THE MELAMMU PROJECT http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ “The Babylonian Science of the Translation and the Ideological Adjustment of the Sumerian Text to the ‘Target Culture’” STEFANO SEMINARA Published in Melammu Symposia 3: A. Panaino and G. Pettinato (eds.), Ideologies as Intercultural Phenomena. Proceedings of the Third Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project. Held in Chicago, USA, October 27-31, 2000 (Milan: Università di Bologna & IsIao 2002), pp. 245-55. Publisher: http://www.mimesisedizioni.it/ This article was downloaded from the website of the Melammu Project: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/ The Melammu Project investigates the continuity, transformation and diffusion of Mesopotamian culture throughout the ancient world. 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SEMINARA T HE BABYLONIAN SCIENCE OF THE TRANSLATION STEFANO SEMINARA Roma The Babylonian Science of the Translation and the Ideological Adjustment of the Sumerian Text to the ‘Target Culture’ s the most recent theories on the nian culture represents a particular situa- translation science consider this tion of bilingualism, defined by J. S. Aactivity more and more an inter- Cooper 1 “literary bilingualism”: the spo- cultural phenomenon, rather than only an ken language (spoken and written in the interlinguistic one, I thought this Sympo- practical and every day use) is Akkadian, sium was the appropriate place to present while the literary language is, together this paper, a further elaboration of some with the Akkadian, the Sumerian too. ideas risen from my doctoral dissertation During the Old Babylonian period, the on the Akkadian translation of the Lugal- ancient works of the Sumerian literature e myth. started being translated into Akkadian. Starting from the 2nd millennium (that The aim of this paper is to answer to the is, from the beginning of the period following question: how and why did the known as Old Babylonian), the Babylo- Babylonians translate the Sumerian? Did a translation ‘theory’ exist? The Babylonians did not leave a ‘man- term, p<htu (literally “exchange,” “sub- ual of translation technique’. But it is stitution”), which has to be surely related likely that the teaching of the translation to a process of translation, even if its ex- technique was entrusted, exclusively or act meaning in our context remains ‘ob- very nearly, to the school apprenticeship scure’. Various interpretations of this and therefore transmitted only through term have been proposed (“synonym,” the verbal channel. “antonym,” “metaphor,” “metonymy,” The rare evidence of a Babylonian the- “inversion of signs”), but no one has ory of the translation is documented only turned out to be convincing up to now. in texts of a scholastic nature. The lines The immediately following noun is not 14 and 15 of the so-called Examenstext less obscure than the previous one: A, although obscure and hardly interpret- egirtu , generally identifying a particular able, seem to be devoted exactly to the type of document, but certainly having a translation activity practised in the different meaning in our passage, proba- schools. In particular, at line 15 there’s a bly has to be connected to the etymology 1 J.S. Cooper, Sumero-Akkadian Literary Bilingualism (Chicago, 1969). A. Panaino & G. Pettinato (eds.) MELAMMU SYMPOSIA III (Milano 2002) ISBN 88-8483-107-5 245 SEMINARA T HE BABYLONIAN SCIENCE OF THE TRANSLATION of the root (“something placed transver- specularity and symmetry would exist sally”). It is not unlikely that the two between the two languages. terms refer to as many types of equiva- But now, are these formulations of a lences: linear the first one, “transversal,” theoretical nature confirmed in the maybe, the second one. Babylonian accepted practice of the Furthermore, at the line 20 of the same Sumerian texts’ translation, which can be text, it is written that the Sumerian lan- reconstructed through the analysis of the guage is a “mirror” (nì-sè-ga in Sume- Akkadian ‘versions’ of the Sumerian rian, tamš lu in Akkadian) of the Ak- works? kadian language. Therefore, a relation of The translation as a divination form and the Sumerian terminology for “translating” (inim-bal ) The symmetry is an important concept the reality). in the Babylonian way of imagining the From this point of view, also a Sume- reality. In fact, the idea of symmetry was rian text or, more exactly, each writing totally congenial to the Babylonian con- sign, due to its quality of ‘container’ of a ception of the cosmos intended as a plurality of meanings, becomes a sign to whole of the reality’s layers perfectly be interpreted. Therefore, the ‘conver- corresponding with each other. This is sion’ of a Sumerian text into the Ak- exactly the image of the cosmos de- kadian language can be defined, rather scribed in the poem En <ma Eliš , which than a real ‘translation,’ a ‘decoding’ op- attributes to the god Marduk, who had eration, that is a thorough examination won the forces of chaos , the organization and a selection of the meanings accepted of universe. It is right this conception of by the sign. the cosmos that justifies the practice of It is not a chance that the Sumerian the most common Mesopotamian science: term we generally render with our “to the divination, which is nothing but the translate,” inim-bal 2 – literally “word- search of the connections between the to-turn,” that is “to turn the word” –, phenomena occurring in the macrocosm actually does not mean exactly “to (whether concerning the sky or the divine translate.” It rather expresses any act of world) and in the microcosm (whether communication – verbal or written – in- concerning the history of the nations or volving the passage from a code to an- the life of the individual). In such a vi- other: from the human to the divine lan- sion of the world, it is easy to understand guage (and vice-versa), from the ani- how every accident or phenomenon of mals’ to the men’s language, from a lan- the reality is intended as a sign to be in- guage to another (the only passage, terpreted (in order to understand the con- among the mentioned ones, that we ap- nection with the macrocosm, especially propriately call “translation”). Further- with the divine will, and then the possi- more, in same cases, the verb inim-bal is bility of a negative or positive effect on associated to the decoding of “omens” 2 More rarely eme-bal, “to turn the tongue.” 246 SEMINARA T HE BABYLONIAN SCIENCE OF THE TRANSLATION (giskim) or “dreams” (ma-mú.d), em- the two techniques of the ‘translation’ phasizing even more the relation between (as we call it) and divination. The translation as ‘decoding’ of each single sign or a ‘selection’ between various meanings of a sign For the Babylonians, what we call meanings are given, each one with its “translation” is an inverse or specular Sumerian interpretation and correspon- process compared to the operation of dent translation into Akkadian. 3 But the writing. At this point, I need to make a thorough examination of all possible consideration for introducing a further meanings of the sign proceeds through a equivalence. In origin, the writing had pure speculation and a chaining of “se- represented the ‘coding’ process of the mantic associations,” until such a point realia in the writing signs, in conse- that meanings (that is, translations into quence of which the reality’s constitutive Akkadian), never attested in the Sume- elements had been dismembered to be rian written tradition, but rather deduced then gathered into ‘sets’ on the basis of through associations based on the Ak- their affinity – we would say: on the ba- kadian equivalences themselves, are of- sis of semantic associations – and each ten attributed to a sign. This way, it can set had been expressed with its own sign. happen that a sign is translated with an Now, as in origin the writing had been (Akkadian) term which is rather an anto- the ‘coding’ process – and still was in all nym of its original value (in Sumerian). its aspects, at least virtually –, the trans- As an example, a lexical list gives the lation is nothing but the ‘decoding’ of a sign UD – which generally means “day,” sign through a ‘thorough examination’ of but also “light,” “sun,” and so on – also the numerous meanings contained, in or- the meaning of “night” (value which has der to find the meaning (theoretically the never been attested for the sign UD in only possible one) that the sign assumes Sumerian!). within a determined context. Based on what has been said up to Of course, this applies only to the now, we can therefore conclude that the translation of ‘continuous texts,’ mytho- translation is always the result of a logical, epic and similar (the only ones choice, that is the selection of one or where the signs are input within a com- more meanings within the range of those plete sense context). On the contrary, in accepted by the sign itself. the lexical lists of each sign, all possible From the sign to the text At this point, it should be easier to un- Babylonian translation of a Sumerian text derstand the opening statement: that the is first of all a search inside the single 3 Sometimes, however, it can happen that also in after we will call this translation technique “al- continuous texts a sign is translated twice, that is with ternative”).