The Lament for Sumer and Urim

101.

To overturn the appointed times,

to obliterate the divine plans,

the storms gather to strike like a flood.

102.

to overturn the divine powers of Sumer,

to lock up the favorable reign in its home,

103.

to destroy the city,

to destroy the house,

104.

to destroy the cattle-pen,

to level the sheepfold;

105.

that the cattle should not stand in the pen,

that the sheep should not multiply in the fold,

106.

that watercourses should carry brackish water,

that weeds should grow in the fertile fields,

that mourning plants should grow in the open country,

107.

that the mother should not seek out her child,

that the father should not say "O my dear wife!",

108.

that the junior wife should take no joy in his embrace,

that the young child should not grow vigorous on his knee,

109.

that the wet-nurse should not sing lullabies;

that on the two banks of the Tigris and of the Euphrates bad weeds should grow,

110.

that no one should set out on the road,

that no one should seek out the highway,

111.

that the city and its settled surroundings should be razed to ruin-mounds;

that its numerous black-headed people should be slaughtered;

112.

that the hoe should not attack the fertile fields,

that seed should not be planted in the ground,

113.

that the melody of the cowherds' songs should not resound in the open country,

that butter and cheese should not be made in the cattle-pen,

114.

that dung should not be stacked on the ground,

that the shepherd should not enclose the sacred sheepfold with a fence,

115.

that the song of the churning should not resound in the sheepfold;

to decimate the animals of the open country,

116.

to finish off all living things,

that the four-legged creatures of Cakkan should lay no more dung on the ground,

117.

that the marshes should be so dry as to be full of cracks and have no new seed,

that sickly-headed reeds should grow in the reed-beds,

118.

that they should be covered by a stinking morass,

that there should be no new growth in the orchards,

119.

that it should all collapse by itself,

so as to quickly subdue Urim like a roped ox,

to bow its neck to the ground:

120.

the great charging wild bull,

confident in its own strength,

the primeval city of lordship and kingship,

built on sacred ground.

Praises of the Beneficient Kings CHAPTER SEVEN

Divisions 121-140

121.

The people, in their fear, breathed only with difficulty.

The storm immobilized them,

the storm did not let them return.

122.

There was no return for them,

The extensive countryside was destroyed.

No one moved about there.

123.

The dark time was roasted by hailstones and flames.

The bright time was wiped out by a shadow.

124.

On that bloody day,

mouths were crushed, [and] heads were crashed.

The storm was a harrow coming from above,

[and] the city was struck by a hoe.

125.

Large trees were uprooted, the forest growth was ripped out.

The orchards were stripped of their fruit,

they were cleaned of their offshoots.

126.

The crop drowned while it was still on the stalk,

[and] the yield of the grain diminished.

There were corpses floating in the Euphrates,

[and] brigands roamed the roads.

127.

The father turned away from his wife without saying "O my wife!"

The mother turned away from her child without saying "O my child!"

128.

He who had a productive estate neglected his estate without saying "O my estate!"

The rich man took an unfamiliar path away from his possessions.

129.

In those days the kingship of the Land was defiled.

The tiara and crown that had been on the king's head were both spoiled.

The lands that had followed the same path were split into disunity.

130.

As the day grew dark, the eye of the sun was eclipsing,

the people experienced hunger.

There was no beer in the beer-hall,

there was no more malt for it.

131.

There was no food for [the king]in his palace,

it was unsuitable to live in.

Grain did not fill his lofty storehouse,

he could not save his life.

132.

The grain-piles and granaries of Nanna held no grain.

Wine and syrup ceased to flow in the great dining hall.

133.

The butcher's knife that used to slay oxen and sheep lay hungry in the grass.

It's [the knife's] mighty oven no longer cooked oxen and sheep,

it [the oven] no longer emitted the aroma of roasting meat.

134.

The mortar, [the] pestle, and [the] grinding stone lay idle;

no one bent down over them.

135.

The shining [docks]of Nanna was silted up.

the sound of water against the boat's prow ceased,

136.

there was no rejoicing.

The rushes grew, the rushes grew,

the mourning reeds grew.

137.

Boats and barges ceased docking at the shining [docks].

Nothing moved on your watercourse which was fit for barges.

138.

Its watercourse was empty,

[and] barges could not travel.

There were no paths on either of its banks,

[and] long grass grew there.

139.

The reed huts were overrun, [and] their walls were breached.

The cows and their young were captured

and carried off to enemy territory.

140.

The munzer-fed cows took an unfamiliar path in an open country that they did not know.

Praises of the Beneficient Kings CHAPTER EIGHT

Divisions 141-160

141.

Gayau, who loves cows, dropped his weapon in the dung.

Cunid-ug, who stores butter and cheese,

did not store butter and cheese.

142.

Those who are unfamiliar with butter were churning the butter.

Those who are unfamiliar with milk were curdling the milk.

The sound of the churning vat did not resound in the cattle-pen.

143.

The trees of Urim were sick, its reeds were sick.

Laments sounded all along its city wall.

Daily there was slaughter before it.

144.

Large axes were sharpened in front of Urim.

The spears, the arms of battle, were prepared.

145.

The large bows, javelin and shield gathered together to strike.

The barbed arrows covered its outer side like a raining cloud.

Large stones, one after another, fell with great thuds.

146.

Urim, confident in its own strength,

stood ready for the murderers.

Its people, oppressed by the enemy,

could not withstand their weapons.

147.

In the city, those who had not been felled by weapons succumbed to hunger.

Hunger filled the city like water, it would not cease.

148.

This hunger contorted people's faces, twisted their muscles.

Its people were as if drowning in a pond,

they gasped for breath.

149.

Its king breathed heavily in his palace, all alone.

Its people dropped their weapons,

their weapons hit the ground.

150.

They struck their necks with their hands and cried.

They sought counsel with each other,

they searched for clarification:

151.

"Alas, what can we say about it?

What more can we add to it?

How long until we are finished off by this catastrophe?

152.

Inside Urim there is death, outside it there is death.

Inside it we are to be finished off by famine.

153.

Outside it we are to be finished off by Elamite weapons.

In Urim the enemy oppresses us, oh, we are finished."

154.

The people took refuge behind the city walls.

They were united in fear.

155.

The palace that was destroyed by onrushing water was defiled,

its doorbolts were torn out.

Elam, like a swelling flood wave, left only the ghosts.

156.

In Urim people were smashed as if they were clay pots.

Its refugees were unable to flee,

they were trapped inside the walls.

Like fish living in a pond, they tried to escape.

157.

Its mighty cows with shining horns were captured,

[and] their horns were cut off.

Its unblemished oxen and grass-fed sheep were slaughtered.

158.

The palm-trees, strong as mighty copper, the heroic strength,

were torn out like rushes, were plucked like rushes,

their trunks were turned sideways.

Their tops lay in the dust, there was no one to raise them.

159.

The midriffs of their palm fronds were cut off and their tops were burnt off.

Their date spadices that used to fall on the well were torn out.

160.

The great tribute that they had collected was hauled off to the mountains.

Praises of the Beneficient Kings CHAPTER NINE

Divisions 161-180

Lug-albanda in the Mountain Cave

161.

When in ancient days Heaven was separated from [the] Earth,

when in ancient days that which was fitting [was done],

when after the ancient harvests barley was eaten,

162.

when boundaries were laid out and borders were fixed,

when boundary-stones were placed and inscribed with names,

when dykes and watercourses were purified,

when wells were dug straight down;

163.

when the bed of the Euphrates, the plenteous river of Unug, was opened up,

when [now] at that time the king [now] set his mace towards the city,

Enmerkar, the son of Utu [the sun god,] prepared an expedition against Aratta, the [brown bull ]

164.

At that time there were seven, there were seven,

the young ones, born in Kulaba, were seven.

They were heroes, living in Sumer.

They were princely in their prime.

165.

Lugalbanda, the eighth of them, was washed in water.

In awed silence he went forward,

he marched with the troops.

166.

When they had covered half the way, covered half the way,

a sickness befell him there, 'head sickness' befell him.

He jerked like a snake dragged by its head with a reed;

his mouth bit the dust like a gazelle caught in a snare.

167.

No longer could his hands return the hand grip,

no longer could he lift his feet high.

Neither king nor contingents could help him.

168.

In the great mountains, crowded together like a dustcloud over the ground, they said:

"Let them bring him to Un-ug".

But they did not know how they could bring him.

169.

"Let them bring him to Kulaba."

But they did not know how they could bring him.

As his teeth chattered in the cold places of the mountains,

they brought him to a warm place there.

170.

A storehouse they made him,

an arbour like a bird's nest.

[with] dates, figs and various sorts of cheese;

they put sweetmeats suitable for the sick to eat, in baskets of dates,

and they made him a home.

171.

They set out for him the various fats of the cowpen,

the sheepfold's fresh cheese, oil with cold eggs, cold hard-boiled eggs,

as if laying a table for the holy place, the valued place.

172.

Directly in front of the table they arranged for him beer for drinking,

mixed with date syrup and rolls with butter.

173.

Provisions [were] poured into leather buckets,

provisions [they] all put into leather bags, his brothers and friends,

like a boat unloading from the harvest-place,

[they] placed stores by his head in the mountain cave.

174.

They [poured] water in their leather waterskins.

Dark beer, alcoholic drink,

light emmer beer,

wine for drinking which is pleasant to the taste,

they distributed by his head in the mountain cave as on a stand for waterskins.

175.

They prepared for him incense resin, aromatic resin,

ligidba resin and first-class resin on pot-stands in the deep hole;

they suspended them by his head in the mountain cave.

176.

They pushed into place at his head his axe whose metal was tin,

imported from the Zubi mountains.

They wrapped up by his chest his dagger of iron imported from the Gig (Black) mountains.

177.

His eyes [were] irrigation ditches,

because they [were] flooding with water,

holy Lugalbanda kept [them] open, directed towards this.

The outer door of his lips, overflowing like [the sunlight of] holy Utu,

he did not open to his brothers.

178.

When they lifted his neck, there was no breath there any longer.

His brothers, his friends took counsel with one another:

179.

Like the dispersed holy cows of Nanna,

as with a breeding bull when, in his old age, they have left him behind in the cattle pen,

his brothers and friends abandoned holy Lugalbanda in the mountain cave;

180.

and with repeated tears and moaning, with tears, with lamentation, with grief and weeping,

Lugalbanda's older brothers set off into the mountains.

Praises of the Beneficient Kings CHAPTER TEN

Divisions 181-200

181.

Then two days passed during which Lugalbanda was ill;

to these two days, half a day was added.

As Utu the sun god turned his glance towards his home,

as the animals lifted their heads toward their lairs,

at the day's end in the evening cool,

his body was as if anointed with oil,

but he was not yet free of his sickness.

182.

A second time, at the following sunrise, as the bright bull rising up from the horizon,

the bull resting among the cypresses,

a shield standing on the ground, watched by the assembly,

a shield coming out from the treasury, watched by the young men,

the youth Utu extended his holy, shining rays down from heaven,

he bestowed them on holy Lugalbanda in the mountain cave.

183.

Holy Lugalbanda came out from the mountain cave.

He bit on the life-saving plants,

[and] he sipped from the life-saving water.

184.

After biting on the life-saving plants, [and] after sipping from the life-saving water,

here he on his own set a trap in the ground,

and from that spot he sped away like a horse of the mountains.

With the provisions stocked in leather pails, provisions put in leather bags,

his brothers and his friends had been able to bake bread on the ground, with some cold water.

185.

Holy Lugalbanda had carried the things from the mountain cave.

He set them beside the embers.

He filled a bucket with water.

In front of him he split what he had placed.

186.

He took hold of the stones [of flint].

Repeatedly he struck them together.

He laid the glowing coals on the open ground.

The fine flintstone caused a spark.

Its fire shone out for him over the waste land like the sun.

187.

Not knowing how to bake bread or a cake,

not knowing an oven, with just seven coals he baked giziecta dough.

While the bread was baking by itself,

he pulled up culhi reeds of the mountains, roots and all, and stripped their branches.

He packed up all the cakes as a day's ration.

188.

A brown wild bull, a fine-looking wild bull,

a wild bull tossing its horns,

a wild bull in hunger,

resting, seeking with its voice the brown wild bulls of the hills, the pure place.

In this way it was chewing aromatic cimgig as if it were barley,

189.

it was grinding up the wood of the cypress as if it were esparto grass,

it was sniffing with its nose at the foliage of the cenu shrub as if it were grass.

It was drinking the water of the rolling rivers,

it was belching from ilinnuc, the pure plant of the mountains.

190.

While the brown wild bulls, the wild bulls of the mountains,

were browsing about among the plants,

Lugalbanda captured this one in his ambush.

He was alone, and even to his sharp eyes,

there was not a single person to be seen.

191.

Sleep overcame the king Lugalbanda

sleep, the country of oppression;

it is like a towering flood,

like a hand demolishing a brick wall,

a hand raised high,

a foot raised high;

192.

covering like syrup that which is in front of it,

overflowing like syrup onto that which is in front of it;

it knows no overseer,

knows no captain,

yet it is overpowering for the hero.

193.

And by means of Ninkasi's wooden cask of beer, sleep finally overcame Lugalbanda.

He laid down ilinnuc, pure herb of the mountains, as a couch,

he spread out a zulumhi garment, he unfolded there a white linen sheet.

There being no room for bathing, he made do with that place.

194.

The king lay down not to sleep,

he lay down to dream,

not turning back at the door of the dream,

not turning back at the door-pivot.

195.

To the liar it talks in lies,

to the truthful it speaks truth.

It can make one man happy, [and] it can make another man sing,

but it is the closed tablet-basket of the gods.

196.

"Who will slaughter a brown wild bull for me?

Who will make its fat melt for me?

He shall take my axe whose metal is tin,

he shall wield my dagger which is of iron.

197.

Like an athlete I shall let him bring away the brown wild bull, the wild bull of the mountains.

I shall let him like a wrestler make it submit.

Its strength will leave it."

198.

Lugalbanda awoke. It was a dream.

He shivered. It was sleep.

He rubbed his eyes. He was over-awed.

199.

He took his axe whose metal was tin,

he wielded his dagger which was of iron.

Like an athlete he brought away the brown wild bull,

200.

the wild bull of the mountains, like a wrestler he made it submit.

Its strength left it.

He offered it before the rising sun.

Translated by .________

The Law Codes of Ancient Ur