Tablet 17

Transcription:

Tablet 17 of the Ashur-Tem Archive

Translated by A. Brewer

"Seven turnings of the moon since the star-fire gave us new knowing. The Shadow-Voice spoke to the King in the place-between-sleeping-and-waking. Through him, the knowledge flows to we who work in the halls of flesh.

The lioness came to us already heavy with young. The temple hunters had taken her from the reed-lands.

Into her blood we placed the mingled essence: that-of-man-shape and that-which-knows-sky. The workings were done as the Shadow-Voice instructed, though the words it uses have no meaning in our tongue. We speak them as sounds only.

The lioness survived the 'star-blood'. This alone was miracle. Seven others had melted from within. She grew strange in her time of carrying. Would not eat meat and scratched at the floor.

When her time came, only one cub lived. The others were 'wrong-flesh' confidence. We burned them.

But the one that lived—already we could see the working of the star-blood. The shoulder-bones pushed outward beneath skin too thin. Where should be proper lion-markings, the fur grew in spirals. The skull was wrong-shaped from birth. Too broad at brow, too narrow at jaw. The eyes—one gold as proper lion-eye, one grey as winter sky.

It looked at us not as newborn creature looks. With knowing.

Each day brought new strangeness. The shoulder-mounds grew but no wings came—only pain, only splitting skin that wept clear fluid. The spine curved wrongly. By seventh day, it could only drag itself.

The King's speaker came. The Shadow-Voice moved through it like smoke. When it departed, it left words in our minds: The pattern holds too strong. Begin with essence more accepting of change. Master Ashur-Sin says we touched the very weaving of life. Threads that can be cut, rewoven.

Tomorrow we begin with the serpent-born."

Attached note:

Like most languages of the era, this was particularly difficult to translate into modern English. I’ve chosen to use compound words to convey meaning rather than direct translation of each word.

I am confident in this translation given our current understanding, but time and new discoveries may shed new light here.

Alison Brewer