8/22/2021 Amar-Suena and Enki's Temple (Amar-Suena A): translation

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Amar-Suena and Enki's Temple (Amar-Suena A):

translation
SEGMENT A

(The sequence of Segment A (UET 8 33 + U 5307) and Segments B-E (UET 8

32, UET 6/3 487) is far from
certain; they may well belong to separate
compositions. However, C follows B and E follows D.)

1-8...... protective
deity ....... Amar-Suena ......
his heart. He who ...... the temple with an axe ....... Amar-Suena
...... the abzu shrine.
...... built with gold, and decorated with lapis lazuli. He applied himself to
building the
temple; king Amar-Suena applied himself to building the temple. The people
turned against the king, and the
foreign countries .......
9-25In the first year
the temple remained in ruins, and he did not restore it. Amar-Suena ...... the divine
powers of
kingship. In the second year it remained in ruins, and he did not restore it.
Amar-Suena ...... his
royal
garments for mourning clothes. In the third year it remained in ruins, and he
did not restore it. Amar-
Suena
could not interpret (?) the temple's ominous sign among (?) the birch trees. In
the fourth year it
remained in ruins, and he did not restore it. Although he
had been advised (?) by a sage, he could not realise
the plans of the temple.
In the fifth year it remained in ruins, and he did not restore it. The
abzu shrine has
been ...... by force. In the sixth year it remained in
ruins, and he did not restore it. He was searching for the
divine plan of the
temple, but could not find it. In the seventh year it remained in ruins, and he
did not restore
it. Enki spoke to him about the temple,
the temple that did not exist. In the eighth year, he applied himself to
building the temple. By the ninth year, king Amar-Suena built the E-uduna of the wise
lord (?) like .......
26-32Then the lord,
the great lord Enki, destroyed (?) the site of his own
temple.

2 lines fragmentary

Father Enki ...... Eridug

....... ...... his minister ......

1 line fragmentary

unknown no. of lines missing

SEGMENT B

(= UET 8 32 obverse)
1-41line
fragmentary

The guardian (?) of the spacious land ....... As Enki

lifted his gaze ....... Having left the temple ...... in the
abzu.
5-9At that time
mankind was not ....... Far-reaching wisdom, wise words were not .......

1 line unclear

To grieve and to do evil was good (?). Amar-Suena ...... to build the temple of Enlil.

unknown no. of lines missing

SEGMENT C
(= UET 8 32 reverse)

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8/22/2021 Amar-Suena and Enki's Temple (Amar-Suena A): translation

1-6Lord ....... When

he performed extispicy regarding the building of Enki's
temple, the omen did not
mention anything about the building of the temple, so
he did not start it. To establish a lasting fame for
himself, the king ......;
to establish a lasting fame for himself, Amar-Suena ....... ...... the temple of Enki .......

unknown no. of lines missing

SEGMENT D
(= UET 6/3 487 obverse; this fragment might belong to the same tablet as
UET 8 32, in which case it would
preserve the beginning and the end of the
tablet)
1-2Lord, wise prince
......

1 line fragmentary

unknown no. of lines missing

SEGMENT E

(= UET 6/3 487 reverse)

1-2He who .......
King Amar-Suena has not been
assigned a fate from (?) it.

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Revision history
18.v.2000 : GZ : adapting translation

28.ix.2000 : JAB : proofreading

03.x.2000 : GC : tagging

26.x.2000 : ER : proofreading SGML

26.x.2000 : ER : converting to HTML 4.0

7.ix.2001 : ER : header and footer reformatted; substantive content of file not

changed

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