Position in chronology
An adab to Nuska for Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan Q)
Written in modern English
An unknown number of lines are lost at the start, and the first surviving line is too damaged to read. Then the text speaks directly to Nuska: the Anuna, the great gods, have consecrated the holy palace as his dwelling. Lord Nunamnir himself has appointed Nuska as his chief minister, placed the holy sceptre firmly in his hand, and made his name glorious. Nuska alone is qualified to carry out all the complex ordinances of the E-kur, to oversee its lustrations and solemn rites, to purify and cleanse, and to make its divine powers fully manifest — the right to issue commands with absolute authority is now his, irrevocably. He is the prince and counsellor of the E-kur, and across the whole of heaven and earth, in every land, no one else comes close to his power.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLunknown no. of lines missing 1 line fragmentary The Anuna, the great gods, ...... the holy palace, the dwelling-place. Lord Nunamnir has appointed you as his chief minister; he has firmly put the holy sceptre in your hand, and made your name glorious. You are perfectly suited to perform the ordinances of the E-kur in all their complexity, to teach the proper execution of the lustrations and the august rites, to purify and clean, and to make grandly manifest the numerous divine powers, the surpassing divine powers; indeed, to give command with grandeur is now consummately and irrevocably yours. Moreover, you are indeed Nuska, the prince and the counsellor of the E-kur! In the entire extent of heaven and earth, in all the countries, you alone are mighty.
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
Scholarly note
Composition c.2.5.4.17 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.2.5.4.17: An adab to Nuska for Ishme-Dagan (Ishme-Dagan Q). 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.2.5.4.17.
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