Monday, October 27, 2008
The Great Fatted Bull
My ami and co-worker J.J. Starr has done something that many scholars and assorted "experts" said couldn't be done: He has successfully translated a 4,000-year-old Sumerian tablet, which he calls "The Great Fatted Bull." From his Web site:
This tablet is of great historical importance. It is the world’s first literary masterpiece. It is also the world’s first political satire.
The tablet is a literary tour-de-force, full of clever word-play and layered meanings, written by a Sumerian Shakespeare at the dawn of literature. Although seemingly a simple fable, and not very long (about 40 lines), it is a complicated saga, filled with sex, violence, comedy and adventure. Most Sumerian literature is a straightforward narration of a well-known story, such as a mythological tale or an historic event. This tablet is an original work of fiction, full of unexpected plot twists, hidden and double meanings, humor, symbolism, and sophisticated word-play. ... This kind of writing is familiar to modern readers in 2000 A.D., who see it every day in the media; but it was all brand new in 2000 B.C. On this clay tablet the scribe single-handedly "invents" modern literature, which is all the more impressive in a language as difficult as ancient Sumerian. These forty lines are the best ever written in the Sumerian language, and they can hold their own against any of the world’s great literature, ancient or modern.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, October 27, 2008 
