Position in chronology
A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inana B)
Written in modern English
Dumuzid piles endearment on endearment for Inana — his darling, his honey, his sweet vine, his honey-mouthed one born of her mother. Her gaze is a pleasure to him, her words are a pleasure, her kisses are a pleasure; he calls her to him as his beloved sister again and again. The beer she brews from her own barley is good, he says, and the ale she makes from her beer-bread is good. Then the text begins to break down: a line about her luxuriance inside the house, another about her house itself likened to a storehouse, and a final address calling her 'princess' — but the surface is too damaged to recover the endings of these lines.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL"My dearest, my dearest, my dearest, my darling, my darling, my honey of her own mother, my sappy vine, my honey-sweet, my honey-mouthed of her mother! "The gazing of your eyes is pleasant to me; come my beloved sister. The speaking of your mouth is pleasant to me, my honey-mouthed of her mother. The kissing of your lips is pleasant to me; come my beloved sister. "My sister, the beer of your barley is good, my honey-mouthed of her mother. The ale of your beer-bread is good; come my beloved sister. In the house, your luxuriance ......, my honey-mouthed of her mother. My sister, your luxuriance ......, my beloved ....... Your house ...... a storehouse, my honey-mouthed of her mother. You princess, my ......."
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
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Scholarly note
Composition c.4.08.02 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.4.08.02: A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid (Dumuzid-Inana B). 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.4.08.02.
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