Sunday, January 22, 2012

Woman of the vine to Gilgamesh:

As for you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
make merry day and night. 
Of each day make a feast of rejoicing,
Day and night dance and play!
Let your garments be sparkling fresh,
your hair be washed, bathe in water.
Pay heed to the child holding your hand,
Let your spouse delight in your embrace.
(...for death is the fate of man.)

This the advice from the Epic of Gilgamesh, as the king searched for immortality and mourned the loss of his beloved brother and companion. Written on clay tablets 2000 years BC in Mesopotamia.  Have we learned it yet?
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. mbkJanuary 23, 2012 at 2:48 AM

    Can we see in the firelight
    that the fleeting do matter,
    each spark in its own moment,
    and write poems
    as psalms to those moments?

    ReplyDelete
  2. G-ManJanuary 23, 2012 at 3:18 AM

    Dianne...
    We haven't learned a thing!
    Nice to see you...Missed you
    G

    ReplyDelete
  3. Brian MillerJanuary 23, 2012 at 4:29 AM

    no we have not...

    i think we got blinded by the sparkly garments....

    ReplyDelete
  4. the walking manJanuary 23, 2012 at 5:40 AM

    Nope.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Clare WilsonJune 30, 2012 at 9:57 AM

    It's excellent advice, but I don't think we can say that any generation simply inherits it from the past, without a struggle. Rather each of us has to learn it for ourselves. Some lessons are always known, but still have to be individually learned before they are understood.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)