Position in chronology
A praise poem of Shulgi (Shulgi V)
Written in modern English
Enlil, the beaming light whose word cannot be changed and the mightiest of the Anuna gods, looked with favor on Shulgi — the fearsome dragon, the king, the work of his hands — and granted him great strength. Shulgi's roar fills heaven and earth from end to end. In the E-kur temple, and in Dur-an-ki where the eternal divine powers are lavishly upheld — though several phrases in these lines are too damaged to read — Enlil decreed a magnificent destiny for Shulgi even before his birth, calling him the long-enduring sapling of ancient, princely foundations and commanding him: 'Make the people obedient, you enduring king of the multitudes!'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSLEnlil, the beaming light, ......, whose utterance is immutable, the most powerful of the Anuna gods, ......, looked (?) favourably (?) at Culgi, the fearsome dragon ......, the king, the creation of his hands. He granted (?) him great stength. His roar fills (?) the whole extent (?) of heaven and earth. In the E-kur, the great snake of the deep, ......, in Dur-an-ki, which lavishly ...... the eternal divine powers, ......, Enlil determined a great fate from the womb for the long-enduring sapling of the brickwork founded by the princely one, Culgi, who was born for a prosperous reign: "Make the people obedient, you enduring king of the multitudes!"
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
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Scholarly note
Composition c.2.4.2.22 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.2.4.2.22: A praise poem of Shulgi (Shulgi V). 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.2.4.2.22.
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