A reading, published with its checks still open. A Vigslist translation.
The dragon balaĝ to Marduk — “like a dragon, laden with fearsomeness”. Balaĝ 22 to Marduk: the first line names the ušum, the dragon, and the tablet's own ancient Akkadian gloss names the bašmu-serpent again; the colophon names the piece, its performance day, and its singer.
Published as a reading. No first-translation claim is made for this piece. The checks that would settle such a claim are named in the notes below and are still open; the wording on this page claims nothing they have not settled.
DRAGON FLAG, BY NAME — front and centre: the composition's first line names the ušum, the dragon: ušum-gin₇ ni₂ si-a, "like a dragon, laden with fearsomeness." And the tablet's own ancient Akkadian gloss, preserved in line 2, names the serpent again in Akkadian: kīma bašmi — "like a bašmu-serpent, full of fearsomeness." Two dragon words, one in each language, in the first two lines of the tablet.
Museum number: BM 41249 (British Museum), Babylon; Neo-Babylonian script. A possible join partner, BM 43896 (a colophon fragment that "mentions eršema"), is named on both records but is unchecked — it serves no text, and no line of this reading depends on it. Composition: the balaĝ ušum-gin₇ ni₂ si-a to Marduk — eISL (Gabbay's Emesal catalogue) Balaĝ 22, Q009506. The ancient catalogue itself (4 R² 53+, the Kalûtu catalogue, col. i–ii 22) lists it exactly so: ušum-gin₇ ni₂ si-a ša₂ ^dAMAR.UTU — "ušum-gin₇ ni₂ si-a, of Marduk" — and pairs it with the eršemma dilmun{ki} niĝin₂-na, "the seventh." This tablet's colophon quotes that same catalogue pairing. Source: eBL Fragmentarium's served transliteration of BM 41249 (fetched live, Wave C6). eBL serves no translation for the tablet (0 #tr.en lines). Photograph on the record. to the witness. For the composition: no published edition or translation of the Marduk balaĝ was located anywhere reachable (see the check below). Two neighbouring compositions are in English and are not this text, and are credited here so they are never confused with it: (1) the same-incipit balaĝ to Ninurta (eISL Balaĝ 27), edited with translation in Cohen, CLAM (1988), pp. 457–467 — a different composition with different manuscripts (K.3026, MLC.1862); (2) this balaĝ's paired eršemma, dilmun{ki} niĝin₂-na, edited with translation in Gabbay, HES 2 (2015), no. 24, pp. 124f. — a separate, shorter composition that follows the balaĝ in performance. Counting rule used here: a line counts part if a complete verb form or a glossed phrase survives; fragment if only isolated words or sign traces survive; whole only if a complete clause survives intact. No line of this tablet counts whole — every line is broken or restored in part, and the counts say so. Counts: 14 units — 0 whole / 11 part / 3 fragment / 0 invented.
Publication check (C6, Oct 22): the eBL record carries no EDITION reference of any kind — its only print trace is the British Museum's own catalogue (Leichty, Finkel & Walker, Catalogue of the Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum IV–V, p. 472), which describes the tablet in three words: "Literary; colophon." The identification of the text as the Marduk balaĝ stands on the record in Uri Gabbay's hand ("ušum-gin₇ ni₂ si-a ša₂ Marduk"). Open web search under the museum number found no edition, translation, or discussion. CLAM's ušum-gin₇ edition is demonstrably the Ninurta composition (its manuscripts are named on their own records). Heinrich, HES 6, edits the Ninurta balaĝs only. Doors left on the face: (1) the eyeball of CLAM's composition catalogue (print-check wave) — to confirm Cohen lists the Marduk piece, if at all, only as unedited; a listing is not an edition and would not close the claim, but the check is owed. (2) The unchecked BM 43896 join — if it is ever collated and carries text, the witness grows. (3) The tablet's CDLI record is unread — CDLI is still down. (4) The eISL text page (Q009506) has never served from this desk (both ORACC routes refused all night); the composition's full score, if it is ever fetched, is the decider for how much of the balaĝ this fragment represents.
The obverse preserves the balaĝ's opening: the dragon line, its Akkadian gloss, and the start of the great name-litany in which Marduk is praised under his cult names — Asalluḫi, Asaralimnuna, Enbilulu, firstborn of Ezéba. The reverse is the colophon: the tablet identifies its own text, dates a performance, and names its singer.
o 1. [ušum-gin₇ ni₂ si-a ši en₃-š]e₃ i₃-gi "Like a dragon, laden with fearsomeness — how long will it be uttered?" (the incipit; its first half is restored from the composition's tradition, the tail — "…how long will it be said?" — survives on the tablet)
o 2. [ki-ma ba-aš₂-mu pu-luh-tu₂ ma-lu-u₂ mi-na tuš-har-ra-ar] "Like a bašmu-serpent, full of fearsomeness — how long …?" (the Akkadian interlinear gloss of line 1, wholly restored as served; the final verb is uncertain and is not forced. bašmu — the horned serpent-dragon — flagged by name.)
o 3. [alim-ma] {d}a-ma-ru-uk-kam "August one — Marduk."
o 4. [ur-saĝ gal] {d}asar-lu₂-hi "Great hero — Asalluḫi."
o 5. [alim-ma umun] {d}asar-alim-nun-na "August one, lord — Asaralimnuna."
o 6. [ur-saĝ gal umun] {d}en-bi-lu-lu "Great hero, lord — Enbilulu."
o 7. [alim-ma dumu-saĝ uru₂-ze₂]-eb{ki}-ba "August one, firstborn of Ezéba." (Ezéba = Sippar.)
o 8. [… ši]-ra […] …-ra (traces only)
o 9. […] (traces only; the rest of the obverse is broken away)
r 1′. [ki-šu₂-bi-im ba]laĝ {d}amar-utu-[kam] "[…] — the balaĝ of Marduk." (the opening word is uncertain as served and is not forced; the identification itself — balaĝ of Marduk — survives)
r 2′. [… dilmun{ki} niĝin₂-na] 7-ta-am₃, ER₂.ŠEM₃-me-šu? 12 KI.RU.G[U₂ …] "[… 'Dilmun niĝin₂-na'] is the seventh; its eršemma(s) … twelve kirugu-[sections …]" (the tablet's own statement of the ancient catalogue pairing: this balaĝ goes with the eršemma dilmun niĝin₂-na — the eršemma that now stands in English in HES 2, no. 24, while no English rendering of the balaĝ itself was located in the sources checked. The numbers are the tablet's; their exact articulation is partly restored and is not forced beyond what is printed here.)
r 3′. [… ina] {iti}KIN.{d}INANNA U₄.3.KAM la-am KIN.SIG […] "[…] on the 3rd day of the month Ulūlu, before the evening-meal offering […]" (a performance direction: the tablet dates its own singing)
r 4′. [ki-i pi-i l]a-bi-ri-šu ki-ma la-bi-ri-šu₂ SA[R-m]a IGI.TAB "Written and checked according to its original, exactly like its original." (the collation formula)
r 5′. [… DUMU] {m}mi-ṣir-a-a, GALA {d}AMAR.UTU "[…, son of] Miṣirāya(?), kalû — lamentation-singer — of Marduk." (the scribe's name is damaged as served (mi-ṣir-a-a, reading uncertain and flagged); his office survives whole: the singer of Marduk who copied this dragon balaĝ and signed it with his father's name.)
light, per program law.*
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