Position in chronology
A balbale to Enlil for Ur-Namma (Ur-Namma G)
Written in modern English
Six lines are missing before the text picks up with Enlil granting Ur-Namma early floodwaters, grain, and speckled barley. The surviving lines call on the king to let his people thrive and command him to work his fields: to drive the plough, tend the crops, and cultivate with oxen. The promise is repeated, almost like a refrain — plow with oxen, and the fields will be rich; let the oxen work the soil, and the harvest will be abundant. Several phrases mid-passage are damaged or untranslatable, leaving a few gaps in the sequence.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL6 lines missing Enlil ...... to Ur-Namma. He bestowed on him (?) early floods, grain and speckled barley. Ur-Namma, may the people flourish in prosperity under your rule. You (?) ...... the plough and good barley, and your cultivated fields will be rich. You (?) ...... trees, seeds, good barley, the plough, and the fields. You (?) ...... the plough and good barley ....... King, cultivate the fields with oxen, and your cultivated fields will be rich; Ur-Namma, cultivate the fields with them, and your cultivated fields will be rich. The oxen will make (?) your cultivated fields fertile; your cultivated fields will be rich.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.4.1.7 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.2.4.1.7: A balbale to Enlil for Ur-Namma (Ur-Namma G). 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.2.4.1.7.
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