irinna

When showers come with winter*, the flower maiden, glossy mane, sparkling beauty, smelleth the aroma of water on soil, respondeth to the dance of droplets. Like a lone wild mare of aggan she billoweth forth, darting across the plains, like a slim gazelle she raceth, eager to run, she bounceth along between Idigna and Buradun. Pleasing is her lightness, how verdant the plants she nourisheth on the plain! She bringeth forth the blossoms, she summoneth the flowers. The fields fill with greenery, the dry land turneth sumptuous as the lush foothills of the north. The blooms, the fragrances follow in her wake.

The senescent soil, even the desert, she covereth in garments of delight, leaves of green and flowers of white and red and yellow and lapis lazuli. She adorneth the soil, yeah, she embellisheth the land in the season when the sun waneth and the days grow short, then bringeth she relief. Our sister say the wild animals, she hath come, they rejoice, when dust becometh mud and the thirsty earth is sated. The little rivulets, the dry ditches, come alive, they swell, they flow forth.

Is irinna one or is she many? No one knoweth, she resteth not to talk. Shes darting to and fro, she danceth amongst the drops, her feet move to the rhythm of the rain. Where she frolicked there emerge the foliage, blossoms of many hues. Her touch is light, she followeth not the floods of Idigna and Buradun, nay, she cometh cloaked in gentle showers. She leaveth freshness in her wake, indeed, carpets of green and patterns of color and fields of fragrance.

*Sumerian rainy season lasted from September through February.

Uit Sumeries vertaal deur Pieter Uys Uit: Die Bestiarium van Bawa Mara, die Profetes van Nippur Text rights reserved. Pieter Uys 2013 Illustrations Cover: www.facebook.com/SamarahLaZingara Page 2: sumerianshakespeare.com/mediac/450_0/media/2bb5ecf2c805583affff8608ffffe415.jpg