Position in chronology
A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inana O)
Written in modern English
The speaker walks along the banks of a great river — the Euphrates — and passes through the bright, busy streets, calling out a string of blessings on the person addressed. One opening line is too damaged to read. May you be like a bending reed, like barley lying in the furrows; may you be Acnan, who brings beauty; may you be a nursing mother, a vine, a beloved. One manuscript reads 'my beloved,' another reads 'your beloved,' and a similar split exists in a following phrase. The blessing closes with the wish that your lot be 'there is enough, there is enough' — though the final lines break off before the text is complete.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL1 line fragmentary Your name ....... As I walk, as I walk, as I pass along the banks of the august river, as I roam along the banks of the Euphrates, as I stand ...... the lord, as I pass along the gaudy streets: May you be ...... a bending reed, may you be barley in the furrows, a beautiful ......, may you be Acnan, who beautifies ......, may you be a nursing mother of the womb, may you be your mother's ......, a vine, my (1 ms. has instead:) your beloved, your personal god's ......, acting grandly (1 ms. has instead:) humanely! May "There is enough, there is enough" be your blessing, and…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.08.15 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.4.08.15: A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inana O). 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.4.08.15.
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