Position in chronology
A balbale to Nanshe (Nanshe B)
Written in modern English
After two fragmentary opening lines and an unknown number of missing lines, the text describes the goddess holding a fish like a staff and wearing fish on her feet like sandals. Fish light the deep sea like torches, play music for her like temple priests, and bellow for her like oxen. She wears fish wrapped around her body as a royal robe. The runner-fish races to her side, the gurgur fish makes the sea churn and surge, the flash-fish makes it glitter. She piles up fish spawn so that new fish will grow for her in the sea, and fish swarm around her through the water like swallows through the air.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL2 lines fragmentary unknown no. of lines missing A fish is held in her hand as a staff ....... Fishes are put on her feet as sandals ....... Fishes light up the interior of the sea like fires ....... Fishes play on instruments for her like (?) sur priests. Fishes call out loudly for her like (?) oxen. She has fishes wrapped around her body as a regal garment. The runner-fish (kackac) hastens (kac) to her. The gurgur fish makes the sea surge up (gurgur) for her. The flash-fish (jiri) makes the sea sparkle (jir) for her. She heaps up fish spawn so that ...... fishes will grow for her in the sea. Fishes fly around for her like swallows.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.14.2 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.4.14.2: A balbale to Nanshe (Nanshe B). 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.4.14.2.
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