Gilgamesh : A New Rendering in English Verse (5 page)

he was the shield that went before in the battle;

he was the weapon at hand to attack and defend.

A demon has come and taken away the companion.

He ranged the hills together with the creatures

whose hearts delight to visit the watering places.

A demon has come and taken him away.

He was the first to find the way through the passes

to go to the Cedar Forest to kill Huwawa.

He sought the wilderness places to find the water

with which to quench our thirst on the way to the Forest.

Together we killed Huwawa; together we fought

the bellowing Bull of Heaven, and killed the Bull,

and together the two of us sat down to rest.

Then a demon came and took away the companion.

You are asleep. What has taken you into your sleep?

Your face is dark. How was your face made dark?”

Enkidu's eyes were unmoving in their sockets.

Gilgamesh touched the heart of the companion.

There was nothing at all. Gilgamesh covered

Enkidu's face with a veil like the veil of a bride.

He hovered like an eagle over the body,

or as a lioness does over her brood.

ii

With the first light of the early morning dawning,

Gilgamesh said to Enkidu the companion:

“May the wild ass in the mountains braying mourn.

May the furtive panthers mourn for Enkidu,

the gazelles and the other grazing creatures mourn

for Enkidu at the wilderness watering places.

May the pathways to the Cedar Forest mourn.

May the passes through the mountains mourn for you.

May the old men of the city mourn, and those

who warned and blessed us on our journey mourn.

May the grasslands wail as if they were your mother.

May the gazelle your mother and the wild ass

your father mourn for Enkidu their child.

The milk you were suckled on was the milk of the creatures,

and the creatures taught you to graze in the wild pastures.

May the holy river mourn, the river Ulaja;

Euphrates mourn whose pure river waters

we made libations of, and drank the waters.

May the young men of the city who fought the Bull,

may they mourn for Enkidu who protected them.

May the farmer who sings of you as he works in the field

mourn as he works in the field, may the shepherds mourn,

who brought you the beer and the cooked food in their camp,

may they mourn for you because you protected them

so that they slept at night in peaceful sleep.

May the harlot weep for you who showed you her body

and showed you the things a woman knows how to do.

May the priests mourn in the rite of lamentation.

Listen to me, you elders of the city,

it is Enkidu, the companion, whom I weep for.”

iii

Gilgamesh called together the makers of statues,

lapidaries, forgers, workers in copper and gold,

and commanded that there be made a statue of him,

of Enkidu the companion, to honor his deeds.

And Gilgamesh spoke to Enkidu's memory, saying:

“You wore the garments suitable for a prince.

You sat in the place of honor nearest the king.

The great ones of the earth bowed down before you.

Gilgamesh was your friend and your companion.

Gilgamesh the king has built a statue

to celebrate the fame of Enkidu.

The grief of Gilgamesh for you has been

the cause of woe and wailing in the city.

Now you are gone, and Gilgamesh will wear

the skins of beasts and wander hairy-bodied

grieving in the wilderness for you.”

With the first light of the early morning dawning,

he made an altar and on the altar offered,

in a carnelian bowl, an offering

of honey, and in another bowl, of lapis

lazuli made, an offering of butter:

these offerings to propitiate the god.

TABLET IX

i

Gilgamesh wandered in the wilderness

grieving over the death of Enkidu

and weeping saying: “Enkidu has died.

Must I die too? Must Gilgamesh be like that?”

Gilgamesh felt the fear of it in his belly.

He said to himself that he would seek the son

of Ubartutu, Utnapishtim, he,

the only one of men by means of whom

he might find out how death could be avoided.

He said to himself that he would hasten to him,

the dangers of the journey notwithstanding.

ii

At night in the mountain passes there were lions,

and Gilgamesh was afraid, and entered afraid

into the moonlit mountain passes, praying

to Sin the moon god: “Hear my prayer and save me

as I enter into the passes where there are lions!”

At night when he lay down to sleep there were

confusions of dreams and in the dreams confusions

of noises, confusions of swords, daggers, axes.

An adversary gloried over him

in struggle, and in the dream who knows who won?

iii

Gilgamesh came to the mountain called Mashu,

whose great twin heads look one way and the other:

the one looks toward the setting of the sun;

the other toward the rising of the sun.

The great twin heads brush up against the Heavens;

the great udders of the mountain hang down into

the shadows of the Cavern of the Earth.

Twin Dragon Scorpion Beings whose look is death

are the guardians of the entrance into the mountain.

The aura of the demon guardian Beings

shimmers across the surface of the mountain.

The shimmering of the light is death to look at.

The Male Twin Monster Being said to the Female:

“Who is it dares come here must be a god.”

The Female Twin Monster Being said to her husband:

“Two-thirds a god. The third part is mortal.”

Terror in the body of Gilgamesh

seized hold of him from within and held him there

in terror. But then, in terror, he went forward.

Then the Male Dragon Being said to him:

“Who is it dares come here? Why have you journeyed

through fearful wilderness making your way through dangers

to come to this mountain no mortal has ever come to?”

Gilgamesh answered, his body seized in terror:

“I come to seek the father, Utnapishtim,

who was admitted to the company

of gods, who granted him eternal life.

I come to seek the answer to the question

that I must ask concerning life and death.”

The Scorpion Monster Being said to him:

“No mortal has ever journeyed through the mountain.

This is the path of the sun's journey by night.

Lightless the sun utterly lightless goes

from the setting to the rising through the mountain.

This is the path of the sun, utterly dark,

twelve leagues of darkness through, utterly lightless.

No mortal would ever be able to go this way.”

Gilgamesh said, his body seized in terror:

“This is the way that Gilgamesh must go,

weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breathing,

whether in heat or cold, companionless.

Open the gate to the entrance into the mountain.”

Monster Husband and Wife murmured together.

Then the Male Twin Monster said to Gilgamesh:

“The gate to the entrance into the mountain is open.

May Gilgamesh in safety make the journey.”

After the Scorpion Dragon Being spoke,

Gilgamesh went to the entrance into the mountain

and entered the darkness alone, without a companion.

By the time he reached the end of the first league

the darkness was total, nothing behind or before.

He made his way, companionless, to the end

of the second league. Utterly lightless, black.

There was nothing behind or before, nothing at all.

Only, the blackness pressed in upon his body.

He felt his blind way through the mountain tunnel,

struggling for breath, through the third league, alone,

and companionless through the fourth, making his way,

and struggling for every breath, to the end of the fifth,

in the absolute dark, nothing behind or before,

the weight of the blackness pressing in upon him.

Weeping and fearful he journeyed a sixth league,

and, blind, to the end of the seventh league, alone,

without a companion, seeing nothing at all,

weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breathing.

At the end of the eighth league he cried aloud

and tried to cry out something against the pressure

of blackness: “Two people, who are companions, they…!”

There was nothing behind or before him in the darkness;

utterly lightless, the way of the sun's night journey.

He struggled to breathe, trying to breathe the darkness.

He was weeping and fearful, alone, without a companion.

Just then, at the end of the ninth league, just once

the rough tongue of the North Wind licked at his face.

It was like the tongue of a wild bull or a lion.

He struggled on through darkness, trying to breathe.

The darkness pressed in upon him, both nothing and something.

After he struggled, blind, his companionless way

through eleven leagues of the darkness, nothing at all

and something, ahead of him, a league ahead

a little light, a grayness, began to show.

Weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breathing,

he made his way through the last league of the journey,

twelve leagues in the darkness, alone, companionless,

weeping and fearful, struggling to keep breathing,

he made his way and finally struggled out free

into the morning air and the morning sunlight.

iv

He emerged from the mountain into a wonderful garden.

Gilgamesh looked at the garden and wondered at it.

The fruit and foliage of the trees were all

the colors of the jewels of the world,

carnelian and lapis lazuli,

jasper, rubies, agate, and hematite,

emerald, and all the other gems the earth

has yielded for the delight and pleasure of kings.

And beyond the garden Gilgamesh saw the sea.

TABLET X

i

Veiled Siduri, a tavern keeper, keeps

a tavern on the shore of the glittering sea.

They have given a golden mixing bowl to her

and an ale flagon. She gazed along the shore;

she gazed and gazed and saw that there was coming

along the shore a hairy-bodied man,

a wanderer, who was wearing an animal skin,

coming toward her tavern along the shore.

It was Gilgamesh approaching, two-thirds a god,

but one-third mortal and grieving in his heart.

He looked like one who has undergone a journey,

his face bitten by hunger or by sorrow.

“Who is this man,” she said to herself, “who is it,

hairy-bodied, wearing the skin of a beast,

coming toward my tavern along the shore,

looking like one who has undergone a journey,

his face bitten by hunger or by sorrow?”

She was afraid, and shut the door to her tavern,

and slid the door bolt to, and locked the door.

Gilgamesh heard the sound of the door shutting

and heard the sound of the door bolt sliding to.

He called to the tavern keeper: “Tavern keeper,

why have you shut the door against me so?

If you do not let me in I will break the lock

and break the door that shuts me out of the tavern.

It is I who killed the lions in the passes.

It is Gilgamesh, who killed the demon guardian,

Huwawa the guardian of the Cedar Forest.

It is I, who wrestled the Bull of Heaven and killed him.

My fame will be secure to all my sons.”

Siduri spoke to Gilgamesh and said:

“If you are Gilgamesh who killed the demon,

and if you killed the lions in the passes,

and if it is you who wrestled the Bull and killed him,

why do you look like one who has undergone

a terrible journey, why do you look like one

who grieves, why do you wear the skin of a beast,

why is it that you roam the wilderness?”

Gilgamesh spoke to the tavern keeper and said:

“I look like one who has undergone a journey,

like one whose grief lives in his heart, and I wander

the wilderness wearing the skin of a beast because

I grieve for the death of Enkidu the companion,

he who has fought with lions and with wolves.

Together we made the journey across the mountains

through the dangerous passes to the Cedar Forest;

he found the secret places where there was water;

together we slew Huwawa the guardian demon;

we fought the Bull of Heaven together and killed him.

Enkidu, the companion, whom I loved,

who went together with me on the journey

no one has ever undergone before,

now Enkidu has undergone the fate

the high gods have established for mankind.

Seven days and nights I sat beside the body,

weeping for Enkidu beside the body,

and then I saw a worm fall out of his nose.

Must I die too? Must Gilgamesh be like that?

It was then I felt the fear of it in my belly.

I roam the wilderness because of the fear.

Enkidu, the companion, whom I loved,

is dirt, nothing but clay is Enkidu.

Weeping as if I were a woman I roam

the paths and shores of unknown places saying:

‘Must I die too? Must Gilgamesh be like that?'”