Working It Out | When the gods, like man

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Working It Out

Language: Akkadian

Our translations: ENG

i-nu-ma i-lu a-wi-lum
ub-lu du-ul-la iz-bi-lu šu-up-ši-ik-ka
šu-up-ši-ik i-li [ra-bi-i]¹
du-ul-lu-um ka-bi-it ma-a-a’d ša-ap-ša-qum
[...]

[...]

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• F. Rzewski

F. Rzewski sets lines 1-4

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Alan Ralph Millard, “The Atrahasis Epic and Its Place in Babylonian Literature,” University of London, May 1966, p.21, excerpts from Tablet I.

¹ F. Rzewski: "ra-bi-ma"

Text Authorship:

by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, written c1647-1626 BCE, appears in Atraḥasis / Atrahasis / Atra-Hasis [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Frederic Rzewski (1938 - 2021), "Working It Out", 1998, copyright © 1999, lines 1-4 [ voice and piano ], from The Road: a novel for solo piano, no. 40, Sound Pool Music (BMI) [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this page: Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2019-05-21
Line count: 6
Word count: 17

Working It Out

Language: English after the Akkadian

When the gods, like man,
bore the toil, carried the basket of earth,
the labor of the gods was great and
the toil was heavy; there was much hardship.
[
 ...
 ]

Text Authorship:

Translation from Akkadian to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

a text in Akkadian by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , written c1647-1626 BCE, appears in Atraḥasis / Atrahasis / Atra-Hasis
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-05-04
Line count: 7
Word count: 31