Okay last one, not 100% there but I'm proud of it. I also added some descriptions as well, compiling what I've found as I went through this process. Enjoy, any critique of course would be absolutely appreciated. :)
enūma eliš lā nabû šamāmū
Yá tárienna lá menel n’ estáne
- “When on high, heaven was not named,”
(These are the opening words that give this famous Epic its name. Line 1 can be more accurately rendered in the following order: “when on high no heaven was named.” I opted to match the original Akkadian word order in the Quenya translation as Mesopotamian beliefs consider that naming a thing is to create it (cognate, interestingly enough, with the Egyptian creation mythos), so this way we’re suggesting that Heaven simply did not exist, rather than exist without a name which is implied when translated into English. It is also very interesting that Tolkien opted to use “lá” as a negation, as it is also used as such in Proto-Semitic languages, though whether this was a conscious decision or coincidence, I cannot say with certainty. Given Tolkien’s experience with archaic languages however I would be inclined to suggest the former.)
šapliš ammatu šuma lā zakrat
[Ar] nu, i cemen lá quetiélane essenen
- “[And] below the earth had not been spoken by name,”
(Line 2 is often translated as “and the earth below” however the original poem does not have that contraction, starting with šapliš ‘below[,] the earth’. Ammatu – glossed as the ground, land, earth or underworld, but more suitably a ‘solid expanse’ in contrast with the wide open airs of the heavens. I opted for Quenya “cemen” which is glossed as terrestrial earth, land, or soil, and serves the function of Ammatu; its relationship with heaven made abundantly clear through the use of the prepositional element “nu”, that is, the expanse below [the heavens] as opposed to a metaphysical underworld.
apsûm-ma rēštû zārûšun
Sinomë n’ Apsu Minyaron, nostarintwa
- “There was [primeval] Apsu, their begetter,”
(Line 3 introduces Apsu, the primordial representation of fresh water. He is the most ancient deity and is accorded this in rēštû, which I translated into Quenya as “Minyaron” or The First One. Zārûšun can be translated as “begetter of them.” Because “them” is ostensibly in reference to heaven and earth, a broad duality rather than creation as a whole, I can with some confidence choose a dual pronominal possessive suffix for its Quenya analogue “nostar“ or parent, begetter, from the root √NŌ/ONO “to beget.” As such “nostar (noun)-inte (third person plural emphatic pronoun)-twa (dual possessive suffix)” – nostarintwa.)
mummu tiamat muallidat gimrišun
Ar Úpartallë-Tiamat, i óntiélane tú
- “[and] Chaos-Tiamat, who had birthed them;”
(Tiamat is the ultimate antagonist of the poem, a deified representation salt water and the universal mother. The poet presents her in Line 5 with the epithet mummu, which requires some explanation – mummu is the concept of ‘unmanufacture’, often glossed as chaos, discord, disorder, even creativity and potential. For the purposes of this translation, I opted for the noun “úpartalë” which in Quenya is ‘disorder’, with the feminine agental suffix “-llë”, admittedly creative license on my part as it is not present in the original text. Gimrišun follows the same structure as Apsu’s zārûšun, presenting “birthing aspect” vs “begetter”; it is written in Quenya as the verb “onta-“ in pluperfect tense, followed by the dual third person pronoun “tú.” Note that “onta-“ and “nosta-“ share the same primitive Elvish root as described above.
mêšunu ištēniš ihiqqū-ma
Nentwar tú óstímer
- “their waters they mingled together,”
(Salt and fresh water mingling occurred naturally, and very visibly, in the estuaries of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. “Nen-twa-r” is “water-their-(plural)”, and “ó-stim-ne-r” is “together-blended-(plural)”. Because Quenya requires number agreement; because the noun is plural the verb must be plural as well.)
gipāra lā kiṣṣurū ṣuṣâ lā še'û
Mal wísse lá narassë, þangane lá motto
- “But wefted no pasture, padded no reed bed;”
(Line 7 is a contentious subject among scholars. W.G. Lambert translates this line as “Before meadowland had coalesced and reed-bed was to be found”; Haubold suggests “but did not knit together meadowland or pad reed thicket,” instead, in relationship to Line 6, implying that Apsu and Tiamat were more focused on each other than they were in the crucial act of creation. Because Haubold’s arguments ultimately clarify the narrative (I can link his paper at the end), I opted to use his interpretation. I feel that my choice of “þangane” p.t. for padding isn’t ideal, but I appreciate that “þag-“ to crowd, press does work for the pressing-down of reed beds. “Motto” means marshland. “Linquecaimë” is another option, lit. reed-bed, but “motto” implies this.)
enūma ilū lā šūpû manāma
Yá i-Ainur lá nemniélane, alaquen
- “When of the gods none had appeared, not one,”
(When the-gods not appeared-had, not one. This line reinforces the fact that there was nothing outside of Apsu and Tiamat, that this was a time of primeval forces alone. I’m not very confident about how this line is arranged in Quenya and will look into it further.)
šuma lā zukkurū šīmatu lā šīmū
Yulá camnessentar, maranwentar úmártaner
- “Nor received their names, their destinies [were] not ordained”
(Cam (to receive)-ne (past tense)-esse (name)-inta (third person plural possessive + emphatic pronoun)-r (plural suffix) becomes camnessentar. Maranwë (destiny)-inta (third person plural possessive + emphatic pronoun)-r (plural suffix) becomes maranwentar. Next, ú (negative)-martan (to ordain) –ne (past tense)-r (plural suffix), the plural due to the verb needing to agree with maranwentar)
ibbanû-ma ilū qerebšun
An nér i-Ainur óntaner imberumandesse
- “Then were the gods created in the midst of heaven.”
(The past tense of the verb ‘to create’ can be written as both “óntane” and “óne.” Imberumandesse is a compound: imbe (between) – erumande (heaven) – sse (locative suffix) “In the heavens’ midst”)
For reference, this is Haubolt's research paper:
www.journals.uchicago.edu
This is Lambert's translation: www.etana.org
