Position in chronology
A song of Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inanna Y)
Written in modern English
Five lines are lost, then one fragmentary line that mentions someone going to his father like a messenger, followed by another broken line. Then Utu speaks: he tells his brother-in-law that the daytime will pass, night will come, and when it does he will send the moonlight and the stars home — dim them, shut them away — and then he will draw back the bolt of the door for him. Five more lines are lost. When the text resumes, two voices exchange brief endearments: one calls out 'My elder sister!' and the other answers 'My sweet!' — but the tablet breaks off there.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL5 lines missing 1 line fragmentary ...... his father like a messenger. 1 line fragmentary (Utu speaks:) "Our brother-in-law, the daytime will pass; our brother-in-law, night will come. Then I shall make the moonlight enter its house, I shall make the stars become dimmed in their house. Our brother-in-law, when the daytime has passed, our brother-in-law, when the night comes, and after the moonlight has entered its house, after the stars have become dimmed in their house, I shall draw the bolt from the door for you ......." 5 lines missing "My elder sister! ......." "My sweet! ......." "My…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.08.25 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.4.08.25: A song of Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inanna Y). 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.4.08.25.
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