Position in chronology
A song of Inana for Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan J)
Written in modern English
Inana is called to the cattle-pen, where the sweet-voiced cows and gentle-voiced calves await her. When she arrives, the churn will sound — the churn of her husband Dumu-zid, rocking and singing, will fill her with joy. The good shepherd, the man of sweet songs, will sing loudly for her, and with all the finest things at hand he will gladden her heart. When she steps into the cattle-pen it will rejoice at her presence; when she enters the sheepfold it too will rejoice; and when she walks into the feeding-pen, the healthy ewes will spread their wool out before her.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLLady, going to the sweet-voiced cows and gentle-voiced calves in the cattle-pen, young woman, when you arrive there, Inana, may the churn sound! May the churn of your spouse sound, Inana, may the churn sound! May the churn of Dumu-zid sound, Inana, may the churn sound! The rocking of the churn will sing (?) for you, Inana, may it thus make you joyous! The good shepherd, the man of sweet songs, will loudly (?) sing songs for you; lady, with all the sweetest things, Inana, may he make your heart joyous! Lady, when you enter the cattle-pen, Inana, the cattle-pen will indeed rejoice over you. Mistress, when you enter the sheepfold, Inana, the sheepfold will indeed rejoice over you. When you enter the feeding-pen, healthy ewes will spread out their wool for you.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.5.4.10 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.2.5.4.10: A song of Inana for Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan J). 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.2.5.4.10.
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