Enki�s journey to Nibiru: the gamely excited layer

L M Leteane | Friday September 16, 2016 15:05

As I duly unpacked and explained the different layers of meaning in A praise-poem to Shulgi, the astute reader will have noticed the Sumerian penchant for being economical with vowels – a practice later adopted by Egyptian writing (hieroglyphics), which then influenced Hebrew writing likewise. In the case of Sumerian, it was, evidently, specifically to enable one to insert vowel ‘fillers’ that could lead one to several different – but intended – layers of meaning.

The ‘filling’ process, nevertheless, operated according to certain precise rules I now understand …but these are well beyond the intended scope of these articles. Instead, before even unveiling the text-corpus of Enki’s journey to N’ibiru, let us start with the conventional translation for the epic’s Line 9 to 14, which I extracted as best capturing the scribe’s initial excitement at preparing to accompany Enki, his ‘god’ and master, on the long journey to the planet N’ibiru. It reads: (9) “An artfully made bright crenellation rising out from the Abzu… (10) … was erected for lord Nudimmud. (11) He built the temple from precious metal…(12) …decorated it with lapis lazuli, and covered it abundantly with gold. (13) In Eridug, he built the house on the bank. (14) Its brickwork makes utterances and gives advice.”

But what has this to do with Enki’s journey to N’ibiru, the fabled planet of the gods? You are right…nothing! What we have here is something that appears to celebrate architecture…not space flight. So, let us now allow Setswana to better aid us here (most Sumerian sentences though, some readers will have noticed by now, are actually more Sotho and Sekgalagadi-like than they are Tswana…but that is just the way it is). Firstly, though, we need a coherent background to the poem without which the reader will not grasp in full what the scribe of this epic is saying, simply because his words are beyond present conventional paradigms…though these have been well-explained over the years, in this column. The first issue is just as Sumerian epics categorically state: that the gods (me-en) of Mesopotamia were the ANU.NNA.KI: [Those Who] From the Heavens (A Nu) Stayed (nna) on Earth (ha Ki). Their home planet is Nibiru, and they settled on Earth when they found conditions here favourable. In practice, though, such interplanetary migration would – of course – require the use of space rockets and other advanced technology…and this is exactly what Zecharia Sitchin et al have boldly confirmed. We will, however, for now, leave aside the controversy of whether this could be true or not and simply let the Sumerian tablets, properly translated, speak for themselves. The other major issue is best explained in a different layer of the poem to be delineated in another article, as the issue is more relevant to that layer.

Now, here is the ‘top layer’ story, intended to be palatable to the gods. (Indeed, in the true, Sumerian style I effectively demonstrated in A praise-poem to Shulgi, there is always a rather more irreverent layer meant to be understood by the ordinary people rather than by the gods, counting on certain language and vernacular issues.) A ‘Dark One’ (a black person) had travelled with Enki to N’ibiru for the very first time and is excitedly and gratefully recounting his experiences upon return to Earth.

N’ibiru, or Na-hibiru: the ‘Reddish One’, refers to Mars, the ‘Red Planet’, which was also called ‘Mu’ – or ‘Lahmu’ in full: literally La ha Mu: ‘[Land] of Mu’. In typical fashion, I will only extract six lines…but this time not Line 1 to 5, but Lines 9 to 14, as explained above.  Thus, Line Nine of the text-corpus reads: suh kug galam dug-ga abzu-ta ed-a. Here, the scribe quotes Enki saying: “suhu, he a kuga go kalama, he doga Abzu; taa eja”), which translates as: “We rise when still dark to embark from the Abzu (Africa); come and eat”. In Line 9, Enki had already invited the ‘Dark One’ into his house to eat well before blasting off, to avoid stomach problems. Line Ten: en nu-dim-mud-ramu-un-na-sug-sug-ge-ec . The scribe says: “Eno dimu-motho, rra, monna‘naa sug-sugeka: This one, here – now a god-man indeed – he became quite experienced.” Line Eleven: e kug-ga i-ni-in-du na za-gin-na i-ni-in-gun (“Ea (ya) kuga ini ntu;nne sa kena ini, gono” : He woke up in [Enki’s] house; he got in there, this one). Here, the scribe is expressing great excitement at not only preparing for an epic journey to N’ibru, but being in the presence of the great Enki, himself and sleeping inside his house.

Line Twelve: gal-le-ec kug-sig-ga cu tag ba-ni-in-dug (“Ka leka ku kuga sigu ga ku ta ga ba nni-I’nduga: I made sure I rose at the (exact) time the astronauts of the I’nduga (space rocket) came).” Line Thirteen: eridugki-ga egu-a bi-in-du (“He re doga, ke ga e kua; e be i’ntu: When we left [Earth], that is when it roared…just like a [living] person).” Line Fourteen: sig-bi inim dug-dug ad gi-gi (“Seke he be ini m’doga-doga a di-Igigi: I had never been inside a spaceship of the Igigi.” The Igigi, I have well-addressed in my books and articles, were the astronaut-giants that manned and piloted the spacecraft. Exactly why they became giants will be explained (once again) in due course, but what is clear, here, is that all the lines of the epic poem reflect a gamely or suitably impressed first-time space traveller. But that is not the only layer. Next week we discern his rather less impressed outlook to the whole experience…but which the scribe communicates, somehow, with the exact-same diction!

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