Hi guys! I've been listening to the Abzû soundtrack and was inspired by the last song, which is an excerpt of several lines from the Mesopotamian Enūma Eliš creation myth. I wanted to try and find out what those lines would look like if translated into Quenya so this is my attempt, and I'd really appreciate your thoughts on it! Sharing the original Akkadian phrases which I used to try and understand the structure of the poem.
enūma eliš lā nabû šamāmū
When on high, heaven had not been named,
"Yá tárienna menel n’ estáne lá"
My take: When on high heaven was named not
šapliš ammatu šuma lā zakrat
[And] the earth below had not been called by name.
[Ar] undu, i kemende [Ardanún] né yále essenen lá
I tried to follow the Akkadian sentence structure of “below, the earth” rather than “the earth below”, I also found out that ammatu is another name for the underworld so I figured Ardanún could work as "world-below"
apsûm-ma rēštû zārûšun
Naught but primordial Apsu, their begetter,
Alaquen hequa i Apsu anyáron, (i?) Nostaryo
I wanted to treat primordial/primeval as an epithet here, so "Ancient One."
mummu tiamat muallidat gimrišun
(And) chaos-Tiamat, mother of them both;
[Ar] úpartalë-Tiamat, i amilleto intu
Mummu means both chaos and "unmanufacturing" or deconstruction. I didn't know what would be a suitable word for that, and if it was an epithet or functioned as an adjective such as "the chaotic" Tiamat.
mêšunu ištēniš ihiqqū-ma
Their waters were mingled together,
I nentaryo nér óstimen
Not sure about nentaryo, it doesn't seem right.
gipāra lā kiṣṣurū ṣuṣâ lā še'û
[And] no field was created, no marsh was to be seen;
[Ar] lá palar né ontane, lá motto nemniélane
It looks like there are no contractions within the poem, but translators add them in, so I've noted "and" in brackets.
enūma ilū lā šūpû manāma
1>When no gods whatever had been brought into being,
2>When of the gods none had been called into being,
Yá Ainur aiquar lá n’ estáne návë
There are two translations of this line, it's interesting to me that "calling" and "naming" is the equivalent of "creating". This is present in Egyptian mythology too. Song and music forms creation in the Ainulindalë.
šuma lā zukkurū šīmatu lā šīmū
1>Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined-
2> And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;
ayále essenen, ar maranwi n’ amartane
My take on this was: Uncalled by name, and destinies unordained.
ibbanû-ma ilū qerebšun
1> Then it was that the gods were formed within them.
2> Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven
An i-Ainur nér ontane imberumandë(o?)
"Then the gods were created in the midst of heaven" is the translation in the song in Abzû. Imberumandë is a composite I made combining imbë and erumandë, trying to get "in the midst of heaven".
I'd really appreciate your thoughts/feedback/review on this! This is definitely a work in progress because I wasn't sure on a lot of the phrases. I'd love to do an illuminated manuscript of this eventually and would be happy to share the finished product here.
Thanks so much.
