Position in chronology
Proverbs: collection 18
Translation · reference
High confidence1 line fragmentary ...... flourish ...... your lord ate. ...... grain all been eaten in the ...... field ....... How did you value the flourishing? The idleness of a low-life causes losses; his shying away (?) from work is perpetual. Employ a low-life -- fire him after half a day! (cf. 6.1.26.c2) He who pays with high-valued silver negotiates a favourable position. Your worthiness is the result of chance. (cf. 6.2.3: UET 6/2 281) The quick one hid, the strong one fled; the talker got into the palace. 2 lines fragmentary 1 line fragmentary Whenever there is excess, an axe remedies it! The pits on the mounds will be levelled.
Source: ETCSL c.6.1.18: Proverbs: collection 18. 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.6.1.18
Why it matters
Transliteration
Scholarly note
Composition c.6.1.18 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.6.1.18: Proverbs: collection 18. 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.6.1.18.
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