Origin/Historian/Author: Akkadian (ca 2300 BCE)
Source: The Sacred Books and Literature of the East, By Prof. Charles F. Horne, Ph.D.
The Sacred Books and Literature of the East Translations conducted by:
Morris Jastrow, Jr., LL.D., Rev. A.H. Sayce, LL.D., Robert W. Rogers, LL.D., George A. Barton, LL.D., Leonard W. King, F.S.A., Stephen Langdon, PH.D., Arno Poebel, PH.D., and other scholars.
Full Text Below
If evil
thou hast done,
to the sea forever
. . . thou goest.
My city bless;
among my men
fully prosper me.
Bless everything;
and to my dress be favorable.
Before the oxen as they march
in the grain thou liest down.
My knees are marching,
my feet are not resting;
with no wealth of thine own,
grain thou begettest for me.
A heifer am I;
to the cow I am yoked;
the plow-handle is strong;
lift it up, lift it up!
May he perform vengeance;
may he return also
to him who gives.
The marsh as though it
were not he passes; (1)
the slain as though they were
not … he makes good.
To the waters their god (2)
has returned;
to the house of bright things
he descended as an icicle;
on a seat of snow
he grew not old in wisdom.
……..
Like an oven
which is old
against thy foes
be hard.
Thou wentest, thou spoiledest
the land of the foe;
for he went, he spoiled
thy land, even the foe.
Kingship
in its going forth
is like a royal robe.
Into the river thou plungest, and
thy water is swollen
at the time;
into the orchard thou plungest, and
thy fruit
is bitter.
The corn is high,
it is flourishing;
how
is it known ?
the corn is bearded,
it is flourishing;
how
is it known ?
The fruit of death
may the man eat,
and yet the fruit of life
may he achieve.
Footnotes
(1) This line is translated from the Akkadian, the Assyrian text being wanting, and the words ” a recent lacuna ” being written instead. This makes it clear that the scribe who copied the tablet for Ashurbanipal’s library did not understand Akkadian and could not, therefore, supply the translation.
(2) This seems to be quoted from a hymn describing the return of Cannes to the Persian Gulf.