Origin/Historian/Author: Sumerian (ca. 1900 BCE)
Source: Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms, By Stephen Langdon, 1919
Full Text Below
OBVERSE
1. …..
2. Oh strong one [ ]
3. Thy weary foot [ ]
4. Thy weary arms-breast-hands [ ]
5. Oh strong healer, oh. … .healer [ ]
6. Oh strong one, my Damu [ ]
7. Oh child, lord Giszida [ ]
8. Oh healer, how long husband ….. wilt thou be weary?
9. Oh healer, how long son ….. wilt thou be weary?
ro. When before ….. thou sittest,
I I. Oh strong one, when into his assembly thou …..
12. Alas he whose fingers and feet [are bound], my irrigator[1] is he.
13. Because of thee she wanders far for thee.
14. My sturdy Damu, my irrigator is he.
15. Thy mother she of lamentation rests not.
16. The mother, queen who gives life to the afflicted, tarries not to repose.
17. In thy perdition, in thy seizure, in melodious sighing she speaks of thee.
18. Oh hero, in thy contumely, in thy removal, in melodious sighing she speaks of thee.
19. My child-bearing mother, my lamenter(?) with melodious sighing behold she stands
20. Oh sturdy one, prostrate thou art, a man of the land of wailing(?)
21. Oh lord, ….. thou art, a man of the land of lament.
22. In my vast chamber, in my land of misery,
23. A lord am I. In Aralu, place where I am cast away,
24. A laborer am I. Unto the faraway land I go.
25. Daily(?) he [sorrows?]
REVERSE
1. I weary with heart woe, where shall I rest?
2. Oh sing to the lyre; I weary with heart woe, where shall I rest?
3. Mother of the chief city[2], queen who gives life to the dead am I.
4. First born daughter of heaven, queen of lsin am I.
5. Daughter of the temple, Queen Gunura.
6. Holy tumlu mother of Esabba am I.
7. Enanun mother of lamentation am I.
8. Queen of Niginmarra the holy place, am I.
9. Queen of Aste[3] queen of Larak.
lo. Mother of the temple, Asnan the divine instructor am I.
I I. Weeping and sighing where shall I find rest?
12. Weeping for Ekur, where shall I repose?
13. Weeping for Kenur, where shall I repose?
14. Weeping for Duazagga, where shall I repose?
15. Weeping for the “House of the King,” where shall I repose?
16. Weeping for the chief city, where shall I repose?
17. Weeping for the sacred forest, . .. where shall I repose?
18. Weeping for Isin, where shall I repose?
19. Weeping for Egalmah, where shall I repose?
20. Weeping for Larak, where shall I repose, where shall he rest?
21. The ravished one my husband, the ravished one, my son,
22. [In ….. ] the clean place, the mu ravished one my spouse,
23. The little son, the ….. son [ ]
24. …..
25. …..
26. …..
27. …..
L. E. How long his ravishing? how long his absence?
Footnotes
[1] Title of Tammur as spirit of the waters.
[2] Isin
[3] Temple in Larak, a quarter of Isin.