Position in chronology
SAA 03 015. Elegy in Memory of a Woman (BA 2 634)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Why are you cast adrift like a boat in midstream, your crossbars broken, your tows cut; your face veiled, you cross the river of the Inner City? (4) How could I not be cast adrift, how could my tows not be cut! (5) On the day I bore fruit, how happy I was! Happy was I, happy my husband. (7) On the day of my labor pains, my face was overcast; on the day I gave birth, my eyes were clouded; (9) My hands were opened (in supplication), as I prayed to Belet-ili: You are the mother of those who give birth, save my life! (11) When Belet-ili heard this, she veiled her face: You [......], why do…
Source: Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P336128/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na mì-i-ni ki-i GIŠ.MÁ-e ina MURUB₄ ÍD-e na-da-ki / šab-bu-ru ḫu-qi-ki-i ba-tu-qu áš-li-ki / ka-lu-lu pa-ni-ki-i ÍD URU.ŠÀ—URU te-bi-ri / a-ke-e la na-da-ku-ú la ba-tu-qu áš-li-ía / ina UD-me in-bu áš-šu-u-ni a-ke-e ḫa-da-ka a-na-ku / ḫa-da-ak a-na-ku-ú ḫa-di ḫa-bi-ri-i / ina UD-me ḫi-lu-ia-a e-tar-pu-u pa-ni-ia / ina UD-me ú-la-di-ia it-ta-ak-ri-ma IGI.2-ia / pa-ta-ni up-na-ia-a a-na…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian court poetry or literary text, edited by Alasdair Livingstone (SAA 3, 1989). ORACC text P336128.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336128). source
Translation excerpted from Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P336128/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.