Ki-ki-i lu-qul [ana-ku]

[lain0]

Hello everyone. I decided to have my first cuneifom tattoo. I studied a little the babylonian Gilgamesh epic by George and I think I will tattoo both the incipit in standard babylonian and the line of the standard babylonian tablet X 244. So I found every sign of the line except for [ana-ku]. The full line is "ki-ki-i [l]u-us-kut ki-ki-i lu-qul [ana-ku]. So: does anyone knows the most correct sign for ana-ku? I think the standard akkadian "ku" sign of most sillabary is good, but I really don't know what "ana" sign is better since the tablet is incomplete. I am really at the beginning of my studies so please help me   (and sorry for my bad english).

[sheshki]

Hello,

there is a sign that reads ana, it is DIŠ  
Do you have a link of your source material, or a picture?

Greetings
Sheshki

[lain0]

Hello, my source is "The babylonian epic of Gilgamesh" by A.R. George. It is free from the SOAS University of London: eprints.soas.ac.uk/1603/.
Anyway my research didn't stop: I have found an accadian dictionary: home.zcu.cz/~ksaskova/Sign_List.html. According to it and to "Labat R. Manuel - D' Epigraphie Akkadienne, 5 Ed) the signs "𒀸 AŠ", "𒀭 AN" and "𒁹 DIŠ" can be read "ana". Futhermore I learned that "a-na-ku" is the first person independent personal pronouns in akkadian (𒀀𒈾𒆪). So now I am even more confused 😅. Anyway, according to George's transliteration, ana-ku is wrote other times, for example in the same tablet (line 147) and other times it is transliterd as "a-na-ku", for example in the table XI (line 34). At this point I don't even know if "ana-ku" and "a-na-ku" have the same meaning. What do you think?
Thank you for your help, regards,
Laino.

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[us4-he2-gal2]

Hello lainO:





Welcome to the board. It is commendable that you are able to work with cuneiform and the language to some extent. These things are, of course, quite difficult. When it comes to making a cuneiform tattoo, your approach is ideal I think - it is better to find a line of text and make that the tattoo (as you are) instead of trying to write something new in cuneiform. No one speaks like an Akkadian or a Babylonian anymore.


As for the line of text which you are working with, this comes from line 244 of the tenth tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Akkadian and Andrew George's English translation are as follows:

ki-ki-i [l]u-us-kut ki-ki-i lu-qul [ana-ku]

(For) I, [how could I stay silent?] How could I stay quiet?





kīkī is an Akkadian question word meaning simply "how?"

luskut is the 1 person singlur G precative of the verb sakātum 'to be silent'. Together with kīkī and in the first person: 'how could I stay silent?'

luqul is also a 1 person singular G precative and another verb with similar meaning 'to be quiet'

anāku is the 1st person pronoun "I"


In terms of what the first person pronoun is doing in this sentence, it seems to serve a rhetorical purpose, to focus the text on the mental struggle of Gilgamesh for a moment - (as for) me (or I), how could I stay silent?


When you put it all together, you get Andrew George's translation which is quite good of course: "(For) I, [how could I stay silent?] How could I stay quiet?"



It should be noted that the way George is able to restore the broken parts of line 244 is that this line is the same as a line that occurs on the same tablet (tablet 10). That is, line 67:


67. [ki-ki-i lu-us-ku]t ki-ki-i lu-qu-ul a-na-ku

Compare with:

244. [ki]-ki-i [l]u-us-kut ki-ki-i lu-qul [ana-ku]




So, by comparing line 67 with line 244, George can restore the broken signs. We can see that the ancient scribe choose to use different signs in a few places: in line 67 he wrote lu-qu-ul but the same word is spelled lu-qul in line 244. This is no issue - it is the same word, but cuneiform scribes could use different signs to spell the same word, and occasionally they did. We can see that George guesses that the scribe had written ana-ku on line 244. I might have been that the ancient scribe saw he was going to run out of room and decided to write ana-ku. It takes less space to spell it ana-ku instead of a-na-ku. George could probably tell by looking at the broken piece of the tablet that there was enough room for [ana-ku] but not enough room for [a-na-ku].

In other words, you are free to use either the spelling a-na-ku or ana-ku, both mean the same thing ("I"). Follow line 67 or line 244. As for the sign used to write ana, yes sheshki is correct, this is the DIŠ (in form, a single vertical wedge).




When you have finished the design for the tattoo it may be a good idea to post it here and we could check it for any issues. Feel free to ask anything else - best regards, Bill.

[lain0]

Hello Bill, your help is so, so, precious to me and your compliments make me proud. Good, so as I guessed the translation for "ana-ku" is "I"... damn it, why didn't akkadians write "I" with only one sign?! It's so easy 🤣. Anyway, the signs in the following pictures are the most correct ones in my opinion, respectively from the prologue ([ša naq-ba i-mu-ru iš]-di ma-a-ti) and from the line 244 of tablet 10 (ki-ki-i [l]u-us-kut ki-ki-i lu-qul [ana-ku]). The only doubt is about the sign "iš" in the prologue. I am undecided about three signs: the first one from above is the sign you suggested in this post on the forum: "https://enenuru.proboards.com/thread/702/naqba-imuru-cuneiform". The second one is the sumerian sign "iš" according to this dictionary: home.zcu.cz/~ksaskova/Sign_List.html (I am pretty sure it's the same one you suggested but I'm asking to dispel any doubts). Also, both of them should be the unicode sign number U+12156 what should be read "iš". The last one is the sign "iš" according to wikipedia and Labat's manual. Futhermore it's the akkadian sign for "iš" according to the dictionary I mentioned before.
I know that the sign "iš" is not attested at all in this line, neither in the colophon nor on tablet 1, so we can only surmise the correct one. Which of the two do you think is the best one? In my sister's opinion, who is a modern philologist, you should count how many times a sign is reported on a tablet or in the whole epic; the sign which has been written several times should be the most proper one or anyhow the one which the scribe would probably had used. You know... I don't pay myself enough for this work 😂, so I will simply rely on your advices. Of course don't count every "iš" on the tablet, just give me your feelings about that, please.
Thank you really much for your time - best regards,
Lino.

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[lain0]

Hello everyone. After my reply of yesterday I thougth I could search for some "iš" at least on tablet 1. So i found this: epic of gilgamesh by george 2003 - tablet 1 - line 3 -> [...] i-mu-ru iš-di ma-a-[ti]. I checked on plate 47 and I found the following picture (line 3 [...] iš di ma a ti) . So, at this point, I think the most proper sign is the akkadian one. Let me know what you think about that.
Regards,
Lino.

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[us4-he2-gal2]

Hello LainO:


* I did not fully read your posts or the links which you provided before I did some investigating and made the post below. I had also entirely forgotten about dealing with this line (line 1, tablet 1) in another tattoo request on enenuru. So we have both arrived at the same result, using the same book, and come to the same plate. In other words, I think you have got it quite right.




1 [šá naq-ba i-mu-ru i]š-di ma-a-ti
"[He who saw the Deep, the] foundation of the country"


Yes, that's what you have to do really, is consult the plates in George's full / scholarly edition of Gilgamesh (they are given in volume 2), study the line drawings, and see how the scribes themselves wrote this sign. At least, this is the best way to arrive at the proper forms for this text. This is summarized in the graphic I attach below: