cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/36433522 (because what's more memetic than a fart joke?)
^Hope^ ^you^ ^don't^ ^mind^ ^if^ ^I^ ^borrow^ ^this.^
Explanation: This clay tablet contains an example of written fart humor. The same joke can be found in a collection of Sumerian proverbs dating back to 1900-1600 BC as well. Some things never change.
Line 5 referenced by the translation is immediately below the horizontal line in the tablet image above.
Additional reading:
Electronic Babylonian Library (tablet image and additional translation details): BM.98743
Internet Archive preview showing the translation in image above: Lambert, Wilfred G. 1963. Babylonian Wisdom Literature.
Wiki page on flatulence humor
Reuters article on this and other old jokes
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, proverbs: collection 1 (translation of older source with link to transliteration of cuneiform)
7 Comments
xxce2AAb@feddit.dk · 7 pts · 344d
My cuneiform is admittedly a little rusty.
essell@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 343d
You can use clay to avoid that, or stone too if it's not a metal bearing ore.
hakase@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 343d
I always just read in transliteration. Cuneiform is definitely my least favorite writing system that I've had to work with.
mrcleanup@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 343d
The young girl broke wind in her young husband's bosom, you mean.
...
Her young husband, right?
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 343d
Some of the translations say "young woman" instead which makes things seem less Trumpy. I don't know enough to say more from the linguistic angle or about cultural norms of the time so my focus was primarily on the joke.
mrcleanup@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 343d
Eh...
It wasn't a criticism of the translation, more a commentary on the historical problem of old men marrying children and the hope I'm wrong in my assumptions.
swab148@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 343d
She farted on his chest