Position in chronology
An adab to Dagan (?) for Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan U)
Written in modern English
The poem opens inside the E-kur temple, where the great gods raise their hands toward someone — the surface is too damaged to read the full scene — and prays for a pleasant life and a good reign. Ishme-Dagan, son of Enlil, is celebrated in the Egal-mah, his ladylike house, and is compared to a shining-branched mec tree. Two lines are fragmentary, then the brick-built E-kur and a section called the Sa-jara are mentioned. Dagan, described as the august lord who holds the divine powers of heaven and earth, has clothed the shepherd Ishme-Dagan, son of Enlil, in a royal garment, and has chosen him as the chosen one in the Land — though the closing lines break off before the thought is complete.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLIn the E-kur, the house ....... The great gods ...... to your upraised hands. ...... holy lap for your exceedingly pleasant life. ...... for its good reign ....... Icme-Dagan, the son of Enlil ....... ...... joy (?) in the Egal-mah, your ladylike house. ...... the prince ...... mec tree with shining branches ....... ...... to make his life pleasant ...... Icme-Dagan ....... ...... holy ...... the child of An ....... 2 lines fragmentary ...... brick-built E-kur ....... Sa-jara. Dagan, you have ...... the shepherd Icme-Dagan, the son of Enlil, with a royal garment. Jicgijal of the sa-jara. The lofty lord, ...... the divine powers of heaven and the divine powers of the earth; Dagan, the august lord, ...... the divine powers of heaven and the divine powers of the earth. He has chosen Icme-Dagan in the Land, he .......
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.5.4.21 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.2.5.4.21: An adab to Dagan (?) for Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan U). 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.2.5.4.21.
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