Position in chronology
A shir-gida (?) of Ninshubur (Ninshubur A)
Written in modern English
Ninshubur is addressed directly: good seed of the Land, minister of An. From within heaven itself, An granted her a destiny and Enlil confirmed it — that she would carry a lapis-lazuli sceptre and walk before An. Through her powers, sheepfolds are built and animal pens are enclosed, and she tends those within them the way a fertile ewe tends her lambs, a goat her kids, or a mother her children. The text then breaks: one line survives only in fragments, and an unknown number of lines are lost entirely.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLLady, good seed of the Land, minister of An! Minister of An, mother Nincubur! From the interior of heaven, An bestowed upon you (?), and Enlil destined as your (?) fate, that you should take a lapis-lazuli sceptre in your hand and proceed in front of An. As if you were a fecund ewe caring for its lambs, a fecund goat caring for its kids, or a fertile bearing mother caring for her children, through your powers folds are erected and pens are fenced off. In the folds erected through your powers and in the pens fenced off through your powers, 1 line fragmentary unknown no. of lines missing "I…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.25.1 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.4.25.1: A shir-gida (?) of Ninshubur (Ninshubur 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.4.25.1.
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