Position in chronology
A hymn to Ishkur for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta F )
Written in modern English
Ishkur, the heroic father of abundance, is addressed as a great storm — a thundering inundation, a mighty tempest, a raging wind whose noise fills heaven and earth. Several lines are too damaged to read. The hymn then describes Ishkur acting in repeated waves: a second time he unleashed a mighty tempest and raging wind; a third time he sent a destructive wind from the sky; a fourth time he spoke to the dense clouds overhead. Fine barley stood ready in the fertile fields, the grain thriving joyously — and Ishkur organized everything, overseeing the harvest. A few more lines follow but are too broken to recover.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLHero of abundance, joyously (?) rumbling, father Ickur, great storm, you ....... barsud Inundation, mighty tempest, raging wind, whose noise ......, ...... in heaven and earth ......, Ickur ...... wind ......, flashing lightning, ...... 1 line fragmentary unknown no. of lines missing 1 line fragmentary A second time he ...... a mighty tempest and a raging wind. A third time ...... a destructive wind of heaven. A fourth time he addressed (?) the dense clouds in the heavens. Fine barley stood in the fertile fields, and the corn joyously ....... Ickur organised everything; he ...... the harvest…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.5.6.6 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.2.5.6.6: A hymn to Ishkur for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta F ). 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.2.5.6.6.
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