Position in chronology
A shir-namshub to Nisaba (Nisaba B)
Written in modern English
Shrine after shrine is gone — the house of Nisaba, keeper of the tablets, is destroyed; the house of Nunbarcegunu is destroyed; the E-hamun is destroyed. Where the walls once stood, long grass and cumunda grass have pushed through, and willow trees have spread across the ruins. The anger of An and the malice of Enlil hang over everything. Then Nisaba speaks, asking that moonlight enter her house — but the tablet breaks off there, and the rest of her words are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
ETCSL...... is destroyed. ...... is destroyed. It is destroyed. ...... of Nisaba is destroyed. The house of Nisaba, her of the tablets, is destroyed. The house of ...... is destroyed. The house of Nunbarcegunu is destroyed. ......, the E-hamun is destroyed. The plants of lamentation have sprouted; the cumunda grass has sprouted. By the walls the long grass has sprouted. Amongst them, the willow trees are everywhere. As for the word of An and the word of Enlil, the angry heart of great An is everywhere, and the malign heart of Enlil is everywhere. (Nisaba speaks:) "In my house, may the moonlight in…
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature — scholar edition (Oxford, Black/Cunningham/Robson/Zólyomi).
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Scholarly note
Composition c.4.16.2 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.4.16.2: A shir-namshub to Nisaba (Nisaba 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.4.16.2.
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