Selected Sumerian Proverbs Sections Two and Six
Selections from Sumerian Proverbs Collections 2 + 6
Let me tell you about my fate: its an insult. Let me explain it to you: its a disgrace.
I looked into the water. My destiny was drifting past.
I was born on an ill-fated day.
My fate is her voice: my mother can change it.
Fate is a dog – well able to bite. Like dirty rags, it clings, saying: “Who is my man? Let him know it.”
Fate is a cloth stretched out in the desert for a man.
Fate is a raging storm blowing over the Land.
Fate is a dog walking always behind a man.
The poor man must always look to his next meal.
The belching poor man should not look scornfully at the rich man.
How can a poor man who does not know how to cultivate barley manage to cultivate wheat?
The poor man is not appreciated.
The poor man chews whatever he is given.
He didn’t plought the field during winter. And at harvest time he turned his hand to carding.
When someone is poor, they dine on the broth of the human breast.
The word of a poor man is not accepted.
Moving about defeats poverty. He who knows how to move around becomes strong. He will live longer than the sedentary man.
How lowly is the poor man! The area around the oven is a mill-house to him. His torn clothes will not be repaired. That which he has lost will not be searched for.
The poor man is this lowly: his debts are paid off with what is taken from his mouth.
The poor man chewing at silver.
The poor are the weak in the Land.
It is the companion of the poor. It is the weakness of the widows.
The face of the poor man is set as though he were having to sit in the face of the storm.
Moving about defeats poverty.
Were I to give food to a man who roves about, how could I bring it to him who does not rove about?
You are a scribe and you do not know your own name? Shame on you!
If a scribe knows only a single line but his handwriting is good, he is indeed a scribe!
If a singer knows only one song but makes the sound pleasant, he is indeed a singer!
A scribe whose hand can follow dictation is indeed a scribe!
A singer whose voice is not sweet is a wretch among singers!
A wretched scribe, the most backwards in the school!
A scribe without a hand. A singer without a throat.
You are an outstanding scribe; you are no lowly man.
The pupil of a Master, like cornelian pierced through its side. He is indeed a scribe!
That which is pierced through its side is indeed lapis lazuli!
Someone who cannot produce “A – a” – from where will he achieve fluent speech?
A chattering scribe’s guilt is great.
A junior scribe is too concerned with feeding his hunger; he does not pay attention to the scribal art.
A disgraced scribe becomes an incantation priest. A disgraced singer becomes a flute-player. A disgraced lamentation priest becomes a piper. A disgraced merchant becomes a con-man. A disgraced carpenter becomes a man of the spindle. A disgraced smith becomes a moan of the sickle. A disgraced mason becomes a hod-carrier.
The fox lies even to Enlil.
The vixen quenched her thirst but still her motherly teats were dry of milk.
Each fox is even more of a fox than its mother.
If the hearing of the fox is bad, its foot will be crippled.
The fox’s tail is heavy: it carries a harrow.
The fox’s door-bolt is a wooden beam.
The fox could not build his own house, so he got a job at his friend’s house as a construction worker.
The fox, having urinated into the sea, said: “The depths of the sea are my urine!”
The fox had a stick: “Whom shall I hit?”
He carried a seal: “What can I challenge?”
The fox trod on the hoof of a wild bull: “It didn’t hurt.”
Tell a Lie and then tell the Truth: It will be considered a Lie.
He who always lies is a messenger from distant places.
My donkey was not destined to run quickly; he was destined to bray!
A Donkey beating its Penis against its belly.
For a Donkey there is no stench. For a Donkey there is no washing with soap.
A widow Donkey distinguishes itself by breaking wind.
One does not marry a three-year-old wife, as a Donkey does.
Two Akkadians lost a Donkey. One went after it while the other wasted the day. The one who just sat around – the fault was his.
If the Ox kicks up dust, it gets flour in its own eyes.
An ox with diarrhoea -- its dung is a long trail!
While the Ox is ploughing, the dog is spoiling the deep furrows.
Once I escaped the Wild Bull, the wild cow confronted me.
The lamentation priest is the depths of the boat.
The lamentation priest whose incantations do not sound sweet is highly regarded among lamentation priests!
Unruly, scowling dogs belongs to the shameless man.
A sniffing dog entering all the houses.
A dog eating unclean food is a dog which leaves nothing for the next day.
The dog licks its shrivelled penis with its tongue.
The good thing is to find it; the bad thing is to lose it.
I have found it – a cause for celebration!. I have lost it – my heart does not ache!
The good thing is the beer. The bad thing is the journey.
For his pleasure he got married. On his thinking it over he got divorced.
Their pleasure – their discomfort. Their discomfort – their pleasure.
Hand added to hand, and a man’s house is built up. Stomach added to stomach, and a man’s house is destroyed.
In a household of several grown-up young men, the hoe and the work basket must cultivate the fields.
The mother who has given birth to eight young men lies down exhausted.
The house built by the upright man is destroyed by the treacherous man.
Let there be unused land adjacent to a house; let there be a threshing-floor adjacent to a field.
Those who live near the water look into the heart of the mountains. They don’t look in their own direction.
The palace is an Ox; catch it by the tail!
The palace is a huge river; its interior is a goring bull.
The palace is a forest. The king is a lion. Nungal overwhelms men with huge battle-net. On Utu, accept my prayer.
The palace is a slippery place which catches those who do not know it.
The palace cannot avoid the waste land. A barge cannot avoid straw. A freeborn man cannot avoid corvee work. A king’s daughter cannot avoid the tavern.
The palace – one day a mother giving birth, the next day a lamenting mother.
Through building my house I incurred debt, so I could not afford to cultivate the field I had sowed with seed.
May you be a household built up by twin sons.
Whom can I bring to a house whose offspring have been annihilated?
I don’t return to a house whose master is not at home.
All the birds flew away, and their mother alone stayed.