Obverse
[1.] mà-gur azag an-na še-ir-ma-al nì-te-na
O shining ship of the heavens, majestic by thyself!
mà-gur is a boat of crescent form. Sin is a man sitting in the half circle of the moon and sailing across the firmament of the heavens as in a majestic ship. mà: the sign MÙ was originally pictorial and represented the rudder of the ship. The sign of our tablet is New-Babylonian and can be found in the inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar II. It is half way between the old pictorial and the usual Assyrian MÙ. gur: the sign ḤAR probably refers to the body of the ship as “an enclosure”, or more particularly to “the crescent form” of the ship, since ḤAR means “circular enclosure”. The ḤAR of our text is much like the linear form found in the Stèle des Vautours.
azag equals ellu, “shining”, (Br. 9890). The sign also has the value ku with the meaning ellu. azag, “shining”, refers to the moon and the moon looks like a ship.
an-na (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 18]).
še-ir-ma-al nì-te-na (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 1]). The ideas of these two words find their way into the first line of the Ašurbânipal Hymn to Sin, K. 2861, (IV R. 9). še-ir-ma-al appears especially as ner-gal (š-n and m-g) and nì-te-na as aš-ni maḥ-àm; e-diš-ši-šu ṣi-i-ru.
[2.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki ù-mu-un-e Šis-unu-ki-ma
O father Nannar, lord of Ur!
a-a (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 3]).
dimmer Šis-ki is the most common Sumerian name of the god Sin, and means “brother of the land”. Sin was probably looked upon as “the helper of earth”. dimmer (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 2]). Šis equals aḥu, “brother”, (Br. 6437). ŠIŠ sometimes has the value uru, especially when it means naṣâru, “keep”. The ŠIŠ of our hymn is New-Babylonian but is not essentially different from the ŠIŠ of Gudea. ki (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 9]).
ù-mu-un-e (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 3]).
Šis-unu-ki-ma means “of the brother’s dwelling place”. Šis means “brother”. unu equals šubtu, “dwelling”, (Br. 4792). ma, perhaps, can be taken as a sign of the genitive, being dialectic for ga, which is for ge, one of the values of KIT (see MSL. pp. XI and XVI). Perhaps we ought to read this word Uru-um-ki-ma, taking the other value of ŠIŠ and also reading um instead of unu. In texts of OBI. it would appear that UNU is closely related to UM as well as to AB.
[3.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki ù-mu-un-e È(BIT)-ner-nu-gál(IG)
O father Nannar, lord of E-gišširgal!
a-a dimmer Šis-ki ù-mu-un-e (see [line 2]).
È-ner-nu-gál is not the usual spelling. The more common form is È-giš-šir-gal. Our È(BIT)-ner(NER)-nu(NU)-gál(IG) which also occurs in Ḥammurabi (for example, in CḤ. Col. II, line 21, Plate II) is dialectic for È(BIT)-giš(IZ)-šir(ŠIR)-gal(GAL). È(BIT)-giš(IZ)-šir(ŠIR)-gal(GAL) is the spelling found in the Ašurbânipal Hymn. In the inscription of the Clay Cylinder of Nabonidus found at Ur (Col. I, line 30), the spelling is È(BIT)-giš(IZ)-šir(ŠIR)-gal(GAL), but the margin has the spelling È(BIT)-giš(IZ)-nu(NU)-gál(IG). È equals bîtu, “house”, (Br. 6238). ner evidently stands for kiš. These two values, ner and kiš, were represented by the same sign in old Babylonian; namely, PIRIḲḲU. From the sign PIRIḲḲU, there developed in Assyrian another sign, whose chief value is kiš with the meaning kiššatu. The sign here then should have the value kiš, or in old Babylonian giš, which is also one of the values of GISSU, a determinative before the name of a light. nu is for šir which equals nûru, “light”. IṢ.ŠIR is a common ideogram for “light”. The interchange of NU and SIRU is not so easy to explain. The fact that NU instead of SIRU occurs in the name of the temple in the time of Ḥammurabi would go to show that the spelling of the word with NU is more primitive than the spelling with SIRU. Perhaps NU has a value šir. Brünnow recognizes the fact that NU in the name of the temple sometimes takes the place of SIRU (see Br. 2005 and 1657). There is a difference between IḲU and GALLU. IḲU equals bašû, while GALLU equals rabû. The gal (ES mal) of IḲU must be different from the gal of GALLU.
[4.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki ù-mu-un dimmer Áš-suḥ-ud
O father Nannar, lord of Namraṣit!
a-a dimmer Šis-ki ù-mu-un (see [line 2]).
dimmer Áš-suḥ-ud: one of the citations Brünnow gives, in which the name of this god occurs, is in Incantation K. 3255 (IV R.² 2, 21), where, in the Sumerian as well as in the marginal reading of the Assyrian, Sin is said to be the lord of the god Namraṣit. dimmer En-zu-na en dimmer Áš-suḥ-ud ra-ge = ilu Sin be-el Nam-ra-ṣi-it. Áš-suḥ-ud means “the only foundation of light”. Áš has a very common Assyrian equivalent edu, “one”. suḥ equals išdu, “foundation”, (Br. 4811). ud equals urru, “light”, (see Br. 7798).
[5.] ù-mu-un dimmer Šis-ki ṭú-mu sag dingir En-lil-lá
O lord Nannar, chief son of Bêl!
dimmer Šis-ki (see [line 2]).
ṭu-mu: ṬU.MU is a syllabic and dialectic form of DUMU (Br. 4069 and 11917). When DUMU stands for mâru, “son”, it is supposed to have the value du (Br. 4081). ṭu-mu is no doubt for dumu and du is a shortened form of dumu. ṭu: the sign may be recognized as old Babylonian appearing in this form in the Code of Ḥammurabi (see also AL. p. 135, No. 328).
sag (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 5]). ṭu-mu sag must be equal to some such expression as “first born son”, or “only begotten son”.
dingir En-lil-lá: in [line 7], we shall have dimmer Mu-ul-lil-ra and in [line 18], dimmer Mu-ul-lil-li. dingir may be preferred to dimmer because the sign is a determinative to an EK form. En-lil-lá consists of the god’s name, En-lil (see Mu-ul-lil in [Hymn to Bêl, line 2]).
[6.] síg-ga-zu-ne síg-ga-zu-ne
When thou art full, when thou art full,
síg-ga-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause equal to ina malîka, “in thy fulness”. síg: the sign to which this value is attached is composite. One element consists of SI whose chief meaning is “fill”. The other element consists of A which means “water”. SI.A then means “full of water”, or “fulness”. The sign, called DIRIGU, has two values ending with g; i. e., dirig related to the sign-name and síg which is quite certainly equal to malû (Br. 3722). ga is a phonetic complement (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 4]). zu is a determinate suffix of the second person (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 21]). ne is a postposition equal to ina (see Br. 4602, also de in [Hymn to Bêl, line 6]).
[7.] i-de a-a-zu i-de dimmer Mu-ul-lil-ra še-ir-ma-al-la-zu-ne
When before thy father, before Bêl thou art sovereign,
i-de (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 6]). i-de is a preposition used as a noun in the construct state, having the meaning of maḥru or pânu and equal to ina maḥar or ina pân.
a-a-zu equals noun a-a, plus suffix zu. a-a (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 3]). zu (see [line 6]).
dimmer Mu-ul-lil-ra equals god’s name dimmer Mu-ul-lil, plus phonetic complement ra. dimmer Mu-ul-lil (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 2]). ra (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 3]). It might be better to regard lil-ra as a shortened form of lil-lá-ra. lil is quite apt to take the phonetic complement lá, a value of the sign LALLU, while ra is naturally a postposition.
še-ir-ma-al-la-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause equal to “in thy sovereignty”. še-ir-ma-al (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 1]). zu-ne (see [line 6]).
[8.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki še-ir-ma-al-la-zu-ne gaba zi-ga-zu-ne
O father Nannar, when thou art sovereign, when thou liftest up thy breast,
a-a dimmer Šis-ki (see [line 2]).
še-ir-ma-al-la-zu-ne (see [line 7]).
gaba equals irtu, “breast”, (Br. 4470). We have had gaba as an adjective equal to pitû (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 6]).
zi-ga-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause meaning “in thy lifting up”. zi equals našû, “lift up”, (Br. 2325). We have had zi as equal to kênu, “right”, and napištu, “life”, (see Hymn to Bêl, lines [4] and [25]). ga is a phonetic complement. zi might be zig (see Br. 2303 and [Hymn to Bêl, line 4]). zu-ne (see [line 6]). In gaba zi-ga-zu-ne, perhaps we have the picture of the full moon suddenly rising in the night from the horizon.
[9.] mà-gur an-šàg-ga síg-ga še-ir-ma-al-la-zu-ne
O ship in the midst of the heavens, when thou art full and sovereign,
mà-gur (see [line 1]).
an-šàg-ga: ŠÂGU is usually taken as a preposition and stands before its object. Here it seems to follow its object, an (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 18]). šàg-ga equals LIB plus GA. šàg: ŠÂGU, equal to libbu, may have either one of three values; viz., šà when not followed by a phonetic complement, šàg when followed by the phonetic complement ga and šàb when followed by the phonetic complement ba (see Br. 7980 and [Hymn to Bêl, line 22]). ga (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 4]).
síg-ga (see [line 6]).
še-ir-ma-al-la-zu-ne (see [line 7]).
[10.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki za-e éš azag-šù pa(d)-a-zu-ne
O father Nannar, thou, when thou speakest to the shining house,
a-a dimmer Šis-ki (see [line 2]).
za-e (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 16]).
éš (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 16]). éš is admittedly a Sumerian value as is shown by its relation to the sign-name ÊŠU. éš is the fuller form of è(BIT). From éš there has arisen a Semitic loan-word ešu, “house”.
azag-šù means “to the shining”, azag (see [line 1]). šù (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 15]).
pa(d)-a-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause composed of a preposition with an infinitive that governs a suffix, as ina tamîka, “in thy speaking”, i. e., “when thou speakest”. pad is a verb equal to tamû, “speak”. pad also equals zakâru, “to name”. pa, the shortened form of pad, evidently intended here, is sometimes represented by the Assyrian nabû. a is the vowel of prolongation indicating the pa, rather than the pad-value. zu-ne (see [line 6]).
[11.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki mà-dim êgâ síg-ga-zu-ne
O father Nannar, when like a ship on the tide thou art full,
a-a dimmer Šis-ki (see [line 2]).
mà-dim consists of noun mà and postposition dim. mà (see on [line 1]). mà-gur refers to the moon, mà refers to an ordinary ship. dim is equal to kîma, “like”. The sign-name is DIMMU. dim is ES. The EK form of the value is gim.
êgâ is a contraction of a, gè and a from the signs A, MI and A, and means “tide”, or “high water”. a means “water” and MI with the value gè means “black”, and the second A is evidently phonetic only. êgâ, therefore, means “black water”, such water as is seen in a “flood” or “high tide”.
síg-ga-zu-ne (see [line 6]).
[12.] síg-ga-zu-ne síg-ga-zu-ne za-e síg-ga-zu-ne
When thou art full, when thou art full, thou, when thou art full,
síg-ga-zu-ne (see [line 6]).
za-e (see [line 10]). It may be noticed that síg-ga-zu-ne occurs three times in this line and ten times in the section, lines 6-18. This repetition no doubt serves for rhetorical effect, especially in oral delivery and, together with the marked uniformity of measure in the clauses, characterizes the passage as poetic.
[13.] síg-ga-zu-ne bi-šag-a-zu-ne za-e síg-ga-zu-ne
When thou art full, when thou speakest favorably, thou, when thou art full,
síg-ga-zu-ne (see [line 6]).
bi-šag-a-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause equal to “in thy speaking graciously”. bi equals ḳibû, “speak”, (Br. 5124). Starting with the meaning “speak” the sign KŠU comes to have a demonstrative force and is generally used as a suffix of the third person singular. We shall also see that it sometimes equals šikaru “strong drink”. šag: the sign giving this value is one not much used. It may be identified as GIŠIMMAR (see AL. p. 130, No. 206, also Br. 7286). šag is the chief value, equal to damâḳu or damḳu, “gracious”. a: the value is generally followed by the phonetic complement ga, but here it is followed by a (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 9]). zu-ne (see [line 6]).
[14.] bi-šag-a rù-ti-a-zu-ne za-e síg-ga-zu-ne
When thou speakest graciously and engenderest life, thou, when thou art full,
bi-šag-a (see [line 13]).
rù-ti-a-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause equal to “in thy engendering life”. rù: we have had UL already as a composite part of Mu-ul-lil (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 2]). UL here probably with the value rù equals kalâlu, “perfect”. The sign is intended to be the picture of a goring bull; then, as we get away from the primary idea, there arise the meanings of “exultation”, “perfection”, etc. Nannar is “the perfecter of life”. ti (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 16]). a (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 9]). zu-ne (see [line 6]).
za-e (see [line 10]).
síg-ga-zu-ne (see [line 6]).
[15.] a-a dimmer Šis-ki lid damal lid-ne-ra sal-dug-ga-zu-ne
O father Nannar of extensive progeny, when thou speakest to that progeny,
a-a dimmer Šis-ki (see on [line 2]).
lid may be of Semitic origin from the Assyrian word littu, “progeny”. The two horizontal lines in the sign suggest the idea of “pairing”, from which comes the idea of “progeny” (thus, Prince, MSL., p. 223).
damal (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 10]).
lid-ne-ra equals “to that progeny”. ne equals annû, a demonstrative pronoun “this”. ne is cognate with de which is also cognate with da and ta used as postpositions (see de and da in Hymn to Bêl, lines [6] and [4]). ra is a postposition = “unto” (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 3]).
sal-dug-ga-zu-ne is a ḥal-clause: “in thy speaking”. sal is a prefix of an abstract character. It is equivalent to the Assyrian zinništu, “feminine”. It is a counterpart to ku in the expressions Eme-sal and Eme-ku, ku being equal to bêlu, “lord”. As a prefix, sal generalizes the root-idea of the stem to which it is attached and is consequently an abstract prefix (see Br. 10930, 10949 and 10955). dug-ga (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 4]). zu-ne (see [line 6]).
[16.] a-a-zu ide ḥùl-la mu-e-ši-in-maš sal-zi ma-ra ni-in-gú
Thy father discerns the joyful face and speaks life to the land.
a-a-zu (see on [line 7]).
ide equals pânu, “face”, (Br. 9281). The sign IGÛ can be read either ide, which is ES, or ige, which is EK.
ḥùl-la equals noun ḥùl, plus phonetic complement la. ḥùl equals ḥadû, “joy” (Br. 10884). The sign giving this value is not to be confounded with another sign which also has the value ḥul meaning “evil”, expressed by limuttu (Br. 9503).
mu-e-ši-in-maš is a verb consisting of verbal prefix mu, verbal infixes e and ši-in and root maš. mu (see Hymn to Bêl, lines [1] and [18]). e (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 18]). ši-in: an objective verbal infix naturally has its person determined by the object to which it refers. That object in this case seems to be ide ḥùl-la, “the joyful face” of the moon. maš: the sign has two names, BÂRU and MŠU, and two chief values related to these names, bar and maš. bar and maš are cognate forms. b changes to m (MSL. p. X); r changes to š (MSL. p. XII). The sign has two chief meanings, “side” and “cut”. The meaning of “side” is represented by bar (see MSL. p. 234), while the meaning of “cut”, from which we get the idea of “distinguish” is generally represented by the value maš (Br. 1735).
sal-zi consists of abstract prefix sal and noun zi. sal (see on [line 15]). zi (see on [line 8]).
ma-ra equals “unto the land”. ma (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 8]). ra (see [line 15]).
ni-in-gú: ni can be a verbal prefix and in a verbal infix, or ni-in can be a verbal infix with the verbal prefix omitted, gú being the verbal root. ni, if taken as a prefix, naturally refers to a-a-zu. ni may have a demonstrative force, equal to šuatu, like ne. in as an infix refers to ma-ra. gú, a shortened form of gug, equal either ḳìbû, “speak”, or apâlu, “answer”. gú and gug have dialectic forms du and dug, the g changing to d which ES prefers. The sign is apparently a modification of the sign SANGU (see AL. p. 121, No. 14, and p. 124, No. 87). The primary meaning was “opening” and the leading value is ka equal to pû, “mouth”. The values ka and gú come from the sign-name KÂGU (see Hymn to Bêl, lines [1] and [4]). With the value ì the sign means “word”.
[17.] e i-i lugal-ra û-de-eš e mu-un-ê
As an exalted royal command, daily he causes the word to go forth!
e (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 14]).
i-i: i is the chief value of GIṬṬÛ. The sign with its five parallel lines or wedges representing the five fingers of the hand is a symbol of power. From the idea of “power”, we get that of “exaltation” (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 6]).
lugal-ra consists of stem lugal and postposition ra lugal: the sign is composite, the elements being GAL and LU which mean “great” and “man”. lugal equals šarru (Br. 4266). We shall have the element LU with the ES value mulu. ra (see Hymn to Bêl, lines [3] and [8]). We might expect la here.
û-de-eš consists of root û, phonetic complement de and adverbial ending eš. û equals ûmu, “day”, (Br. 7797), and is a shortened form of ud. de is phonetic here. The more usual phonetic complement of ud is da (see Br. 7774). eš (see Br. 10001). eš as an adverbial ending is probably derived from the Semitic adverbial ending -iš which is supposed to have grown out of the Assyrian suffix of the third person šu. Agglutinative languages do not often possess special adverbial endings.
mu-un-ê consists of verbal prefix mu-un and verbal root ê. mu-un is phonetic for mun which is simply a nasalized mu (see MSL. p. XXVIII, and [Hymn to Bêl, line 1]). On ê (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 15]).
[18.] dimmer Mu-ul-lil-li mu-du-ru û-sud-du šú-za ma-ra ni-in-rù
Bêl with the sceptre of distant days exalts thy hand over the land.
dimmer Mu-ul-lil-li (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 23]).
mu-du-ru: there is a sign MUDRU (Br. 10776) which may be related to PA. We may infer a relation between MUDRU and PA, because the two signs have a common value sig. We know also that MU.DU.RU sometimes stands for PA (Br. 1275). Now if MU.DU.RU can stand for PA it must have some meaning in common with PA. The most usual meaning of PA is ḥaṭṭu, “sceptre”, which gives good sense here. mu (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 1]). du (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 15]).
û-sud-du consists of noun û, adjective sud, and phonetic complement du. û (see [line 17]). sud equals rûḳu, “distant” (Br. 7603). du (see gin, [line 23]), phonetic complement here.
šú-za equals noun šú and suffix za. šú (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 25]). za is a suffix of the second person singular masculine (Br. 11722). We have had za-e as being equal to “thou” ([Hymn to Bêl, line 16]). zu we have found to be the more usual suffix of the second person (see on [line 6]). za is dialectic for zu.
ma-ra (see on [line 16]).
ni-in-rù consists of prefix ni, infix in and verbal root rù. ni-in (see on [line 16]). rù (see on [line 14]).
[19.] Šis-unu-ki-ma mà-gur azag-ga pa(d)-a-zu-ne
When in Ur, O shining ship, thou speakest,
Šis-unu-ki-ma (see on [line 2]).
mà-gur (see on [line 1]).
azag-ga equals adjective azag, plus phonetic complement ga. azag (see on [line 1]). ga (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 4]).
pa(d)-a-zu-ne (see on [line 10]).
[20.] ... dimmer Nu-dim-mud-e sal-dug-ga-zu-ne
When to ... Ea thou speakest,
dimmer Nu-dim-mud-e: we have here a compound ideogram as a name of the god Ea. dimmer is determinative before the name of a god (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 2]). Nu-dim-mud equals the Assyrian E-a (Br. 2016). The usual Sumerian ideogram is EN.KI. e in Nu-dim-mud-e a vowel of prolongation (see [Hymn to Bêl, line 3]).
sal-dug-ga-zu-ne (see [line 15]).
[21.] ......... [pa(d)]-a-zu[-ne]
When ..... thou speakest,
pa(d)-a-zu-ne (see [line 10]).