Position in chronology
A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inana D)
Written in modern English
While someone was out walking, Dumuzid caught sight of Inana. A voice recounts what followed: a man with a loving heart offered Inana a gift, met her, fell in love with her, and took her into his house, laying her down on a bed dripping with honey. The poem then describes their lovemaking in frank detail — he kissed her with his tongue again and again, made love to her fifty times until he was spent, while she trembled beneath him in silence, and he held his hands on her hips the whole while.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLAs I was strolling, as I was strolling, as I was strolling ...... the house, as I was strolling, he caught sight of my Inana. "What did the brother say to you and speak to you? He of the loving heart and most sweet charms offered you a gift, my holy Inana. As I looked in that direction, my beloved man met you, and he fell in love with you, and he delighted in you alone! The brother brought you into his house and had you lie down on a bed dripping with honey." When my sweet precious, my heart, had lain down too, each of them in turn kissing with the tongue, each in turn, then my brother of the beautiful eyes did it fifty times to her, exhaustedly waiting for her, as she trembled underneath him, dumbly silent for him. My dear precious passed the time with my brother laying his hands on her hips.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.08.04 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.4.08.04: A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inana D). 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.4.08.04.
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