Hello, everybody,
I thought of you, Lagusta, asking about feminist poets a few days ago. This
one a "feminist" coming to us through the ages.... Fascinating, no?
Cheers!
Viviane
http://www.access2arabia.com/jordantimes/Sun/homenews/homenews6.htm
Poster celebrates Iraq's women, ancient history with homage to ancient
poetess
By Riham Fakhoury
AMMAN � A poster financed by the Jordan Women Federation (JWF) and designed
by Iraqi Women Federation (IWF) celebrates history's first known woman poet
and will be the symbol of an international conference in support of Iraqi
women.
A delegation from the JWF left for Baghdad on Friday to attend the
conference, the 16th Iraqi Women Conference, to lend support to Iraqi women
and children reeling under the nine-year-old U.N. economic embargo. The
meeting is set to open on Nov. 8, organisers said. Over 200 women
representing most countries on the globe are expected to participate.
According to the United Nations Children's Fund, more than one million
children have died as a direct result of the embargo, while other U.N.
agencies have reported that Iraq now has the highest rate of nervous
disorders among women of any country in the world.
The Iraqi Women Federation chose an ancient Iraqi poetess to depict the
history and culture of Iraqi women and to symbolise the conference.
A coloured poster announcing the conference features on the Iraqi flag, the
head of a woman and a tablet inscribed with cuneiforms and on the back a
bilingual introduction to the character that inspired the poster, EnKhedu
Anna and a poem of hers, written in ancient Sumarian, Arabic and English.
Presumably, EnKhedu Anna is the oldest women poet known in history. The
poetess, priestess and princess is from Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq), the
cradle of civilisation, where 10,000 years ago man laid the foundation of
the Tower of Babel, the symbol of civilisation.
Five-thousand years later, the earliest signs of mature civilisation began
to bloom; the indigenous populations of Mesopotamia � Akadians and
Sumarians � were the first to use writing.
Subsequently, man started to record notions and desires. Writing helped
immortalise oral epics, legends and poems, turning Iraq into a radiant
centre of culture and thought.
The gift is one of the most lasting that ancient Iraq gave to the world.
EnKhedu Anna, the world's first known woman poet to write her own poetry,
reigned as a princess and a high priestess. Her father was Sargon, the great
Akadian monarch.
The Akadian descended from the ancient Arab tribes, who worshipped goddess
Ishtar in the form of diverse symbols.
According to history, EnKhedu was the first princess to hold the position of
high priestess in the temple of the moon god of Ur and later in the temple
of Ann, the god of heaven in Warka, two crucial Mesopotamian cities. Such
positions were reserved only for daughters and sisters of kings.
When the Akadians came to power in Mesopotamia, EnKhedu acted to heighten
the status of Anana, a Sumarian goddess, describing her as the mistress of
heaven and earth.
EnKhedu became a salient figure in the field of literature as a poet who had
shown a fondness for praising the deities.
One poem, Nin-Me-Sar-Ra (the Mistress of All Divine Codes), was merely a
devotion to goddess Anana (known also as Ishtar to the Akadians). In doing
so, her status was elevated to that of Queen-Consort of god Ann, also the
chief of the Sumarian deities. Ann endowed her with all divine codes and
made her the master of destinies.
That poem in praise of the Sumarian goddess Anana is now believed to be one
of the earliest poems to ever have been written that bears the title of its
author.
In the �Mistress of all Divine Codes,� the poet enumerated goddess Anana's
virtues. The significance of the poem lays in the fact that it revealed a
religious and political reality: EnKhedu's own father sent her to reign over
the temple of the god Sin, the moon god of Ur, and gave her a number of
religious authorities in that city. He also extended her authority to Warka,
in the temple of god Ann, the god of heaven. It is believed that Sargon's
purpose was to extend Akadian power to the most important Sumarian towns.
The following is a translation of excerpts from the poem:
The Invocation of Anana
Oh my lady the Anana, the great great gods
Fluttering like bats, fly off from before you to the clefts,
They who dare not walk in your terrible glance,
Who dare not proceed before your terrible countenance,
Who can temper your raging heart?
Your malevolent heart is beyond tempering.
Lady (who) soothes the reigns, lady (who) gladdens the heart,
Lady supreme over the land, Who has (ever) denied (you) homage?
November 07, 1999
