1-8 God, foundation platform of heaven and earth, who holds the crook that makes the Land firm, whose beard flows over the mountains, who reveres His own blessings -- God, the everlasting shepherd of the Land, has addressed me, Culgi, king of Urim, favourably, looking at me with wide-open eyes. In the overflowing of His heart, the Lord bestowed the sceptre on me.

9-13 Everywhere the word of God has brought benefits to me, who was specially crowned in brick-built Eridug; to me, who was invested with the lapis-lazuli diadem in Unug; to me, the beloved shepherd, fit for the throne. When I bring firewood (?), He looks at me and speaks gladly to me.

14-19 I, Culgi, the king whose name is very suitable for songs, intend to be praised in my prayers and hymns. At the command of my sister, my scholars and composers of ...... have composed adab, tigi and malgatum hymns about how wise I am in attending upon the needs of the temples, about how God has given me favourable signs that years of abundance will elapse for me in due course.

23-30 They have composed cir-gida songs, royal praise poetry, sumundu, kunjar and balbale compositions about how I carried warfare across the sea to the south, how I jerked up the hostile land of Elam as if it were grass by a gateway, how in the uplands I ...... the people like grain, how I trekked the length of the mountains in battle, how I travel about indefatigably in the mountain uplands like an old donkey on the road, and about my expeditions .......

31-38 They composed for me gigid and zamzam songs about my manual skill, ever reliable for the finest task of the scribal art; about my ability to unravel the calculating and reckoning of the waxing of the new moon; about my causing joy and happiness; about how I know exactly at what point to raise and lower the tigi and zamzam instruments, and how I have complete control of the plectra of the great stringed instruments; how I cannot be stopped by anything insurmountable, about my being a runner tireless when emerging from the race.

39-46 In the name of God, the pre-eminent King, who never changes His utterances, whose curse means that the brickwork of cities cursed by Him shall rise no more, and the people cursed by Him will get leprosy: I swear no one has ever put anything mendacious about me in my hymns; no one has embellished my prayers with achievements that I have not matched; I, Culgi, have never allowed exaggerated praise of power to be put in a song.

47-52 How I glisten like fine silver, how I am musical and eloquent in wisdom; how I, the shepherd, do everything to absolute perfection: may all this be commended in my kingship. Of all the lines that there are in my songs, none of them is false -- they are indeed true!

53-62 In the places of worship, let no one neglect the songs about me, whether they are adab, whether they are tigi or malgatum, cir-gida or praises of kingship, whether they are cumundu, kunjar or balbale, whether they are gi-gid or zamzam -- so that they shall never pass out of memory and never lapse from people's mouths. Let them never cease to be sung in the shining E-kur! When at the ecec festival they serve the clear beer endlessly like water, may they be offered repeatedly in thanks to God.

63-73 In future days, a man like myself whom God shall call to the shepherdship of the Land ...... my songs; let him see ....... Let him call upon my name in the beloved ....... ...... that man, whenever my hymns

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...... my singer (?) ....... May he establish my name in the beloved ...... temple. Whether he is a man ......, may ...... come forth from the house which ...... justice and a favourable destiny.

74-91 But if ...... removes my name from my hymns, and fails to ...... his name, and does not call upon my name in brick-built E-kur, and if that man commits enmity and violence against the temple, then whether that man is a king or a governor, God shall curse him ....... May enmity and violence come forth against him. Let him be given enmity as his companion. May a demon, as causer of the plague, deprive his city of contentment. Because of famine in years of hunger, may he find no favour in the eyes of the Land. May the earth produce no grain in sheaves. ...... the troops ....... His chief merchant ...... silver ....... May the hunger and the thirst ...... the city during his reign ...... grain.

92-110 ...... riches, or bronze and silver vessels. May the creatures of his Land reach out for what is left over and not distributed. Famine ....... May he have to pay two shekels in his city for one sila of barley. May the people wield the hoe ....... Let that man be unable to touch the drinks and foods of his palace. May ...... the great sin ....... God shall seize those who look upon the balaj and the sim, and who touch or look at ...... bread. Their lives ...... death .......

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...... gold ....... May a scoundrel be judge over the population of the city, and be his superior.

111-151 The man who ...... my hymns

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May he ...... outside the city. May he no longer ...... within the walls of the city. May the criminal offspring of his kingship not ....... May he not stand where the king stands, the shining place. May he ...... from the Ubcu-unkena. ...... his heart's desire and ambitions.

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When he brings offerings to the E-kur, may God ....... His special presents and benefits ......

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152-154 I, Culgi the noble, who have no opponent ......

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155-173 I am Culgi, the great musician, superintendent of the art of music. If ...... favourable ....... My songs, lapsing from people's mouths and passing out of memory, neglected (?) in all the places of worship ....... ...... his king ......, in the music-rooms ......

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King of the singer's art ......

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174-190 On the day when the destiny of the lands was determined, the king who in his arrogance ......, in luxuriance ......, ...... for the life of Sumer and Akkad, ...... justice for the Land, canals which he did not maintain ......, a city which he did not enlarge ....... The Great Mountain ...... at their side ...... great places. He ...... to God, and did not offer great gifts in the E-kur, and did not ...... the door-sockets of the temples. ...... songs. What he achieves with his praises, what he creatively decorates with his words, the singer ...... in his songs.

191-201 I, Culgi the king ......, who cares for ...... food offerings, who constantly attends upon God ......, the office of en; God has given me good luck and a battle-mace from the E-cumeca. Not since the seed of mankind was germinated, has God ever before been able to give the sceptre of kingship to a king who could control the troops single-handed. As a lone donkey stallion, one who resists the weapons -- no king of the Land has ever turned against the weapons.

202-212 I did not lie in ambush, like a fierce young lion, against the rebel and hostile lands, the aggressive foreign lands, in order to establish my renown as far as the horizon with the power of my Master, and to transmit my lasting fame of victories to the distant future. I did not come out of a hole like a scorpion. Instead I left my main forces at my side, and went ahead of my scouts. As I repelled the tribal Gutians, the bandits of the hills, like a ...... snake I made my fearsomeness reach afar.

213-219 No one can get near my inspired troops. Running quite alone into the foreign lands unknown to him, like a lion that has seized a wild cow in its ...... claws, I tear its flesh apart. Like a solitary dragon I spread fear, as I proceed unflaggingly against the civilised towns and make them quiver like flames (?) at my frightful roaring. Spine-chilling yells and raging flames are cast at the hills.

220-239 For the rebel lands, the illiterate (?) ones that carry no emblems, my warfare is a horizon on which there are clouds, enveloping the twilight in fear. The mountains, where the forests do not grow as thick as thornbushes, where in the battle throwstick and shield do not tumble to the earth in a great storm, where the combatants take no rest in the insistent bitterness of the fierce battle, where life-fluid and blood from both scoundrel and honest person ......, where no black ewes trek over the mountains like floating clouds, and corpses in reed-beds and crannies ......

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The desert scorpion shall no longer behave thus ....... Neither shortly nor in the future shall he rise again. A villain and rebel ...... to the weapons of strength. A path that is confused, a way that is cut off like a ....... I bent low the land of the Gutians like a mubum tree, and the land turned its heart in its fear before me, as I put my foot on its neck. I am he who all alone plunders cities with his own strength. I am the strong one who is praised for his weapons. I am he whose lasting name and prayerful words are as tremendous as ....... I am the just and the benefactor in the Land.

240-257 May my hymns be in everyone's mouth; let the songs about me not pass from memory. So that the fame of my praises, the words which have been composed about me, and which are joyously spoken from the heart and broadcast far and wide, shall never be forgotten, I have had them written down line by line in the House of Wisdom in holy heavenly writing, as great works of scholarship. No one shall ever let any of it pass from memory ....... It shall not be forgotten, since indestructible heavenly writing has a lasting renown. The scribe should bring it to the singer, and can let him look at it, and with wisdom and intelligence let him read it to him as if from a lapis-lazuli tablet. Let my songs sparkle like silver in the lode! Let them be performed in all the places of worship. May the sweet praise of me, Culgi, be never-ending.