YOS 11, 19a
CDLI P305834. First photo Klaus Wagensonner.
Transliteration
1 ez-ze-et ⌈bi?⌉-ša-at [ -a]t x x
2 mu-ut-ta-ad-ri-ra-at TUR?-r[i?]) ...
3 ú-ul a-sà-a-at ú-ra-ak-k[a-as abunntam?]
4 ú-ul ša-ab-sà-at ú-ka-ap-pa-ar š[e]-er-ra-am
5 wa-ra-aḫ e-ri-a-tim im-ta-na-an-nu
6 ba-ba-am ša wa-li-it-tim sa-an-DA-a[k] pa-ri-ka-at
7 ki-ib-sà-at būlim(MÁŠ.ANŠE) ir-te-né-di
8 i-na uz-zi-im ša li-li-im i-ḫi-a-ar ma-tam
9 i-ṣa-ab-ba-at eṭ-lam i-na šu-li-im
10 wardatam(KI.SIKIL) i-na me-lu-li-im
11 ṣé-eḫ-ra-am i-na bu-ud ta-ri-tim
12 i-mu-ra-ši-ma i-la-an ki-la-al-la-an
13 ú-še-ṣi-a-ši a-pa-ni
14 ú-ša-aḫ-li-pa-aš-ši ṣé-er-re-ni7(NIM)
15 ir-ku-sú-ni-iš-ši i-na gišbīni!([Š]I[NI]G) / [i-n]a! qá-ba-al ta!-a[m!-tim]
16 [...] A!-ra!-a[ḫ]-tim [... / ...] x ši [...
Lower edge
17 [KA].inim.ma dLam[štu](D[ÌM.ME.KAM] / (...) še!-er!-[ri-im]
Translation
1 She is fierce, she is evil(?), she is...
2 she is roaming around … ...
3 Although she is not a physician, she bandages [the umbilical cord(?)]
4 Although she is not a midwife, she wipes off the new-born,
5 She keeps counting the months of the pregnant women,
6 She is blocking regularly the gate of the woman who is giving birth.
7 She keeps accompanying the stride of the livestock.
8 She is examining the land in a demon's rage:
9 she takes hold of the young man in the street,
10 of the young woman in the dance,
11 of the little-one on the shoulder of the nurse.
12–13 When the two gods saw her they have threw her out of the window,
14 They made her slink through the door socket.
15 They have tied her to a Tamarisk(?) in the middle of the sea.
16 ... in the Araḫtum-canal...
17 Incantation (against) Lamaštu... babi[e(s)].
Commentary
1: Reading ⌈bi?⌉-ša-at (with Farber 2014, 260) is better than gap-ša-at (/gap/ is typical to MB rather than to OB) and ga-ša-at from gâšum (see VS 10, 214: ii1, Agušaya A).
2: Foster 2005, 174 reads: i!-l[a-at]?, and translates “she is un[canny]”, probably based on i-la-at in YOS 11, 20: 2.
3: ú-ra-ak-k[a-as abunnatam?]: provisional restitution.
3–6: For the hysteron-proteron, the inverse temporal order of events, from the moment when the baby is born back to the pregnancy and the birth itself, see Wasserman 2005b.
7: See Mayer, 2003, 236.
8: For this line see George 1987, 360.
11: For bu-ud ta-ri-tim in this line, cf. Wasserman 2003a: 88.
13–14: For the terminative adverbials apāni... ṣerrēni, “through the window... through the door socket”, see Mayer 1995, 184. Another such form, not listed by Mayer, is YOS 11, 8: 8: e-l[i] š[a]-ma-n[i?]. On this see Wasserman 2003, 116, n. 105).
Michael P. Streck and Nathan Wasserman, Sources of Early Akkadian Literature (SEAL), seal.huji.ac.il. No commercial use is allowed. Published under CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives). Reproduced unmodified. Cite as SEAL no. 7134; view on seal.huji.ac.il.