Lullabies for Nibru

JOANNA STĘPALSKA-SPIX, bass flute
World premiere - Audio Art Festival, November 21, 2024, Kraków. 

Lullabies for Nibru

Written for and dedicated to Joanna Stępalska-Spix

This piece is a lamento in the form of a lullaby. It is based on a short fragment of an ancient Sumerian lamentation - one of the five so-called city laments, specifically The Lament for Nibru (Nippur), composed around 1900–1600 BCE. Composed during tumultuous times of war and destruction of city-states, these lamentations are expression of feelings of grief and mourning, through poetic forms and beliefs of their time.

The fragment of the text used in this piece has been cited after ETCSL - The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (an electronic archive of the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Oriental Studies), and that’s where the full transliteration and English translation can be found.

The piece was premiered during the annual Audio Art Festival in Kraków, Poland on November 21, 2024. 

Full concert: Monologues, lullabies and respite.

RENATA GUZIK, bass flute | CRICOTEKA, Kraków.
Concert performance, November 13, 2025.

Score...

The Lament for Nibru, lines 117-126.
Transliteration and translation to English from Sumerian after ETCSL:
Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Ebeling, J., Flückiger-Hawker, E., Robson, E., Taylor, J., and Zólyomi, G., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/), Oxford 1998–2006.

mu-lu šir-ra na-aĝ-tar gig-ga- ĝu-uš
me-e ib-ši-ed-de-en er im-ši-še-še-en
a-še balaĝ di šir zu-ne
mur-ma-ra- ĝu ma-a-ar ma-ab-be-ne-am
i-ne-eš kuš-a im-ma-dirig-ga-ĝu
didli-bi er-ra ma-an- ĝa-ĝa-ne-am
a-še šag su-mu-ug tab-tab-ba-ĝu
ki kur-ra-bi ma-a-ar lu mu-da-an-zu-am
a-ra gig-ga šag bur-ra- ĝu
u-a tur-ra- ĝu er-ra ma-an-du-am

I am going down
to my dirge singer of bitter fates
and I shall weep tearfully to him.

Even now
the lamenters who are expert in song
make ululating wails over me!

Now my people
who are overcome by hardship
voice laments for me one by one!

Even now
the places of refuge of my people
whose hearts are burning in dark distress
have been made known to me!

My people
whose hearts have been broken
in the bitter way
perform the lullabies of my young ones
for me in tears!