Position in chronology
A love song of Shulgi (Shulgi Z)
Written in modern English
A speaker addresses a beloved — calling him brother, lad, beloved, fairest of countenance — and says that because of him, something goes undone or unfelt; the lines are badly damaged and the repeated phrase at the heart of each cannot be recovered. What can be read is a complaint: the date clusters are not placed in her hand, the sheaves are somehow lost to her, and the grain in the silos brings her no sweetness. Then a second voice — or the same speaker shifting tone — invites her sister to come to his fields, large and small alike, to see the early grain watered with its first rains and the late grain watered with its last; what happens next is lost, the final lines too broken to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL"The ...... because of you does not ....... My brother, the ...... because of you does not ....... Lad (?), the ...... because of you does not ....... My beloved, the ...... because of you does not ....... My fairest of countenance, the ...... because of you does not ....... Its date clusters because of you are not placed in my hand. Its sheaves are ...... for me. Its ...... are not sweet for me. Grain ...... the silos (?)." "My sister, I would go with you to my fields. My fair sister, I would go with you to my fields. I would go with you to my large fields. I would go with you to my small fields. For my early grain irrigated with its early water, for my late grain irrigated with its late water, ...... its grain ...... sheaves .......
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.4.2.26 in the ETCSL catalogue. Sumerian literary text reconstructed from multiple cuneiform manuscripts, the great majority Old Babylonian (c. 1900–1600 BCE). Translation reproduced from the ETCSL edition.
Attribution
Image: .
Translation excerpted from ETCSL c.2.4.2.26: A love song of Shulgi (Shulgi Z). Black, J.A., Cunningham, G., Robson, E. & Zólyomi, G. (eds.), The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.2.4.2.26.
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