utnapishti

O baby, offspring of humanity,
      now you’ve emerged; now you’ve seen the sun and its light.
Why didn’t you act like this inside your mother?

Instead of doing your father proud
       or improving your mother’s life,
you’ve made the nanny scared
       and kept the wet-nurse awake.
Thanks to your noise, the household god cannot rest peacefully;
       the household goddess cannot find sleep.

Whom shall I send to Enkidu,
       he who founded the three night-watches?
“Let the one who captured the gazelle, capture him;
       let the one who bound the antelope, bind him.”
Let “the contender” from the wilderness give him slumber;
       may the messenger of “the ox-driver” let him have sleep.
Until his mother wakes him,
       may he not stir!