Position in chronology
A balbale to Nanna (Nanna A)
Written in modern English
Suen's herd is vast — his dark cattle gleam like lapis lazuli, and his pale cows shine like moonrise. The calves scatter like scattered barleycorns; the full-grown bulls press together in a dense crowd. Suen has unloosed the halters of the whole teeming herd and poured fresh milk onto the offering table, his bright hands pouring it without stopping. After the king completes his work, Suen does something with a shining halter and the cows — three lines follow, but the text is damaged and the verbs are lost — and then he takes up his role as the herd's shepherd.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLHow many there are! How many cows there are! How many cattle of Suen there are! The dark ones are translucent lapis lazuli; the pale cows are the light of the risen moon. The little ones trickle down like barleycorns for you; the large ones throng together like wild bulls for you. The Glory of Heaven (Suen) has undone the halters of the numerous cows in his teeming herd. He has poured out milk from the beautiful cows at the offering table; his bright hands ever pour the milk. After my king has completed the work, Suen ...... the shining halter ...... the cows, he ...... the cows, he ...... the cows. He acts as the herder of the cows.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.13.01 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.4.13.01: A balbale to Nanna (Nanna 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.4.13.01.
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