A hymn to Kusu: translation

^1-8O angry great butting bull! O torch! O great bull of Enki, standing aggressively, coming forth from the abzu, the pure place! O Gibil the god of fire, ...... the palace ......, as he radiates great awesomeness, his countenance ......! O Nun-bar-ana, angry avenger (?) ......, bringing forth the great torch from the abzu, lifting his head with the noble divine powers!

^9-19O antler-like horn of a mountain goat! Cedar, cypress, juniper and boxwood, white wool and black wool, white birch and black birch, a string of apples tied to a long string of figs, butter flowing from the holy cattle-pen and sheepfold ...... in the oven and purified by the torch, ...... reeds are tied up and lit .......
2 lines fragmentary

^20-26In their ...... Kusu has consecrated the ......, she has purified the oven. ......, she has filled the ...... purified ....... Kusu has then put numerous bulls and numerous sheep into the great oven. Kusu has then put numerous bulls and numerous loaves into the great oven.

^27-33Destiny, prosperity -- the wood of destiny, wood of prosperity, and the reeds of destiny, reeds of prosperity, adorn the holy cattle-pen. Through the wool from a fair lamb and the wool from a fair kid, Gibil, the foremost, the right arm, lifting his head to heaven receives water from the holy teats of heaven.

^34-39This water consecrates the heavens, it purifies the earth. It purifies the cattle in their pen. It purifies the sheep in their fold. It purifies Utu at the horizon. It purifies Nanna at the zenith of heaven. Thus may it cleanse, may it cleanse the ...... of the house.

^40-41From Eridug (?) praise to lady Kusu, the princess of the holy abzu, .......

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Revision history

05.ix.2000-06.ix.2000 : GC : adapting translation
7.x.2000 : JAB : proofreading
14.xi.2000 : GZ : SGML tagging
25.xi.2000 : ER : proofreading SGML
25.xi.2000 : ER : converting to HTML 4.0
7.ix.2001 : ER : header and footer reformatted; substantive content of file not changed