Pierre Joris

THE EXALTATION OF INNANA

                		           	for Nicole

		for she was
		   poetessa
                maker of prayers
	        weaver of songs
	             singer
		    prophetessa

she was 	Enheduanna
daughter of Sargon of Akkad
she sang centuries before Sappho
she was priestess of Inanna

& she gathered
in song & exaltation
the goddess's me's,
these are now both
their divine attributes:

for she is lady of all the me's
owner of all the divine attributes,

righteous woman		         resplendent light
robed in radiance		 beloved above as below
whose hand had held		 all seven me's
oh you guardian		         of the attributes

it is the me's make you a
goddess, dingir

	the me's that were	        	me-ba / me-sim / me-t�m
bequeathed  / bestowed		  on you
		the family jewels
			the kinship ladder
	an act of grace,
				(not	me-tal / me-tal
	 that legal claim, not  Enki the bookkeeper's
		mythological doling out, apportioning,
	as zi- �right, proper, just�  no, none
of that patriarchal dealin' & wheelin' �

	These are the me-ba
the bestowed numinosities,
		7 votive powers dangling / adorning
	7 partialities gathered into
a figure of light

	before whose power 		the great gods
	fluttering like bats		fly off from before you to the clefts

The Great Gods are jealous
	of the women,
they know not the small
	wisdom of her human males:

		�a man who finds his homeland sweet is
		still a tender beginner.  One who is at home
		in every land is already strong.

		�Perfect, however, is he to whom the 
		whole world is exile.�

	Nomad of the interior
unsettled man, leave
		the cities of Sumer
    go back to edin,
	the steppe beyond ambar, the marsh, make
		for the open outside you came from
(�in magnificence	hoof thunder	silence of
pines and birches across the taiga�)
			that outside place the city hicks
	call ki-s�-ga, the leper's ward
those who fear even the word & have to pun it
	into ki-s�-ga, the �good place�
		when only you know how good it is

but she too will join you there,
in banishment
when Sargon's city-slickers
win one for oriental despotism,

you too will join them, Enheduanna,
but not before you sing / 

and Enheduanna sings		her evocation of Inanna:

�You of the appropriate me's,		great queen of queens,
 �Issued from the holy womb,			supreme over the mother who bore you
 
�Omniscient sage,				lady of all the lands,
�Sustenance of the multitudes,		I have sung your sacred song!

�Tree goddess, fit for the me's,		it is exalting to acclaim you.
�Merciful brilliant righteous woman, 	I have recited your me's for you!�