| "Messenger! Speak to your king, the lord of Kulaba, and say to him: "This great mountain range is a meš tree grown high to the sky; its roots form a net, and its branches are a snare. It may be a sparrow but it has the talons of an Anzud bird or of an eagle. The barrier of Inana is perfectly made and is impenetrable (?). Those eagle talons make the blood of the enemy run from the bright mountain. Although in Aratta there is weeping ……, water libations are offered and flour is sprinkled; on the mountain, sacrifices and prayers are offered in obeisance. With fewer than five or 10 men, how can mobilised Unug proceed against the Zubi mountains? Your king is heading in all haste against my military might, but I am equally eager for a contest. (As the proverb goes,) he who ignores a rival, does not get to eat everything up, like the bull which ignores the bull at its side. But he who acknowledges a contest can be the outright winner, like the bull which acknowledges the bull at its side -- or does he reject me in this contest? Like ……, …… can match no one -- or does he still reject me in this contest? Again, I have words to say to you, messenger: I have an artful proposal to make to you ……, may it get across to you ……. Repeat this to your master, to the lord of Kulaba, a lion lying on its paws in E-ana, a bull bellowing within it, within his ĝipar, fruitful as a flourishing meš tree. The mountain range is a warrior, …… high, like Utu going to his abode at twilight, like one from whose face blood drips; or like Nanna, who is majestic in the high heavens, like him whose countenance shines with radiance, who …… is like the woods in the mountains.""
|
