Remember all those memes about “what if we just pretend 2016/2020/etc never happened and never mention it again”? In 2004 BC, a refugee from Ur looked back on the past year and wrote: "May this year not be placed in the reckoning of years! May its number be taken down from its peg in Enlil’s temple, and may its name be unspoken, to far off days, to other days, and to the end of time.“
There’s another heartbreaking one from the same period in which a woman mourning her son’s murder specifically grieves for “my son who will never bring wedding gifts to his father-in-law’s house, my son who will never bounce a child on his knees.”
“This is my house, where good food is not eaten (not anymore).
This is my house, where good drink is not drunk (not anymore).
My house, where good seats are not sat in (not anymore)
My house, where good beds are not laid in (not anymore)…
My house, where no happy husband dwells with me,
My house, where no sweet child dwells with me.
My house, through whose doors, I, though jts mistress, never grandly pass-
Never grandly pass, the doors of this house,
In which I dwell no more.
I- let me go into my old house, let me go in,
Let me lie down, let me lie down!
Let me go into my storehouse, oh let me in
Let me lie down, let me lie down there,
I- Let me lie down to sleep in my own house,
It was sweet sleep I had there.
Let me lie down in my house, let me lie down there in my bed,
It was a good bed.
I- Let me sit down on my own chair-
It was a good chair.”