Selections of Sumerian Proverbs, Collection Four

Selections of Sumerian Proverbs, Collection Four.

What is placed in the fire has a valuable role to play but leaves nothing behind when it’s gone.

As a provisioner, I will come down upon those who speak proudly.

All day long, oh penis, you ejaculate as if you have blood inside you, and then you hang like a damp reed.

The north wind is a satisfying wind; the south wind is harmful to man. The East wind is a rain-bearing wind; the west wind is greater than those who live there. The East wind is a wind of prosperity, the friend of Naram-Suen.

Why should someone who knows something conceal it!

Oh little one who is no longer consuming milk, your mother is a wild cow yielding beer.

He could not overcome his fears, so he cut off what was fueling them.

The riverbank should rejoice as though there were a flood. Enlil should rejoice as though the Tigris were at high water.

I want to get hold of borrowed clothes, borrowed linen and borrowed Lapis Lazuli.

A Heart which does not know accounting – is that a wise heart?

He who ploughs the fields should plough the fields; he who harvests grain should harvest grain.

That which the thief has taken was made by an honest man.

To appreciate the Earth is for the Gods; I am merely covered in dust.

I respect of both expenditures and capital good, the anus is well supplied.

Bitterness afflicted the anus; but it entered by way of the mouth.

The Anus breaks wind; talking produces excessive words.