Position in chronology
SAA 03 013. Dialogue Between Assurbanipal and Nabû (ABRT 1 05-06)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 3(1) [I constantly spe]ak in praise of you, Nabû, in the assembly of the great gods; may [the host of] those who [wish] me ill not take possession of my life! (3) [In the temple of the Queen of Ni]neveh I approach you, hero among the gods, his brothers; [you are the t]rust of Assurbanipal for ever and ever! (5) [Ever since] I was [a small child] I have lain at the feet of Nabû; [do not abandon me] to the assembly of my ill-wishers, O Nabû!" (7) Pay a[ttent]ion, Assurbanipal! I am Nabû. Until the end of time your feet shall not grow slack, your hands not tremble; your lips shall not become…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 3 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ad-da-na-ab]-⸢bu⸣-ub ta-na-at-ta-ka dPA ina UKKIN DINGIR-MEŠ GAL-MEŠ / [ina UKKIN ḫa-ad]-⸢da⸣-nu-u-a la it-ta-nak-šá-du ZI-MEŠ-ia / [ina É dšar-rat]—⸢NINA⸣.KI at-ta-na-aḫ-ḫar-ka qar-rad DINGIR-MEŠ ŠEŠ-MEŠ-šú / [at-ta-ma tu]-kul-ti mAN.ŠÁR—DÙ—A a-na ur-kiš a-na ma-te-ma / [ul-tu ṣe-eḫ]-⸢ra?⸣-ku at-te-ʾi-i-la ina GÌR.2 dPA / [la tu-maš-šar-an-ni] dAG ina UKKIN ḫa-ad-da-nu-u-a / ⸢ad⸣-[da-ni]-ka…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian court poetry or literary text, edited by Alasdair Livingstone (SAA 3, 1989). ORACC text P313430.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Alasdair Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea (State Archives of Assyria, 3), 1989. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2019-20, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P313430/..
Translation excerpted from Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P313430/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.