Never translated in any language before this page. A Vigslist translation.
“You know” — a royal hymn litany. An Old Babylonian royal hymn from Babylon whose every line ends mu-e-zu — “you know.” Copy only (VS 24, 1987).
Never translated before — in any language. No edition and no translation of this text stands in print or on the records checked. The reading below is the first rendering of this text anywhere.
Babylon, copied in VS 24 (1987) and never edited: twenty-nine lines survive, and every one of them ends on the same words — mu-e-zu, "you know." The king is addressed through a litany of his own competences: you know its giving, you know its rising, you know its scattering, you know its destroying. The left half of every line — the things themselves — is broken away. One door stands on the face, below.**
Built 2026-10-22 from a fresh live eBL fetch (saved in ).
One fragment: VAT.17136, Old Babylonian script, Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin — 7.3 × 5.3 cm. Seventeen lines on the obverse, twelve more on the reverse, every line closing on the refrain. CDLI number on the live record: P347163. No photograph on the record itself (the PhBab photographs are cited in the record's references).
A royal hymn built as a knowledge litany. The preserved right half of each line names an act or a quality in the possessive — "its …" — and seals it with "you know": you know its giving of the heart, its rising, its butting (the word is the verb for animals locking horns), its drowning, its scattering abroad, its beating with sticks, its destroying. Whoever the king was, the hymn praises him as the one who knows how everything in his realm is done. The subjects of the lines — the things known — stood on the broken left halves and are gone.
Transliteration exactly as the record serves it; the record's "&" marks the turn from the broken half of each line to its standing half. The renderings keep the possessive form of the original ("its …-ing, you know") rather than smoothing it. Counts: 29 line-units — 0 whole, 26 part, 3 fragments, 0 invented.
1′. %sux [...] & x x [...] (traces only — even the refrain is gone)
2′. %sux [...-r]a & ša₃ šum₂-mu-bi m[u-e-zu] "[…] you know [its] giving of the heart"
3′. %sux [...] x & zi-zi-i?#-bi?# [mu-e-zu] "[…] you know its rising"
4′. %sux [... h]uš? & teš₂-bi du₇-du₇-dam# mu#-[e-zu] "[…] you know its butting together"
5′. %sux [...] x & a-ru-ub-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its drowning"
6′. %sux [...]-a? & aga₃#-kar₂ si₃-ke#-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its setting of the defeat(?)"
7′. %sux [...] x & gakkul-gin₇ šu₂-šu₂-a-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being covered, like a brewing-vat"
8′. %sux [...] x & tar-tar-re-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being cut to pieces"
9′. %sux [...] x x & x gul-lu-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its destroying"
10′. %sux [...] ĝal₂-e & si₃-si₃-ke-bi mu-e-zu# "[…] you know its being placed"
11′. %sux [...]-a & ĝeš-TAR ak-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its making of the cutting(?)" (the words are uncertain)
12′. %sux [...] x nu-ĝal₂-la & bir-bir-re-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its scattering of what is not there(?)"
13′. %sux [... du₇-d]u₇ & šu ĝa₂-ĝa₂-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being put into the hand"
14′. %sux [...] du₇-du₇ & gu₂ ki-še₃ ĝa₂-ĝa₂-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its neck being laid to the ground"
15′. %sux [...] x du₇-du₇ & suh-suh-u₃-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its tearing out"
16′. %sux [...] hul#-ĝal₂ & saĝ ĝeš ra-ra-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its head being beaten with a stick"
17′. %sux [...] x x & ĝir₃-sag₁₁ di-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its making the road(?) tremble" (uncertain)
18′. %sux [...] & sag₂ di-bi mu-e#-[zu] "[…] you know its scattering"
19′. %sux [...] zi & ha-lam-e-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its annihilating"
20′. %sux [...] x & x-ta šub-bu-de₃# mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being cast down"
21′. %sux [...] x & ka?#-ta šub-šub-bu-de₃ mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being cast down from the mouth(?)" (uncertain)
22′. %sux [...] bar ak-ak-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being made outside(?)"
23′. %sux [...] x ka-aš kalam-ma bar-re!-de₃ mu-e-zu "[…] you know its decision(?) going out over the land"
24′. %sux [...] GILIM-GILIM-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its being tangled" (uncertain)
25′. %sux [...] x x x mu#-e#-zu# (traces, and the refrain itself half-gone)
26′. %sux [...] gub-gub-bu-de₃ mu-e-zu "[…] you know its standing firm"
27′. %sux [...] zi-zi-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its rising"
28′. %sux [...] x x A šudul₅?# x-bi mu-e-zu "[…] you know its yoke(?)" (uncertain)
29′. %sux [...] x [...]-ru?#-de₃ mu-e#-zu# "[…] you know its […]" (traces, refrain damaged)
Nuvira Technologies conducts this research with AI assistance, cross-verified against the primary sources to scholarly integrity standards. Uncertain readings are marked; broken lines are left broken.
— Richard Vigslist, Founder, Nuvira Technologies
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