Prologue
The following formality was the formulae of the wayfaring
Verse I
Founder of the Zonei is the wanderer
Ašimbabbar’s the rank and his seal is first
He bears a staff of lapis-lazuli
Aedo Ooddo
He balances on the trapeze of tides
Ma-ion Marma
As the new moon appears above cloud-mottled skies,
He lauds and celebrates with a gaul-headed masque
Nanna jubilates the wrenching sound of screams
The parchment stamp is wrapped in a square of the finest silk,
Yet decay
He fosters a crown of sixty-six horns
Vide Supra
His essence is of quicksilver
As the inner planet outlines mould-mandalas,
He swoops with the vulture upon spewed carrion:
An interchangeability of the void-forms and their signs
Verse II
Be exorcised (by Nergal’s continuum)
The sole temper (who dwelt in the Cutha)
Be ostracized (by Queen Ereškigal)
O’ Sultana (‘twixt stars twin unto sight)
Be unrealized (by Ningišzida’s asp)
The Krone-Bearer (of the intersection)
Be ossified (by Namtar and the eye)
O’ Nagallu (he of the grand array)
Omit the glyphs, of totality, in between the automatic augury
Verse III
Sin flaunts epizeuxis
He brays nocturnal grift
He hauls vase petulance
Sin greets Nychthemeron
No ray of sunlight will strike the seal
No flare of sunlight should strike the stamp
Lest its control be rendered
Verse IV
Namrasit
He steers tautology
He proves pleonasm
Sin meets Nychthemereon
All beams of moonlight shall strike the seal
All shafts of moonlight should strike the stamp
Lest its command be modeled
A “Rebus Sensation” forever links in the “Swapna Dance”
Verse V
Hušbisa, the steward, rings a major hand bell, which tantalizes the pre-abyssal syndrome
Šaršarbid, the butcher, forms a terror congress that intimidates the pre-abyssal syndrome
Étana, the vizier, allows the eagle to eat the serpent’s children = pre-abyssal syndrome
Verse VI
The Deep Ones had steered Inanna once
The chanting and the glugging of sluggish water combined to contrive twice
The duskiness of the swampland was redolent of mephitic vapours: triplicate
Permutational Vectors
Non-Modality Being
Then, the gateways, in-between, became settled within ancient covenants
Epilogue
“Én-du-gu ka-ga hé-gál-
Šir-gu gétšu-ge na-an-dib-bé.
Gu-kur silim-éš du-ga-gá-kam
Inim ap-sû-ke mu-Ši-gá-gá-a-ám.”
Interpretation
“My songs: let them be in your mouths –
My hymns from the knowledge may not fade away
The objective of my might is praised.
And the words, which Apsû has made, will be available to me.”