In Music
Balaĝ lament to Ningirsu (K 4427)
Neo-Assyrian copy of a Sumerian balaĝ lament that names the ub and lilis drums.
View at electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), LMU Munich · CDLI P395543 · Try the in-browser translator
| Designation | K.4427 |
|---|---|
| Museum no. | K.4427 |
| Collection | Kuyunjik |
| Language | Akkadian; Sumerian |
| Period | Neo-Assyrian |
| Genre | CANONICAL > Literature > Lamentations > Balaĝ |
| Provenience | Nineveh |
| Findspot | 36.3582, 43.1621 |
| CDLI no. | P395543 |
| Source | electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), LMU Munich — MIT (eBL Zenodo dataset); platform terms unverified |
| Lines | 33 (33 with machine English) |
Machine draft. English generated by model atf-en-best-v2 (montycrypto/atf-to-english) (version d871547f92875415dbbc7f4a37fd65e35f8ac97d) on 2026-10-05, line by line from the ATF. Not a scholarly translation.
The transliteration is not reproduced here because the source (electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), LMU Munich) is not marked as republishable; read it at the source link above.
| Line | English (machine draft) |
|---|---|
| 1 | he does not take away from the river |
| 2 | from the sea to its place he sank. |
| 3 | Who has taken away your oil? |
| 4 | Who will devastate your good fortune? |
| 5 | warriors and warriors, whose lives are many, |
| 6 | equids that do not pass by birds |
| 7 | I am a hero, I am a warrior, I am a warrior, I am a iua warrior |
| 8 | I am a hero, I am the one who heaps up the barley in the pond. |
| 9 | The watercourses of the Euphrates, the great watercourses of the gods, |
| 10 | I am a hero, a barge on the river bank |
| 11 | In the temple, the balag drum of weeping, the storm came out. |
| 12 | You enter the temple of the god in a dream. For a day... |
| 13 | ..... he speaks... |
| 14 | he built for him in the great shrines. |
| 15 | All are well; they are happy. |
| 16 | The great shrine, the song of lordship, was erected for him |
| 17 | The one who sees my lordship, |
| 18 | The great shrines which he built for him in the balag drums |
| 19 | You are the one who sees life. |
| 20 | he (Ningirsu) has made the holy ub and holy lilis holy for him |
| 21 | The pure..., in the lissu, the pure..., |
| 22 | he made the holy balag drum sing. |
| 23 | 'Let me live and live!' |
| 24 | Your heart rejoices, your liver rejoices, you rejoice. |
| 25 | the mountain, the hero, youth Utu |
| 26 | the great hero and wild bull of the Ebabbar temple |
| 27 | lord of the supreme city and great mountain of Enlil |
| 28 | princess of the city and great mother of Ninlil |
| 29 | Mars, watered by the 50th year, Mercury |
| 30 | the temple of Lamatu, the temple of the earth |
| 31 | ... his heart |
| 32 | May the brickwork of the Ebabbar be restored. |
| 33 | It is the place of relaxation, the harp song of Utu |