^he2-em_-d_{u (Desc}ent _{of Inanna: the Musical)}

Parody of “Let It Go”, words and music by Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez

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Parody lyrics ©2021-12-20 by Bob Kanefsky. All rights reserved. The copyright of the original lyrics and music remain with the holder(s) of the original copyright.

This is a retelling of the Descent of Inanna (c. 1900-1600 BCE), which survives on clay tablets stamped with cuneiform. Sumerian, a long-dead language, is hard to translate by all accounts. Inanna, a Sumerian goddess (priestess? queen? heroine? all of the above?) prepares herself for her journey daubs her eyes with a kohl (or “ointment”, or “mascara”) that has the name “lu2 he2-em-du he2-em-du”. One thing that’s pretty clear is that this translates to “Let Him Come, Let Him Come”. That seems odd enough (even setting aside the slang double meaning in English) that I personally double-checked this as thoroughly as I could in a few hours of poring through dusty old web pages containing texts and lexicons and briefly consulting one Sumerologist. “he2-em-du” means “Let him/her/it/they come” (it’s used in other texts, including one that was translated to “Fools will say, ‘War? Let it come’”, so it might mean “Bring it on”.) In Sumerian they prepended the object “lu2” (man), so some translators more pithily called the kohl “Let Him Come, Let Him Come”. (Sumerian seems to have had just one “him/her/they” pronoun for all humans and gods and an “it/they” for everything else.)
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This is my second parody based on the name of Inanna’s kohl, the other being “Sumerian Advertising Jingle” about my semi-serious theory about how to make sense of it having a name.
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Backing up, here’s a trimmed-down excerpt from the Wolkstein/Kramer translation of Inanna’s attempt to enter the Underworld, ostensibly to visit her sister Eresgkegal, the Queen of the Dead, whose husband had just died. (Inanna’s story doesn’t quite add up, and I don’t know whether it was just lost in translation.)
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“From the Great Above she opened her ear to the Great Below
Inanna abandoned heaven and earth to descend to the underworld.
She gathered together the seven me.
“With the me in her possession, she prepared herself:
She daubed her eyes with ointment called 'let him come, let hime come.’
Bound the breast plate called 'Come, man, come!' around her chest.”
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[She also takes her crown, royal robe, two strands of beads, one golden ring,
and an 18ft (5.5m) measuring rod that I can only assume is named You Must Be This Tall to Enter, As Tall As Heaven, And Then You Must Enter Bowed Low.]
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“Me” (believed to rhyme with “cliché” and “soufflé") means “powers”, as in “godly powers”, “personal powers”, or “governmental powers” — nothing is entirely clear. They may or may not correspond to her seven temples or offices she abandons on Earth or to the seven items she takes with her and is forced to relinquish one by one at the seven gates.
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Previously in Sumerian mythology, Inanna acquired the me from Enki, the god of wisdom, by getting him drunk; he unwisely turns over the me and she makes off with them in her boat before he can change his mind (which he soon does).
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End of long introduction! Here’s my new interpretation of the story:

No stars can clear the horizon down here
Not a planet to be seen
I’ve abandoned Earth and Heaven
Where I made myself the queen
The lava’s flowing like this growing sense of pride.
Can’t resist the call even if I tried.

Don’t let them think you’re here to stay
Just a visit and not a power play.
Conceal your hand til it’s begun.
Well, it’s begun!

Chorus:

Let Him Come! Let Him Come! Can’t keep me out anymore. Let Him Come! Let Him Come! Let him try to slam the door. Here I stand with boatloads of me As the star of dawn! But they won't let me take them in anyway.

The mighty throne of heaven
Has never seemed so small.
And my seven earthly temples
Are not enough at all!

It’s time to see where I can go,
To seek the realm of Great Below.
All life, all death, both ruled by me?
We’ll see!

Chorus:

Let Him Come! Let Him Come! That’s the one I put in my eye.  Let Him Come! Let Him Come! You’ll never see me die.

Here I stand and here I’ll stay
As the star of dusk…

My powers flow into my hands from seven me,
the better part of which some drunken uncle signed away.
There’s just one problem I found out about too late:
They’re not allowed down here;
They checked them at the gate