The home of the fish: translation

SEGMENT A

^1-13My fish, I have built you a home! My fish, I have built you a house, I have built you a store! I have built you a house bigger than a house, in fact a large sheepfold. Inside there is incense, and I have covered it with cloths for you; in this happy place, I ...... water of joy for you; a house not bothered by cords dividing the plots, ...... in the gutters. In the house, there is food, food of the best quality. In the house, there is food, food in good condition. No flies buzz around in your house where beer is poured out. Your reputation ...... cannot be alienated (?). The threshold and the door-bolt, the ritual flour and the incense-burner are all in place. The scent and fragance in the house are like an aromatic cedar forest. In the house, there is beer, there is good beer. There is sweet beer, and honeyed cakes, extending as far as the reed fence.

^14-24Let your acquaintances come! Let your dear ones come! Let your father and grandfather come! Let the sons of your elder brother and the sons of your younger brother come! Let your little ones come, and your big ones too! Let your wife and your children come! Let your friends and companions come! Let your brother-in-law and your father-in-law come! Let the crowd by the side of your front door come! Don't leave your friends' children outside! Don't leave your neighbours outside, whoever they may be!

^25-33Enter, my beloved son! Enter, my fine son! Don't let the day go by, don't let the night come! The moonlight should not enter that house! But if the day has gone by and the night comes, enter and I will let you relax there; I have made the grounds suitable for you! Inside, I have fixed up a seat for you. My fish, no one who sleeps there will be disturbed; no one who sits there will get involved in a quarrel.

^34-39Enter, my beloved son! Enter, my fine son! As if you were in a river with brackish water, don't go investigating any canals! As if you were in silt settled on the riverbed, may you not be able to get up! As if you were in flowing water, you should not fix your bed! The moonlight should not enter that house!

^40-44And may you not succeed in getting away: face towards me! And may you not succeed in getting away like a ...... to your lair: face towards me! And may you not succeed in getting away like a dog to where you go sniffing: face towards me! And may you not succeed in getting away like a ...... to where you ......: face towards me! And may you not succeed in getting away like a bull to your cattle-pen, like a sheep to your sheepfold: face towards me!

^45-67Now, just ...... like a bull to your cattle-pen! Enter for me, and Suen will be delighted with you! Now, just ...... like a sheep to your sheepfold! Enter for me, and Dumuzid will be delighted with you! When you lift your head like a bull towards your cattle-pen, Lord Acimbabbar Suen will be delighted with you! When you raise your head like a sheep in the sheepfold, Dumuzid the shepherd will be delighted with you!
15 lines fragmentary or missing

^68-80The fish who ....... May all kinds of fishes also enter with you, my fish! The one with handsome barbels who eats the honey plant, my suhur-gal fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one who always eats ...... reeds, ......, my suhur-tur fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one with big lips, who sucks the gizi reeds,
1 line fragmentary
whose food ......, my ectub fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The black punting-pole, engendered in the fields, the farrowing sow who takes away the dough from the river banks, my gubi fish (probably = eel) : may he also enter with you, my fish!

^81-95The one with a spiny (?) tail and a spiny (?) back, who goes ......, my ce-suhur-gal (?) fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The fish who is like a crying child in its prayers, my ce-suhur-sig (?) fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! With a pickaxe as a head, and having a comb for teeth, the branches of a fir-tree as its bones, Dumuzid's water-skin for the skin of its bladder (?), with a dehaired skin that does not need processing, with its slender tail like the fishermen's whip, the jumping fish, with naturally smoothed skin, with no entrails in its nose, the fish who seizes adversaries by arms and legs, whose sting goes across like a nail, which is taboo and is not placed as an offering in the city's shrines, my mur fish (= sting-ray) : may he also enter with you, my fish!

^96-113The one whose fins (?) churn the troubled waters, a fish who seizes ...... at a glance (?), my kij fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! With a head like a small millstone, ...... a dog's head,
1 line unclear
the fish who does not eat the ...... plants, ......, my jir-gid fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! With the noise of his entrails ......, my gir fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The fish who ......, the fish who knows how to escape through a reed barrier, the fish which despite being tasty is an abomination, my ab-suhur fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The fish that causes breaches in dykes, with venom in its jaws, my agargar fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one whom the merchants ......, my kamar fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one whom the Martu fetch away, my nunbar-gid (?) fish: may he also enter with you, my fish!

^114-117The fish who does not eat edible plants, ......, my azagur fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one that ...... a heavy skin, ......, my muc fish: may he also enter with you, my fish!
approx. 7 lines fragmentary or missing

SEGMENT B

^1-7......, spotted (?) ......, my jiru (?) fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one that the children bring in ......, my salsal fish: may he also enter with you, my fish! The one with snake's eyes, a ...... mouse's mouth, who ...... on riverbanks,
approx. 8 lines fragmentary or missing

SEGMENT C

^1-12The one who utters its sinister cry in the marshes and rivers, my agane bird: you would be dangling from its claws, my fish! The one who circles the nets looking for you in the waters where the nets are stretched, my ubure bird: you would be dangling from its claws, my fish! The one with long legs, that laughs, the alien from faraway waters, that writes in the mud, my ance-bar (?) bird: you would be dangling from its claws, my fish! The one who does not adorn ......, with the ...... of a bird and webbed (?) feet, my kib bird: you would be dangling from its claws, my fish! The one who seizes the quadrupeds that wander into the marshes, my kuda crocodile: you would be dangling from its claws, my fish!

^13-17But you won't be dangling from their claws, you won't be snatched up by their feet! Time is pressing, my fish! Just you come to me! Time is pressing! Just you come to me! Nance, the queen of the fishermen, will be delighted with you.

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Revision history

21.i.1999-24.i.1999 : JAB : adapting translation
02.xi.1999 : GZ : proofreading
04.xi.1999 : GC : tagging
03.xii.1999 : ER : proofreading SGML
03.xii.1999 : ER : converting to HTML 4.0
7.ix.2001 : ER : header and footer reformatted; substantive content of file not changed