The Cry of Sha-naqba-īmuru

“I shall bury your children
under the millions of obsidian slabs
strewn before my land.
And I shall build a new palace
from their bones, carve pillars
with their bleached skulls
and make tents for my people
with their outstretched skins.
I shall eat their flesh raw
and shall wring their useless necks
and shall have them suffer
hell and heaven at the hands
of my cruellest torturers
and of my most bloodthirsty hyenas.
Your children shall be slaughtered timelessly
for I want to destroy you all
and your barbarous ignorance.
It shall be thus as, and for, I have spoken.”