Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationship:
Character:
Language:
𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑
Series:
Part 42 of Akkadian Translations
Stats:
Published:
2026-06-12
Words:
437
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
1
Kudos:
13
Bookmarks:
2
Hits:
145

Hallelujah but it's Gilgamesh

Summary:

A reworking of the Leonard Cohen song replacing the mythological and literary references to King David with Gilgamesh- basically what this song would look like if an Ancient Babylonian had written it.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Ša šammim parsim ītallalū- Of a secret plant they sing,

Šū Etana ilput u bēlīšu išmēšu- That Etana touched and his lord listened,

Adi bēlī narūtī ul išemme- But my lord hears not my music,

Nīš tūhrīm, u išartum- The rise of the tuhru, the normal,

Embūbum, nīd qablim, kītmum- Wind pipe, fall of the middle, closed,

Šarri Uruk luktarabka uzammer- A King of Uruk composing luktarabka,

Luktarabka, luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever,

Luktarabka, luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever.

 

Tukultika dannat, u būrtam taḫšeḫšu- Your faith was strong, but you needed proof,

Umām ermiānim tenēršu- You slew the bull of heaven,

Ana Shamash libbašu taddinšuššu- You gave its heart to Shamash,

Inanna kadram idūkšu- Inanna killed the wild man,

Ina arṣātim uḫtalliqšu- She banished him to the underworld,

U ina pīka luktarabka iḫbussu- And from your mouth she stole the hallelujah,

Luktarabka, luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever,

Luktarabka, Luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever.

 

Akanna attallak, naramī- Here I have gone repeatedly, my love

Bītātam annītam, aḫassassināti- These rooms, I remember them,

Aḫiš ušib, lāma ilū iškunūka- I dwelled alone, before the gods appointed you

Dumuqqasha ana bāb tiālim amar- I saw her symbol of thanks on the gate of white cedar,

Râmum ul ki mašdaḫam- Love is not like a victory procession,

Râmum Ḫepi u kaṣi, luktarabka- Love is cold and broken, luktarabka,

Luktarabka, luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever,

Luktarabka, luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever.

 

Pīqatti ilī ešrū- Perhaps the gods are just,

Ūmšu râmum udēšu- Until now love only taught me,

Ša dâki awīIim īḫuzūninni- Of the killing of men,

Ul ṣarāḫum ša āram ikaššad- It is not a cry which reaches the earth,

Ul awīlum marratam ul ittabalkat- Not a man who crossed the ocean,

Ina Uruk ēdāniš luktarabka… In Uruk there is only luktarabka…

Luktarabka, luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever,

Luktarabka- May I praise thee forever.

 

Aṣrim, u attaprakku dullam - I tried, but the work I failed,

Akmis, u šamnam addinka- I knelt, I brought you oil,

Kēttum āwu, anāku ul aslīka- I spoke the truth, I didn’t deceive you,

Išša kala amātim innabtā- Even though all things were destroyed,

Maḫriš bel zamārim azzazz- I’ll stand before the lord of song,

U lā mimma luṣruḫ u luktarabka- And cry out nothing but luktarabka

Luktarabka, Luktarabka, Luktarabka- May I praise thee forever, may I praise thee forever

Luktarabka- May I praise thee forever.

Notes:

Hallelujah itself is not a single word in the original Hebrew, it’s a verbal phrase- Praise Yah, the imperative of the verbal root h-l-l, rendered in the second person masculine plural. The same verbal root exists in Akkadian with the initial H dropped, as alālum, to sing, but I couldn’t find a verbal form that scanned well with the tune. Instead I went for a form of the verb karābum, meaning to bless/pray/praise. In the precative tense and GT stem- “Luktarabka”, roughly translatable as “May I praise thee continually/eternally/forever”, which I felt captured the meaning of both the original phrase and its place in the song.

I’d toyed with the idea of this translation for a long time, but put it off, partially because of the third and fourth lines. Then I discovered this paper https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/30430/2/old_babylonian_tuning_text_uet_vi3_899_1.pdf , a dissection and analysis of a surviving cuneiform tablet of instructions for tuning a stringed instrument, likely a harp of some sort. The instructions are not fully understood even by experts, and I don’t know enough music theory to reconstruct “the minor fall, the major lift” exactly. But I did use the names that appear to be given to the individual chords or strings of the instrument- nish tuhri, ishartu, embubu, nidi wabli, qablitu, kitmu, pitu. It appears the components of the instrument may have been named after animal body-parts, conceptualising the entire harp as a living animal working in tandem with itself. Several of them are terms for organs or body parts, coupled with terms like "the fall of the middle", "closed", and "open."

Etana is a different mythological King from the Sumerian King-List. A Babylonian legend says that Etana was desperate to have a child, until one day he helped save an eagle from starving, who then took him up into the sky to find the plant of birth. This led to the birth of his son, Balih. This is in contrast with Gilgamesh’s own failed attempt to secure the plant of immortality and achieve eternal life- Etana did what the gods said, and was given what he sought. Gilgamesh wasn’t.

The Gate of White Cedar refers to the gate Gilgamesh and Enkidu built upon returning from the cedar forest and slaying Humbaba.

“Maybe there’s a god above” has obviously been replaced by “perhaps the gods are just”, since Gilgamesh quite literally interacts with them.

“A cry which reaches the earth” is a threat made by Inanna in the poem Gilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven. “A man who crossed the ocean” refers to Gilgamesh’s voyage in search of immortality.

Series this work belongs to: