Review

Rating: 9

Another way to understand world history is thru the history of languages. There can’t be a better book than Empires of the Word. I have read the first two chapters and then the chapter on Sanskrit. It was quite humbling to read “Ludlul Bel Nemeqi”

An Assyrian work by Shubshi-Meshre-Shakkan, and one of my favorite poems.

Who can know the will of the gods in heaven?
Who can understand the plans of the underworld gods?
Where have humans learned the way of a god?
He who was alive yesterday and is dead today.
One moment he worries, the next he is boisterous.
One moment he is singing a joyful song,
A moment later he wails like a professional mourner.
Their condition changes, opening and shutting.
When starving they become like corpses,
When full they oppose their god.
In good times they speak of scaling heaven,
When they are troubled they talk of going down to hell.
I am perplexed at these things; I have not been able to understand their significance.

Before reading this I was very proud of Creation Hymn of Rigveda as the pinnacle of ancient philosophic thought but then I read the above.