This purports to be a song of the goddess Inana expressing her love for the youthful god Dumuzid, portrayed as a herdsman. The rustic details are sketched, as if she were visiting the cattle-pen and sheepfold: the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the cattle, and the pleasant noise made by the butter churn as it is rocked. However, a prayer for long life for Isme-Dagan, king of Isin, suggests that the social context of this pastoral idyll may in fact be the royal court, and places the song against the background of rituals in which the king was considered himself to be the spouse of the goddess Inana.
A slightly longer version of this composition exists in which Dumuzid himself, not ISme-Dagan, is the male protagonist (A balbale to Inana and Dumuzid, ETCSL 4.o8.a; see also Inana and Isme-Dagan, Group B).
Translation
1-8 Lady, going to the sweet-voiced cows and gentle-voiced calves in the cattle-pen, young woman, when you arrive there, Inana, may the churn sound! May the churn of your spouse sound, Inana, may the churn sound! May the churn of Dumuzid sound, Inana, may the churn sound!
9-14 The rocking of the churn will sing (?) for you, Inana, may it thus make you joyous! The good shepherd, the man of sweet songs, will loudly (?) sing songs for you; lady, with all the sweetest things, Inana, may he make your heart joyous!
15-20 Lady, when you enter the cattle-pen, Inana, the cattle-pen indeed will rejoice over you. Mistress, when you enter the sheepfold, Inana, the sheepfold indeed will rejoice over you. When you enter the feeding-pen, healthy ewes will spread out their wool for you.
21-4 May the holy sheepfold provide (?) you with butter abundantly, may the cattle-pen produce butter and cream for you! May abundance endure in the sheepfold, may the days of Isme-Dagan be numerous!
25-6 May my spouse, a ewe cherishing its lamb, be praised with sweet admiration!
World History
