Position in chronology
A tigi to Nanna (Nanna I)
Written in modern English
Nanna moves through his reed marshes — silent, far-reaching, enormous — and has built his house at the water's edge where the reeds grow green. He named his city the shrine Ur, and there Suen, lord of the long days, established his dwelling. In Ur, the city he chose for himself, the temple rings with praise like the bellowing of a bull. The place is sacred and without equal. Suen graces beloved Ur with pure divine powers, but the lines describing what he does there are too damaged to read, and the passage breaks off mid-sentence with Lord Acimbabbar's name.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLMy king ...... in his reed marshes. He ...... in the silent (?) reed marshes. He extended his house over a huge reed marsh, over a ...... reed marsh. Its ...... is green (?); he has built ...... by the water. He called his city the shrine Urim. In his city, the lord of the long days, Suen, founded a dwelling-place. In Urim, the city chosen in his heart, bull-like the house gives praise. My king's splendid place is indeed an august place, a most precious place. Suen ...... his beloved city, the shrine Urim, the pure divine powers ...... his city. My king ...... the holy dais. Lord Acimbabbar .......
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.13.09 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.4.13.09: A tigi to Nanna (Nanna I). 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.4.13.09.
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