Barge of Heaven

[ikhet_sekhmet]

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.

The first thing you'll notice is that here Inanna is singing about herself; then the Sumerian song describes the effects of intercourse between the goddess and the king. Starhawk's modern version reworks all these lines into second person, making it more like a hymn addressed to the goddess.

You may also notice that the king's penis has disappeared from Starhawk's version, erased by the change from third to second person: "At its mighty rising" becomes "At your mighty rising". It seems unlikely that it was an effort to erase the male principle; the Horned God, consort of the Goddess, plays an important role in Starhawk's writing and worship. And I can't believe it was just a misreading. Is it an attempt to unify and simplify the song? Starhawk has adapted the language for simplicity (eg "fertile fields" for "lowlands"). Or is there another explanation?

Jacobsen is trying to give the clearest possible rendering of the song for his book, which is tough going, because not only is Sumerian a terribly cryptic language, bits of the tablets are often missing. Here's a little of Samuel Noah Kramer's translation, from which Jacobsen was working:

1 It is the "Boat of Heaven", 2 fastening ropes ....,
3 Like the new crescent, passion ....,
4 My vulva is .. wet ground for (?) me (?)

Sumerologists have to make some pretty shrewd guesses, and those guesses don't always agree. That leaves room for interpretation. Here's Kramer again:

6 At the lap of the king, the high-standing cedar ....,
7 The plants stood high by (his) side, the grain stood high by (his) side,
9 The .. garden flourished luxuriantly by his side.

Kramer appears to be guessing the missing pronouns in line 7 from the one in line 9, which seems reasonable. But here's Yitschak Sefarti's translation of the same lines:

6 [At her rising from] the pure lap,
7 Fresh fruits and shoots [rose up with her],
6 At her rising from the king's lap,
7 The flax rose up with her, the barley rose up with her,
8 The steppe has been filled (with abundance) with her like a blossoming garden.

Sefarti seems to be sure about the pronoun, and that it's feminine - unless he's also guessing, perhaps from the mention of the goddesses' name a few lines earlier, suggesting she's the subject of this section. Both scholars have to guess from the context; Sumerian doesn't have gender.

ETCSL gives a similar reading:

6 As she arises from the king's embrace, 7 the flax rises up with her, the barley rises up with her. 8 With her, the desert is filled with a glorious garden.

So it's possible Starhawk's lyrics are based on these alternative readings; in any case, they do support her version.

(More later when I've tracked down the source of the other lines!)

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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.