Letter to Shulgi about bandits and brigands: translation

unknown no. of lines missing

^1-7 The men (?) started irrigation work (?) on the watercourses, ...... the watercourses ...... (1 ms. has instead: and dug and cleaned them out thoroughly). These bandits and brigands applied their hoes to levelling the desert completely. As for their men and their women (1 ms. adds: ...... the road (?) ......): the man among them goes wherever he pleases, the woman among them (1 ms. has instead: the woman), holding a spindle and hair clasp in her hand, goes (?) (1 ms. has instead: ......) (1 other ms. has instead: going) the way of her choice. In the vastness of the desert they set up (1 ms. has instead: they knock up) animal pens, and after setting up their tents and camps (1 ms. has instead: they lie in (?) green meadows in their (?) tents and camps), their workers and agricultural labourers spend the day together on the fields.

^8-14I have not neglected the instructions of my lord Culgi: both at night and in the noonday heat I ...... my neck; I ...... the workload (?) concerned. Since his childhood, Apillaca has ...... (1 ms. has instead: has not ......). A man such as he knows my heart, as your eyes know (1 ms. has instead: have seen). My lord, with the open eye of a god, ...... to (?) an evildoer ...... (1 ms. has instead: you (?) know the evildoer). While the great master of cults (?) of all the foreign lands surpasses ......, my lord, you (?) surpass all great things, ...... an equal.

^15-20The report is returned (?) ......; (1 ms. has instead: Whatever statements have been made ......,) your matter is an important matter, and your affairs are great affairs. His pleasant words are in your heart, ....... They (?) are the people. Your eyes ....... How could I bear a grudge? I am securing the foundations of the province, and making it obedient. My lord, no king can rival you; let your heart be glad!

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Revision history

01.v.2001-04.v.2001 : EFH : adapting translation
06.x.2001 : JAB : proofreading
11.x.2001 : GC : tagging
26.x.2001 : ER : proofreading SGML
26.x.2001 : ER : converting to HTML 4.0