I will forever associate this with deep winter with its long, dark nights.

At the very first light of dawn

Up from the horizon

Came a black cloud

And in its midst, Adad bellowed continually.

Sullat and Hanis were going at the fore,

Throne-bearers travelling mountain and land.

Erragal was ripping out the mooring poles;

Ninurta, as he went, made the weirs overflow.

The Anunnaki bore torches aloft,

Setting the land aglow with their brilliance.

The calm of the storm god passed across the sky

And all that was bright was turned into gloom.

The wide land lies like a broken urn.

One whole day the south storm blew

Gathering speed as it went;

Like a battle the cataclysm passed over the people.

One person could not see,

Nor recognize, another in the destruction.

Even the gods took fright at the Deluge!

They withdrew to the heaven of Anu.

Curled up in fear like dogs,

The goddess Ishtar, screaming like a woman in childbirth,

Belet-ili, the sweet-voiced, wailed aloud:

“Indeed the past has truly turned to clay,

Because I spoke evil in the assembly of the gods.

How did I speak evil in the assembly of the gods,

And declare a war to destroy my people?

It is I that gave birth to them - my own people!

Now like so many fish they will fill the sea.”

My soul departs because you are leaving. "La Partida." I heard this years ago, and occasionally I revisit the video for obvious reasons once heard. However, I heard it again just now and this piece I wrote came as a result of hearing it once more. That first sentence? That's something to work on.   Begin reading a few seconds into the start of the music itself. I didn't write something for the whole of it, I left it short because I want you to soak in the music you are hearing, and to an extent reading. My Soul Departs

My aching and restless heart was seized. My lengthy soul quaked with awe. Such an awe that it was a tremolo of rapport. Together with this understanding, my soul departs to a place I had always longed but never knew. My heart left behind in a wake of arrest. A bondage of beauty unlike that of the fairest of vision, or the most gentle of caress.

It is here, in this land, my soul has dreamt and yearned for. A land with no trees, no voices, no flowers and no desire for any of these. It is all one could hope for at the most high. All this land has are hills and waves of thoughts. All this grown by the shimmering departure of the rain of tranquility it has brought.