Position in chronology
A balbale of Inana (Inana A)
Written in modern English
Inana blazes through battle like a great, ferocious storm, radiating terror and brilliance. Where Enlil has commanded it, she raises up the body and muscle of a lion, and across the south and the highlands her force levels everything like a scythe through grass. Like the storm-god Iškur she overwhelms the proud and mighty warriors of enemy lands, pressing their faces to the ground. The great warrior of kings and queens is called on to restore the shrine of Keš to her, and to force her enemies down before her — though several lines are too damaged or variant to read with certainty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLGreat fierce storm, ...... radiance! Inana, emitting fearsomeness and radiance in battle! (1 ms. adds: Inana, playing (?) in battle! Inana, emitting fearsomeness and radiance in battle! ) Where Enlil has commanded it, you make a lion's body and lion's muscles rise up. ...... in the south and in the uplands ...... like grass. Like Ickur ....... Like their proud mighty heroes, you ...... (1 ms. has instead: may they ...... for you) their noses (?) to the ground. May the great (1 ms. has instead: proud) warrior of kings and queens restore for you the shrine Kec. May he make them ...... their noses (?) to the ground for you.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.07.1 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.4.07.1: A balbale of Inana (Inana A). 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.4.07.1.
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