Position in chronology
A hymn to Nibru and Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan W)
Written in modern English
The city of Nibru rises in terrifying splendor across heaven and earth, its towers unmatched, its brickwork the finest of any building raised in the Land. Its power reaches to the farthest edges of heaven and earth, and it has granted every foreign land and every city yet built a share of excellent divine powers. Its name is as magnificent as those powers, and its very soil matches the greatness of its name. The city's name — or its divine powers, depending on which manuscript you follow — towers over heaven and earth. The final line breaks off mid-sentence, leaving the closing image incomplete.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLCity whose terrifying splendour extends over heaven and earth, whose towers are exceptionally grand, shrine Nibru! Your power reaches to the edges of the uttermost extent of heaven and earth. Of all the brick buildings erected in the Land, your brickwork is the most excellent. You have allowed all the foreign lands and as many cities as are built to receive excellent divine powers. Your name is as excellent as your excellent divine powers. Your soil is soil as good as your name. City, your name towers (1 ms. has instead: your divine powers tower) over heaven and earth. You are the pillar (?)…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.5.4.23 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.2.5.4.23: A hymn to Nibru and Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan W). 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.2.5.4.23.
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