The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

(Texts: All Artifacts, Color Coding, & Writings in Bold Type With Italics Inside Parenthesis, are Added by Editor R. Brown, not the Authors, Translators, or Publishers!)

(gods in blue)

Segment A

2 lines fragmentary

… his hand …

2 lines fragmentary

… the go-between’s fee … lion …

1 line fragmentary

… not … wife …

1 line fragmentary

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

Get on with (?) your assigned work!

… more than a house … field …

The dragon doesn’t … its rival.

In building a house …

1 line fragmentary

… of the strong man.

… its roar, the lion won’t cease …

3 lines fragmentary

… follow the merchant.

The palace’s water is coming out …

3 lines fragmentary

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment C

… not … to the house.

He will not found a city.

… meadow grass is the milk of a lettuce.

1 line fragmentary

A reed worker … the breast of a storm … are many.

… butting against …

6 lines fragmentary

another version:

Segment A

2 lines fragmentary

5 lines fragmentary

1 line fragmentary

Because of my silver, because of my gold, because of my money chest,

because of my … chest, I am finished.

… good … eat …

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

1 line fragmentary

2 lines fragmentary

6 lines fragmentary

another Segment A

1 line unclear

Release the …!

He will not provide the food supply.

1 line unclear

The donkey of Ancan (4-legged animal god), the bear (?) of Marhaci (unidentified?),

the cat of Meluhha (unidentified?), the elephant of the eastern mountains,

bite off Euphrates poplars as if they were leeks.

A pickaxe put in the … clay is a mongoose in its city.

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

In a complaint, half a gur from the desert … seized like a lord …

He cannot … in his hand.

He does not listen …

He scratches on the ground.

A courtesan who … in the streets … doesn’t give … to a fallen man.

Like a wild ass which has put …

1 line fragmentary

He who rubbed (?) his nose against a beer vat or a large beer container (?) …

2 lines fragmentary

another Segment A

Let … be …

Let his bread be foul food.

No man should eat it.

1 line fragmentary

3 lines fragmentary

He captured Simurrum but did not destroy its walls.

He built E-ana but then abandoned it.

He did not see mighty kingship.

(naked Inanna)

Thus Nanni (Inanna) was carried off to the nether world despondent.

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

1 line fragmentary

2 lines fragmentary

… someone … the mounds.

Why …?

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment C

3 lines fragmentary

another Segment A

1 line fragmentary

… seek out …

On his returning …

Like a … he won’t return to his house.

… a strong man.

… he rolled …

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

… cut it … you will be ill.

… bought … … dead … … open …

1 line fragmentary

another: Segment A

You should not eradicate their place in the universe.

You should not move the oxen from their places!

An ox is walking around (?); a mace is …

I looked into the water.

My destiny was drifting past.

1 line fragmentary

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

2 lines fragmentary

… because of … … because of … I am finished.

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment C

If there is a dispute at the mill, a slave girl reveals (?) what she has stolen.

another: Segment A

… my …

Let there be … … my heart.

1 line fragmentary

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

4 lines fragmentary

… finger.

You are forever pushing like a millstone torn out of its joint.

another Segment A:

1 line fragmentary

What is … your mockery to me?

… whatever he will do … to my accounts.

Come on, clown! Just for once, say:

”… my hips are heavier than 50 mana weight.”

A clown made fun of the city.

They made fun of him and he wept.

another: Segment A

1 line fragmentary

The vixen quenched her thirst but still her motherly teats were dry.

Each fox is even more … than its mother.

If the hearing of the fox …

unknown no. of lines missing

Segment B

1 line fragmentary

2 lines fragmentary

another Segment A:

1 line fragmentary

… when his … looks around, who … child?

… without … raise … … sit … his hands for me.

I will …

How can I …?

… make it strong for you … make it strong …“

1 line fragmentary

another Segment A:

1 line fragmentary

To spit without covering it up with dust,

to kiss with the tongue at midday without providing shade,

1 line unclear

are abominations to the god …

4 lines fragmentary

another Segment:

The ubuluj bird … town square …

The ubuluj bird … may it … my …

2 lines fragmentary

The ubuluj bird …

2 lines fragmentary

another:

… no-one has …

1 line fragmentary

… a modest wife … … he will cause a fight …

1 line fragmentary

2 lines fragmentary

another:

… plowing … not … a gur.

Let great men stir up the conflict for lesser men to fight out.

The little fellow loves his mother; an older brother … an older brother.

The man in charge of the offerings (?) … a proper (?) offering.

1 line fragmentary

another:

1 line fragmentary

… that smells, really smells.

… smells, cheese of the anus.

…, one born into debt (?).

… who sleeps … of the fire.

another:

Prayer has given birth to his life.

Where … you …

The son of the just man lies hungry.

1 line fragmentary

another:

You … a single instruction:

“Let me please your heart, let me … my strength!”

another:

Thus speaks a widow, a man’s junior wife:

“What can widows become?

They cannot be principal wives!”

another:

Do not be hostile to the weakling; do not cry for the strong one.

To the craftsman his arm …

another:

(Bau / Gula, patron goddess of Isin)

I prostrate myself for the sake of Gula, my lady, but in my own eyes I don’t have a place to stand.

another:

Don’t cause the oven in a man’s house to smoke.

The smoke will ruin (?) the bread.