Position in chronology
A song to Ninimma (Ninimma A)
Written in modern English
Ninimma holds the seal of a treasury whose name is lost to damage, and she serves as caretaker of the great gods. She is the lady of all the great rites in the E-kur, Enlil's heavenly scribe, and the keeper of the tablet of life — though one line here is too fragmentary to read. She brings the finest grain and presides over the E-sara; the surveyor's gleaming line and measuring rod are said to suit her perfectly, and she stands as an equal among the great princes. Several phrases that once named her titles are lost, and two further lines survive only in broken scraps, but what remains praises her as exceptional in wisdom and cherished among the gods.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLYou are the seal-holder of the treasury of the ....... You are the caretaker of the great gods, you are ....... Ninimma, you are the lady of all the great rites in the E-kur. Lady, you are the ...... of Enlil, you are the heavenly scribe. You ...... the tablet of life. 1 line fragmentary You, who bring the best corn, are the lady of the E-sara. The surveyor's gleaming line and the measuring rod suit you perfectly. You can hold your head high among the great princes. You are ....... You are ......, the cherished one. 1 line fragmentary ......; you are exceptional in wisdom. ...... joy .......…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.21.1 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.4.21.1: A song to Ninimma (Ninimma 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.4.21.1.
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