DUMUZI IS PRESENTED TO INANNA

 

Ninshubur: "May the lord, the choice of your heart,
may the king, your beloved bridegroom, pass long days in your sweet thing, the pure loins!
Grant him a pleasant reign to come!
Grant him a royal throne, firm in its foundations;
grant him a sceptre righting (wrongs in) the land, all shepherds' crooks;
grant him the good crown, the turban that makes a head distinguished.

From sunrise to sunset
from south to north
from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea,
from (where grows) the huluppu-tree, from (where grows) the cedar-tree,
and in Sumer and Akkad, grant him all shepherds' crooks,
and may he perform the shepherdship over their dark-headed people.

May he like a farmer till the fields,
may he like a good shepherd make the folds teem,
may there be vines under him, may there be barley under him,
may there be carp-floods in the river under him,
may there be mottled barley in the fields under him,
may fishes and birds sound off in the marshes under him.

May old and new reeds grow in the canebrake under him,
may shrubs grow in the high desert under him,
may deer multiply in the forests under him,
may (well) watered gardens bear honey and wine under him,
may lettuce and cress grow in the vegetable plots under him,
may there be long life in the palace under him.

May the high flood rise (?) in the Tigris and Euphrates under him,
may grass grow on their banks, may vegetables fill the commons,
may the holy lady (of the grains), Nidaba, gather grainpiles there!
O milady, queen of heaven and earth, queen of all heaven and earth,
may he live long in your embrace!"

 

The Treasures of Darkness, Thorkild Jacobsen

 

 

Babylonia Index