But see! the sovereign lifts her jewelled hand,
The music ceases at the Queen’s command;
And lo! two chiefs in warrior’s array,
With golden helmets plumed with colors gay,
And golden shields, and silver coats of mail,
Obeisance make to her with faces pale,
Prostrate themselves before their sovereign’s throne
In silence brief remain with faces prone,
Till Ellat-gula[6] speaks:  “My chiefs, arise! 
What word have ye for me? what new surprise?”
Tur-tau-u,[7] rising, says, “O Dannat[8] Queen! 
Thine enemy, Khum-baba[9] with Rim-siu[10]
With clanging shields, appears upon the hills,
And Elam’s host the land of Sumir fills.” 
“Away, ye chiefs! sound loud the nappa-khu![11]
Send to their post each warrior bar-ru!"[12]
The gray embattlements rose in the light
That lingered yet from Samas’[13] rays, ere Night
Her sable folds had spread across the sky. 
Thus Erech stood, where in her infancy
The huts of wandering Accads had been built
Of soil, and rudely roofed by woolly pelt
O’erlaid upon the shepherd’s worn-out staves,
And yonder lay their fathers’ unmarked graves. 
Their chieftains in those early days oft meet
Upon the mountains where they Samas greet,
With their rude sacrifice upon a tree
High-raised that their sun-god may shining see
Their offering divine; invoking pray
For aid, protection, blessing through the day. 
Beneath these walls and palaces abode
The spirit of their country—­each man trod
As if his soul to Erech’s weal belonged,
And heeded not the enemy which thronged
Before the gates, that now were closed with bars
Of bronze thrice fastened.

See the thousand cars
And chariots arrayed across the plains! 
The marching hosts of Elam’s armed trains,
The archers, slingers in advance amassed,
With black battalions in the centre placed,
With chariots before them drawn in line,
Bedecked with brightest trappings iridine,
While gorgeous plumes of Elam’s horses nod
Beneath the awful sign of Elam’s god. 
On either side the mounted spearsmen far
Extend; and all the enginery of war
Are brought around the walls with fiercest shouts,
And from behind their shields each archer shoots.

Thus Erech is besieged by her dread foes,
And she at last must feel Accadia’s woes,
And feed the vanity of conquerors,
Who boast o’er victories in all their wars. 
Great Subartu[14] has fallen by Sutu[15]
And Kassi,[16] Goim[17] fell with Lul-lu-bu,[18]
Thus Khar-sak-kal-a-ma[19] all Eridu[20]
O’erran with Larsa’s allies; Subartu
With Duran[21] thus was conquered by these sons
Of mighty Shem and strewn was Accad’s bones
Throughout her plains, and mountains, valleys fair,
Unburied lay in many a wolf’s lair. 
Oh, where is Accad’s chieftain Izdubar,
Her mightiest unrivalled prince of war?