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.”
The gods, the Anunnaki, were weeping with her...
