Transliteration of tablet SEM 114, the story of The Great Fatted Jackass.
by Jerald Jack Starr
Tablet SEM 114. Much of the tablet is heavily damaged.
If this is your first time
reading a Sumerian transliteration, you may want to read the explanatory
comments at the beginning of the Transliteration for Tablet #36.
# = damaged but readable sign x = damaged unreadable sign [...] = missing
signs
! = miswritten sign {...} = prefix or suffix (ES) = Emesal
dialect PN = personal name
Obverse:
o1 […] mahX lugud2
great tight/reduced
MahX (AL/mah2) is the trick sign on
Tablet #36, the story of The Great Fatted Bull. It is used to obscure the
“king” context of the story, as explained in line o3 of the Transliteration. It is also used repeatedly on BE 31 28, The Princess Wife.
This line occurs on both Tablet #36 and BE
31,28 (BE 28 for short). It happens after the wives have given away all of the
grain that belongs to Lu-mah and Mulu, and they both know “a great hunger,” i.e., their stomachs know a great tightness/reduction.
On Tablet #36, the corresponding line is r14: ta (ES, a-na, interrogative) dili šag4 zu maḫX-lugud2, “’What? Only one?’ His
stomach knows a great hunger.”
On
BE 28, the corresponding line is o13:
ta-a-aš šag4 ba/zu? maḫX lugud2,
“’Why? For what reason?’ His stomach knows a great hunger.”
o2 […] še
pisan#? sa-sa gar gemeX #? tah tah [...]
grain basket jewelry heap slave woman adds
GemeX is a "trick sign" for geme2, meaning a "female servant or slave." Geme2 is usually written with three reverse cunei, but gemeX is written with only two, so that it looks like gu, "cord." This was meant to help disguise the meaning of the text, as explained in Sumerian Trick Signs.
In this sentence, the wife has given Mulu's grain and his jewelry to the slave women.
o3 […] ma mu du lum ma mu ukur3# x
go he walk manure country he pauper x
On
BE 28 line o15, the sentence reads, mu-lu
lu2 du a ak i bar mu du lum ma mu ukur3 dim2, “Mulu person go to act defeat
outside he walk manure he pauper made,” which translates as “Mulu goes away
acting like a man defeated. Outside, he walks in the manure of the country. He
has become a pauper.”
Ukur3, "pauper," is composed of the signs lal2 and du. Here, du is crowded under the overhang of lal2 (see below right) as if the scribe forgot to write it and then had to add it later after the sentence had been written. Or perhaps he was concerned about running out of space on this crowded line. I never would have been able to figure out the sign if I hadn't already read ukur3 on BE 28. For comparison purposes, du is also written in this sentence (third sign from the left). The sign ukur3 is also written this way on another tablet, probably to save space (see a Sumerian proverb; ukur3 is the first sign).
o4 […] nu-zid na
no-virtue man
On BE 28 line o16, the sentence reads,
nu-nus-a lu nu-kal-la nu-nus nu-zid na, “woman-in abundance not-powerful
no-woman no-virtue man.” In English it is, “While the women live in abundance,
he is a man without power, without women, and without virtue.”
o5 […] ab# ba an-še šu dal/dirig?
On BE 28 line o17, this portion of the line reads ab-ba ba-an-tu (with two
ba(s)). Ab-ba means “father,” so Mulu’s father is named ba-an-tu (Bantu). Here,
it is written with just one ba, so the ba could apply either to ab-ba (father), or to the father’s name, ba-an-še (Banše, or perhaps Banšešu)
because ab by itself also means “father.” Either way, notice that the father’s
name contains a pun for donkey (an-še = anše).
SEM 114, reverse
r1 […,x] ne za pisan […]
this, bead(s) basket
Here
and in the next two lines is where Mulu’s father shows him the beads that he
can exchange for baskets of food.
r2 …
sa10-aĝ2-(ES,
niĝ2)-ne pisan # …
purchase thing-this basket
r3 […] pisan pisan [x x ...]
basket basket
r4 […] zu umuš ? uĝ3 egir? za e aĝ2
[x ...]
This
line on BE 28 (r1) is where the princess tells Mulu that she’s wise to his plan
to [x,x]. Unfortunately, that line, like this one, is also damaged, so it is
difficult to discern its meaning.
r5 x ba zu! za!-an (am3) ta lal
? ? know that character lack
On BE 28 (line r2) the servant girl has
informed the wife of Mulu’s lack of character.
There am3 is written correctly. Here
am3 (a-an) is miswritten as za-an.
r6 še
1{diš} sila3 am3 ad#? [pad3 ne] en na ba
grain 1 unit that bead [purchase price reveals] lord stone gave
On r3 of BE 28, the beginning of this line is
written correctly as 1{diš}-ta še-am3, “one-each sale-price.” Here the signs
are written out of order and ta is miswritten or incorrectly transcribed in the
line-drawing. The [pad3 ne] is from BE 28 r3. These two lines together clearly translate
as, “The selling price for each bead also reveals that the lord gave you these
stones {beads}.”
r7 bi aĝ2-(ES,
niĝ2) sa10- aĝ2-(ES, niĝ2) # #
šah2?-ne
these things purchase # #
pig?-this
This is where the wife makes a counter offer to Mulu. The damaged sign (second from the right) is probably a compressed version of šah2 (pig). This leads me to believe that on BE 28 the princess wife is offering Mulu a half basket of pig slop in exchange for the beads.
r8 [na]-la-ba-ni-ur la2-la2-{e} en
[man]-not-his-servant throttle lord
Versions of this line occur on Tablet #36 (r8) and
BE 28 (o8).
In the stories of The Great Fatted Bull and The Princess Wife, the attack happens under the cover of darkness, so the identity of the assailant remains a mystery. In the story here, the attack happens in broad daylight, after the negotiations have been concluded.
r9 u3 za-e ki#?-aĝ2 lu2 kalag [...]
but you [I] love man strong
Munus-ĝal2, woman-available occurs in line r15 of
Tablet #36. I translated it as “unmarried woman" because
she seems to offer Lu-mah many fields of grain as a kind of marriage dowry.
