songs in Sumerian Literature. Bar-Ilan University Press, Israel, 1998.