Position in chronology
A praise poem of Shulgi (Shulgi B)
Written in modern English
Shulgi, king of Ur, composed these praise songs so that his name, his power, his might, and his remarkable intelligence would be remembered forever and handed down to future generations. He brought the wisdom embedded in the songs before the mighty son of Ninsumun, and he sings his own glory in them. In his own words: he is a king born of a king and a queen, blessed with a favorable destiny from before his birth. As a child he attended the academy — and here the passage breaks off mid-sentence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLTo make his name famous for all time until distant days, and to transmit to posterity and the days to come the praise poems of his power, the songs of his might, and the lasting fame of his exceptional intelligence, King Culgi, king of Urim, has brought the songs' latent wisdom before the mighty son of Ninsumun. He praises his own power in song, and lauds his own superior native intelligence: I am a king, offspring begotten by a king and borne by a queen. I, Culgi the noble, have been blessed with a favourable destiny right from the womb. When I was small, I was at the academy, where I…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.4.2.02 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.2.4.2.02: A praise poem of Shulgi (Shulgi B). 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.2.4.2.02.
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