Position in chronology
A tigi to Ninurta (Ninurta D)
Written in modern English
Ninurta boasts of the destruction he will unleash, and he wants his mother to hear every word of it: he will fell trees, level forests, knock down walls like a great axe, make enemy troops tremble, and devour them in storm and flood. Several comparisons in these lines are too damaged to read. The warrior then smashes heads in furious battle, and the Lord turns to curse the disobedient, rebellious lands — promising to deploy a battering ram against them and destroy their venom — but the tablet breaks off before the threat is finished.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL"I will fell trees, I will strike down forests. Let my mother know it. I, Ninurta, will fell trees, I will strike down forests. Let my mother know it. I will clear them away like an ...... axe. Let my mother know it. I will strike down ...... walls like a huge axe. Let my mother now it. I will make their troops tremble like ....... Let my mother know it. I will devour them like storm and flood. Let my mother know it." The warrior, ...... in furious battle, smashes heads. The Lord curses the disobedient, rebellious lands: "I will ...... battering ram, I will ...... your venom. I will destroy…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.4.27.04 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.4.27.04: A tigi to Ninurta (Ninurta D). 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.4.27.04.
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