Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/246

'world,' and some others.^[1] The great improvement in translation that resulted will 'be best appreciated by a comparison. The text of the frst paragraph in the Hamadan inscription, translated by Burnouf, is word for word the same as that of the Le Bruyn (No. 131) translated by Grotefend, except that 'Darius' in the former is 'Xerxes' in the latter. We have placed the translation of Burnouf opposite that of Grotefend.

Paragbaph I

Grotefend, Le Bruyn 131[2] Pius probus[3]Oromasdis cultor hanc constellationem sanctum et hunc diem coelestem et illum defunctum eumque lumine fulgentem et defuncti [filium] hunc Xerxem regem florentem summum quorumlibet regem summum quorumlibet amplificet Paraphrase of above[4] Ormuzd [est] l'être divin; il a donné le Homa excellent: il a donné le ciel: il donné l'homme: il a donné la nourriture á l'homme; il a engendré Darius roi, ce roi des braves, ce chef des braves.

Burnouf,Hamadan,Darius O [5]L'être divin [est] Ormuzd il le Homa excellent a donné; il ce ciel a donné il l'homme a donné; il nourriture a donné à l'homme; il Darius roi a engendré ce des braves roi, ce des braves chef. Correct Version of Inscr.[6] Great God is Ormuzd, who this earth created, who that heaven created, who man created, who happiness has created for man: who has made Darius king, the one king of many, the one Lord of many.

1. Mémoire, pp. 59-60, 89, 95, 100. In Grotefend these are represented by 'coelestem,' 'defunctum,'amplificet,' 'populorum.'
2. Heeren (ed. 1815), vol. i. p. 601.
3. Elsewhere 'fortis.'
4. Mémoire, p. 119. Hurnouf suspected, as we have said, that the word he transliterated 'buiom ' and translated 'excellent' should be 'bumom' and mean 'earth': 'He has given this earth ' (p. 149). The change of the i into m turned out afterwards to be correct, and the word 'bum'im ' does signify earth,' the passage being 'who created this earth.'
5. Mémoire, Pl.2 and 3.
6. See Spiegel, p.47.