# Ancient Sumerian proverbs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 7, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166 "2009-01-07T00:51:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@spockerel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spockerel)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2009, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/21 "2009-01-08T21:39:55Z")
> [@freckafree](#):
>
> **There is no baked cake in the middle of the dough.**
>
> Is this the Sumerian equivalent of “There’s GOT to be a pony in there somewhere!”?
Or perhaps “Learn to look in the right place.” As in, “If you didn’t bake the dough, why would you expect to find cooked cake there, dummy?”
These kind of make you wonder about what cultural references we’re just completely missing. I’m guessing at least a few key ones are agricultural.
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### Author:  [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/22 "2009-01-08T21:50:34Z")
> [@freckafree](#):
>
> **There is no baked cake in the middle of the dough.**
>
> Is this the Sumerian equivalent of “There’s GOT to be a pony in there somewhere!”?
I’ll bet it’s something like if you want a cake, you’d better bake some dough, it isn’t going to bake itself.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/23 "2009-01-08T22:30:16Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> Everyone else makes my life difficult. Let my lover go out of his way to make life easy for me. (Ever deboned a fish? Tedious, annoying work you wish you could pawn off on someone else.)
That’s why you need the [Wunder Boner!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ79pCJBcJ8)
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### Author:  [@Reepicheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reepicheep)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/24 "2009-01-08T22:47:30Z")
> [@freckafree](#):
>
> **There is no baked cake in the middle of the dough.**
>
> Is this the Sumerian equivalent of “There’s GOT to be a pony in there somewhere!”?
How about a “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”? The dough is not yet baked, so don’t even think about having something fancy with cake.
```
-or-
```
You have to do the work before getting the goodies. First bake the dough, then think about getting the cake.
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### Author:  [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/25 "2009-01-08T22:50:53Z")
This seems like a broken snippet of ancient pornography:
> [@](#):
>
> A girl from Ĝirsu ……. Her lap …… a man. Her anus was ……. Bau …… a gate …… head
More proverbs relating to family:
> [@](#):
>
> A child should behave with modesty toward his mother. He should take the older generation into consideration.
>
> A younger brother should honour an older brother. He should treat him with human dignity.
>
> Marry the wife of your choice.
Hmm.
> [@](#):
>
> Dusk means joy for a daughter-in-law.
>
> If I ……, my vagina brings me slavery. Will anyone take my vagina then?
>
> A shepherd’s sex appeal is his penis; a gardener’s sex appeal is his hair.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2009, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/26 "2009-01-16T18:34:44Z")
This sounds a bit…scary?
**My mother …… offering; she is behaving as though she were my slave-girl.**
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### Author:  [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/27 "2009-01-16T18:58:10Z")
Some of my favorites:
My things changed things.
One does not return borrowed bread.
In the city where there are no dogs, the fox is boss.
May Inana make a hot-limbed wife lie with you! May she bestow upon you broad-shouldered sons! May she seek out for you a happy place!
Let me tell you about my fate: it is an insult. Let me explain it to you: it is a disgrace.
If a scribe knows only a single line but his handwriting is good, he is indeed a scribe!
The fox, having urinated into the sea, said: “The depths of the sea are my urine!”
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-sumerian-proverbs/480166/28 "2009-01-16T19:11:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Something which has never occurred since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband’s embrace.
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> Maybe it’s playing on the notion that women will “let themselves go” when married, as opposed to being demure and dainty when courting?
That, or young men shouldn’t suppose that women don’t fart. Or believe that getting romantic somehow keeps farts away. The two things will coencide at some point.
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