The Goddess Inanna’s Love Song to King Shulgi

The king sailed in a boat

To Uruk. At the princely divine powers

Sumer and Akkad marvelled.

To the quay of Kulaba he moored the boat.

With a large wild bull of the mountains carried in

his hands,

The righteous lord, with a sheep fastened to (his)

hand,

With a dappled kid, a bearded kid, pressed to his

breast,

He entered to Inanna in the shrine of Eanna.

Shulgi, the righteous shepherd, ‘the loving heart,’

dressed himself in a festive garment,

(And) put a luxuriant wig on his head as a crown.

Inanna looked on in wonder,

Broke spontaneously into a song,

Uttered it as a chant:

“When for the king, for the lord,

I have bathed,

When for the shepherd Dumuzi I have bathed,

When I have adorned my flanks^a with ointment,

When with balsam my mouth was coated,

When with kohl my eyes were painted,

When he pressed my hips

With his fair hands,

When the lord who lies down beside holy Inanna,

The shepherd Dumuzi,

Has smoothed me with milk on his lap,

When he has relaxed on my shining bed,

When like choice … like choice beer,