Position in chronology
An adab to Enlil for Shulgi (Shulgi G)
Written in modern English
Enlil is the supreme lord whose word can be trusted — the eternal shepherd of the Land, Nunamnir, born of the great mountain. He is the great counsellor, first among all the gods of heaven and earth, master of every divine power, clothed in a fearsomeness befitting his rank, sole guardian of the most ancient and sacred powers. He is the life-giving light that guides all people across the world along a single path, a vast net cast over heaven and earth, a rope stretched across every land. No one has ever instructed Enlil; no one has ever matched him.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLEnlil, the eminent one, the sovereign lord, whose utterance is trustworthy; Nunamnir, the eternal shepherd of the Land, who hails from the great mountain; the great counsellor, the first and foremost in heaven and on earth, who is in control of all the divine powers; lord, who is imbued with great fearsomeness in accordance with his nobility, a perfected heavenly star, who takes good care of the primeval and choice divine powers, who alone is the lofty god; lord, life-giving light, who leads the people all over the world along one track; huge net spread over heaven and earth, rope stretched over all the lands! Who ever instructed Enlil, who ever rivalled him?
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.4.2.07 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.2.4.2.07: An adab to Enlil for Shulgi (Shulgi G). 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.2.4.2.07.
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