« Increasingly Improbable or Somewhat Less Probable?
Main
Biblical Studies Carnival XXXVI is Up »
November 30, 2008
The Kuttamuwa Stele: Another Preliminary Translation
Since John Hobbins was brave enough to go first and offer his translation of the Kuttamuwa stele inscription, I thought I would offer mine.
A few disclaimers:
I am an amateur in all you read on this blog. I am even more an amateur when it comes to Aramaic. Before attempting this translation, I had never looked at the two other texts, KAI 214 and KAI 215, in the Sam'alian dialect in more than the most casual way. For these reasons, this effort should be considered the irresponsible output of someone whose abnormal interests are greater than his judgment.
And yes, I have changed my unposted private preliminary translation based on John's work. No, I have not seen Pardee's complete translation but I would like to see it.
A few preliminary notes:
As John and others have noted, the r and d are basically indistinguishable. You can see from the transcription which option I accepted in each case. I based the transcription on Jim Getz' find work, confirmed, where possible, against the high resolution picture of the stele. While John structured his transliteration and translation in "sense-units," I have decided to do mine interlineally. For this reason and others, my translation is more than a little wooden. But I think that's the way preliminary translations should be. I provide a few, very few, notes after the translation.
So here goes:
[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]
1) ʾnk.ktmw . ʿbd [.] pnmw . [zy]. qnt .l[y]. nṣb .b
I am Kuttamuwa, servant of Panamuwa, who had this prepared for me, a stele, while
2) ḥyy . wšmt . wth . bsyr .ʿlmy . wḥggt . s
alive. I placed it in my eternal courtyard and I held a feast
3) yr/d . zn . šwr . lhdd . qrpdl . wybl . lng
in this court: a bull for Hadad of Qerepadal(?) and produce for (the) opposite
4) d . ṣwd/rn . wybl . lšmš . wybl . lhdd . krmn
figures, produce for Shamash, and produce for Hadad of the plantation.
5) wybl . lkbbw . wybl . lnbšy . zy . bnṣb . zn .
and produce for his charring, and produce for my soul that is in this stele.
6) wʿt . mn . mn . bny . ʾw .
And whoever from my house or
7) mn bny . ʾš . wyhy . lh .
from (the) house of (another) man and he is in it,
8) nsyrdg . znn . wlw . yqḥ . mn
that very chamber, he should take (from)
9) ḥyl . krm .znn . šʾ .
the best of that plantation a sheep/goat
10) ywmn . lywmn . wyh
from time to time. And he should slaughter (it)
11) rg . bnbšy
for my soul.
12) wyšwy
and prepare
13) ly . šq
for me a thigh.
Notes:
Line 4) or, perhaps "for Hadad of Karumun(i)," see Ugaritic krmn.
Line 5) Late Aramaic kbb', "burning to cools" or "charring."
Line 6) The Sam'alian dialect as known from KAI 214 and KAI 215 uses br for son. I take bny to be "building" but render it here "house." See Ezra 5:4 (bnyn).
Final disclaimer:
Please consider this translation a work in progress. It is subject to change without notice and likely without any memory of this previous effort.
Posted by Duane Smith at November 30, 2008 8:03 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2715
Comments
In line 4 you have wybl l DN, wybl l DN.
Since there is a deity Kupapa/Kubaba/Kupapas attested in Luwian, I wonder if line 5 should not also be taken as wybl l DN, wybl l DN (though I have no idea what deity NBŠY is).
After Pardee's paper, Younger gave a possible explanation for the W at the end of LKBBW; apparently that spelling of the DN is attested somewhere, but I wasn't able to hear all of what Younger said.
Posted by: A.D. Riddle at December 2, 2008 7:34 AM
Disregard the parenthetical about NBŠY being a DN. I wasn't paying attention to what I was typing.
Posted by: A.D. Riddle at December 2, 2008 7:36 AM
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.
Send me an email if it is important.