Babylonian and Assyrian Literature | Page 5

Rim-siu[10]?With clanging shields, appears upon the hills,?And Elam's host the land of Sumir fills."?"Away, ye chiefs! sound loud the nappa-khu![11]?Send to their post each warrior bar-ru!"[12]?The gray embattlements rose in the light?That lingered yet from Samas'[13] rays, ere Night?Her sable folds had spread across the sky.?Thus Erech stood, where in her infancy?The huts of wandering Accads had been built?Of soil, and rudely roofed by woolly pelt?O'erlaid upon the shepherd's worn-out staves,?And yonder lay their fathers' unmarked graves.?Their chieftains in those early days oft meet?Upon the mountains where they Samas greet,?With their rude sacrifice upon a tree?High-raised that their sun-god may shining see?Their offering divine; invoking pray?For aid, protection, blessing through the day.?Beneath these walls and palaces abode?The spirit of their country--each man trod?As if his soul to Erech's weal belonged,?And heeded not the enemy which thronged?Before the gates, that now were closed with bars?Of bronze thrice fastened.
See the thousand cars?And chariots arrayed across the plains!?The marching hosts of Elam's armèd trains,?The archers, slingers in advance amassed,?With black battalions in the centre placed,?With chariots before them drawn in line,?Bedecked with brightest trappings iridine,?While gorgeous plumes of Elam's horses nod?Beneath the awful sign of Elam's god.?On either side the mounted spearsmen far?Extend; and all the enginery of war?Are brought around the walls with fiercest shouts,?And from behind their shields each archer shoots.
Thus Erech is besieged by her dread foes,?And she at last must feel Accadia's woes,?And feed the vanity of conquerors,?Who boast o'er victories in all their wars.?Great Subartu[14] has fallen by Sutu[15]?And Kassi,[16] Goim[17] fell with Lul-lu-bu,[18]?Thus Khar-sak-kal-a-ma[19] all Eridu[20]?O'erran with Larsa's allies; Subartu?With Duran[21] thus was conquered by these sons?Of mighty Shem and strewn was Accad's bones?Throughout her plains, and mountains, valleys fair,?Unburied lay in many a wolf's lair.?Oh, where is Accad's chieftain Izdubar,?Her mightiest unrivalled prince of war?
The turrets on the battlemented walls?Swarm with skilled bowmen, archers--from them falls?A cloud of wingèd missiles on their foes,?Who swift reply with shouts and twanging bows;?And now amidst the raining death appears?The scaling ladder, lined with glistening spears,?But see! the ponderous catapults now crush?The ladder, spearsmen, with their mighty rush?Of rocks and beams, nor in their fury slacked?As if a toppling wall came down intact?Upon the maddened mass of men below.?But other ladders rise, and up them flow?The tides of armèd spearsmen with their shields;?From others bowmen shoot, and each man wields?A weapon, never yielding to his foe,?For death alone he aims with furious blow.?At last upon the wall two soldiers spring,?A score of spears their corses backward fling.?But others take their place, and man to man,?And spear to spear, and sword to sword, till ran?The walls with slippery gore; but Erech's men?Are brave and hurl them from their walls again.?And now the battering-rams with swinging power?Commence their thunders, shaking every tower;?And miners work beneath the crumbling walls,?Alas! before her foemen Erech falls.?Vain are suspended chains against the blows?Of dire assaulting engines.
Ho! there goes?The eastern wall with Erech's strongest tower!?And through the breach her furious foemen pour:?A wall of steel withstands the onset fierce,?But thronging Elam's spears the lines soon pierce,?A band of chosen men there fight to die,?Before their enemies disdain to fly;?The masari[22] within the breach thus died,?And with their dying shout the foe defied.?The foes swarm through the breach and o'er the walls,?And Erech in extremity loud calls?Upon the gods for aid, but prays for naught,?While Elam's soldiers, to a frenzy wrought,?Pursue and slay, and sack the city old?With fiendish shouts for blood and yellow gold.?Each man that falls the foe decapitates,?And bears the reeking death to Erech's gates.?The gates are hidden 'neath the pile of heads?That climbs above the walls, and outward spreads?A heap of ghastly plunder bathed in blood.?Beside them calm scribes of the victors stood,?And careful note the butcher's name, and check?The list; and for each head a price they make.?Thus pitiless the sword of Elam gleams?And the best blood of Erech flows in streams.?From Erech's walls some fugitives escape,?And others in Euphrates wildly leap,?And hide beneath its rushes on the bank?And many 'neath the yellow waters sank.
The harper of the Queen, an agèd man,?Stands lone upon the bank, while he doth scan?The horizon with anxious, careworn face,?Lest ears profane of Elam's hated race?Should hear his strains of mournful melody:?Now leaning on his harp in memory?Enwrapt, while fitful breezes lift his locks?Of snow, he sadly kneels upon the rocks?And sighing deeply clasps his hands in woe,?While the dread past before his mind doth flow.?A score and eight of years have slowly passed?Since Rim-a-gu, with Elam's host amassed,?Kardunia's ancient capital had stormed.?The glorious walls and turrets are transformed?To a vast heap of ruins, weird, forlorn,?And Elam's spears gleam through the coming morn.?From the sad sight his eyes he turns away,?His soul breathes through his harp while he doth play?With bended head his agèd hands thus woke?The woes