** World's Oldest Love Poem

The following article was found in Knowledge News Magazine, and it was extremely interesting, so I decided to include it here. Valentine's Day may be over, but the poem is still worth a read.

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The Sumerian poem on the right is about
the passionate embrace on the left

Bridegroom, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet. . . .
Bridegroom, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber.

That's the sexy start to the oldest love poem in the world, on special display this month at the Istanbul Museum of the Ancient Orient in Turkey. Scholars discovered the poem over a hundred years ago, buried in the ancient sands of Iraq, but they're hoping to draw new attention to it now. pring Festival

Spring Festival

The poem's verses are in cuneiform, one of the first writing systems people developed after people developed writing around 3500 BC. Sometime around 2030 BC, a Sumerian scribe from the city of Ur pressed the poem into wet clay using a reed stylus, then baked the tablet, preserving the passion of the moment for 40 centuries.

The passion, scholars say, was ritual--part of a Mesopotamian festival of fertility and power called Sacred Marriage. Every new year (for the Sumerians, around the spring equinox), the Sumerian king "married" the Sumerian goddess of love and war, Inanna (Babylonian Ishtar), to renew the land's fertility and affirm his own potency.

Sumer Love

For several days, the king's people got the Sumerian equivalent of Mardi Gras. At the festival's peak, the king got Inanna's high priestess, playing the part of Inanna. Wooed by his offerings, the priestess would accept the king into her bed, with a poem addressed to him. This one, addressed to the Sumerian king Shu-Sin, is the oldest love poem we know:

Bridegroom, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet,
Lion, dear to my heart,
Goodly is your beauty, honeysweet.

You have captivated me,
Let me stand tremblingly before you.
Bridegroom, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber,
You have captivated me,
Let me stand tremblingly before you.
Lion, I would be taken by you to the bedchamber.

Bridegroom, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey,
In the bedchamber, honey-filled,
Let me enjoy your goodly beauty,
Lion, let me caress you,
My precious caress is more savory than honey.

Bridegroom, you have taken your pleasure of me,
Tell my mother, she will give you delicacies,
My father, he will give you gifts.

Your spirit, I know where to cheer your spirit,
Bridegroom, sleep in our house until dawn,
Your heart, I know where to gladden your heart,
Lion, sleep in our house until dawn.

You, because you love me,
Give me pray of your caresses,
My lord god, my lord protector,
My Shu-Sin, who gladdens Enlil's heart,
Give my pray of your caresses.

Your place goodly as honey, pray lay your hand on it,
Bring your hand over like a gishban-garment,
Cup your hand over it like a gishban-sikin-garment.

Michael Himick
February 24, 2005