Hello There! I Had A Quick Question About A Thing. Context: I've Been Typing Up A Set Of Medical Manuals

Hello there! I had a quick question about a thing. Context: I've been typing up a set of medical manuals for a medicine woman, since my eyes are young and hers are not. I've been given the chance to put a couple of words of farewell at the end. As an absolute nerd and a devotee of Nisaba on top of that, have you come across any common closing statements in your Sumerian/Akkadian/etc translations, like how we end letters with "Sincerely" and so on?

First, that project sounds amazingly cool.  Second, I have mixed news for you.  On the one hand, as you can see in the selection I’ve translated, Akkadian letters didn’t tend to end with a closing statement; they simply stopped at the end of the message.  I scanned through other letters from various time periods and places, and I didn’t see a common closing phrase.

But!  If you want a nice phrase, there are wishes of wellbeing that often appear near the beginning of letters.  Here are a couple variants:

šulumka maẖar bēliya u bēltiya lu dāri“May your wellbeing last forever before my Lord and Lady.” (spoken to a man) (PBS 7 105:10)

bēlki u bēletki liballiṭuki“May your Lord and Lady keep you healthy.” (spoken to a woman) (CT 29 19:4 and elsewhere)

If you wanted to personalize them with Nisaba and address them both to a woman, then they would be:

šulumki maẖar Nisaba lu dāriNisaba liballiṭki

Apis by Olga Tretyak It really reminds me of Nanna, to be entirely honest. I wonder if I'll ever be allowed to tell my baby sister stories of the cowherd that guides the stars through the sky.

My girlfriend is currently doing a Near and Middle Eastern studies course, and her birthday is coming up soon. Could you tell me what the symbols for "I love you" are?

That’s awesome! Hope I’m not answering this ask too late — I was on vacation for a few days so didn’t see it till today!

In Sumerian, “I love you” is ki murangen! It’s written

By the way, I’ve done a previous post on “happy birthday” in Sumerian, which you can find here.

The fabulously late sequel showing up with Starbucks and a fistful of personal devotional writings. More to come!

things english speakers know, but don’t know we know.

Round and round the butcher’s block,

The dog chases her own tail.

The master said ‘twas all in good fun-

Hissing, the wheel grinds.