Gilgamesh : A New Rendering in English Verse (8 page)

He entered the water, to refresh himself.

In the reeds nearby a serpent of the place

became aware of the fragrance of the plant,

breathed its perfume, desired it, and approached,

and stole away with it among the reeds.

As it disappeared the serpent shed its skin.

When Gilgamesh found out what the serpent had done

he sat down weeping by the pool of water.

He took Urshànabi by the hand and said:

“What shall I do? The journey has gone for nothing.

For whom has my heart's blood been spent? For whom?

For the serpent who has taken away the plant.

I descended into the waters to find the plant

and what I found was a sign telling me to

abandon the journey and what it was I sought for.”

ix

At twenty leagues they stopped only to eat.

At thirty leagues they stopped to rest for the night.

And so they traveled until they reached Uruk.

There Gilgamesh the king said to the boatman:

“Study the brickwork, study the fortification;

climb the great ancient staircase to the terrace;

study how it is made; from the terrace see

the planted and fallow fields, the ponds and orchards.

One league is the inner city, another league

is orchards; still another the fields beyond;

over there is the precinct of the temple.

Three leagues and the temple precinct of Ishtar

measure Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh.”

GILGAMESH, ENKIDU, AND THE NETHER WORLD

(TABLET XII)

 

i

“The Drum and Drumstick I had in the Carpenter's house,

where the Carpenter's daughter was, and the Carpenter's wife—

wife and daughter were like my mother and sister—

the Drum and Drumstick that I had have fallen

down through a hole into the Nether World,

out of my sight, down through a hole in the floor.

Who will bring back my Drumstick from down there?

Who will bring back my Drum from the Nether World?”

Enkidu heard what Gilgamesh was saying,

and said, his servant, then, to Gilgamesh:

“I will bring up the Drumstick from below.

I will bring back the Drum from the Nether World.”

Gilgamesh heard the promise of Enkidu,

and with these words he thus admonished him:

“If you go down to the Nether World for me,

listen to what I tell you about your going.

Do not put on clean clothes when you go down there,

or they will know you come down there a stranger.

Do not anoint your body with fragrant oil.

The fragrance will cause them to gather about you like flies.

Carry no staff or bow along with you,

or, startled up, the spirits will flutter around you.

Do not wear shoes when you go to the House of the Dead.

Let not your step be heard on that booming floor.

Refrain from kissing the wife your heart has loved;

refrain from striking the wife your heart has hated;

refrain from kissing the son dear to your heart;

and do not strike the son your heart has shunned;

or you will be seized and held by the Cry of the Dead:

Naked the goddess mother lies in hell;

naked, Ninazu's mother lies exposed,

the holy garment fallen from her shoulders,

bare are the breasts of the mother, Ereshkigal.

ii

Then Enkidu went down to the Nether World

not heeding the admonishments of the king.

He wore clean clothes when he went to the House of the Dead,

and so they knew he came down there a stranger.

He anointed his body with fragrant oil, and they

collected like flies, attracted by the fragrance.

He carried a staff and bow with him when he went.

Startled, the spirits fluttered all around him.

The sounds of the shoes he wore were heard in that place;

the echoing floor of the House of the Dead resounded.

He did not refrain from kissing the wife he loved;

he did not refrain from striking the hated wife;

he embraced and kissed the son who was dear to him;

and did not refrain from striking the hated son.

And so the Cry of the Dead seized him and held him:

Naked the goddess mother lies in hell;

naked, Ninazu's mother lies exposed,

the holy garment fallen from her shoulders,

bare are the breasts of the mother, Ereshkigal.

The Cry of the Dead seized him and held him fast.

Namtar the demon did not seize and hold him.

Ashak the fever demon did not hold him.

Nergal's pitiless viceroy did not seize him.

It was the Cry of the Dead that seized and held him.

He did not fall in battle. It was the Cry.

The Nether World itself it was that seized him;

Ereshkigal the Queen it was who held him.

iii

Gilgamesh grieved for the death of Enkidu.

Grieving he went to the house of the god Enlil.

“Enlil, Father, my Drum fell through the floor

of the Upper World into the Nether World.

I saw my Drumstick fall, out of my sight.

The Cry of the Nether World has seized my servant,

Enkidu, whom I sent to bring me back

the Drum and Drumstick that I had that fell

down through a hole into the Nether World.

Namtar the demon did not seize and hold him.

The fever demon Ashak did not seize him.

Nergal's pitiless viceroy did not hold him.

It was the Cry of the Dead that seized and held him.

He did not fall in battle. It was the Cry.

The Nether World itself it was that seized him;

Ereshkigal the Queen it was who held him.

O Father Enlil, intercede for me.”

But Father Enlil would not intercede.

So Gilgamesh went grieving to the moon god.

“O Father Sin, my Drum fell through a hole

in the floor of the Upper World into the Nether.

My Drumstick fell through the hole, I saw it fall.

The Cry has seized my servant, Enkidu,

whom I sent to bring me back from the world down there

the Drum and Drumstick that I had that fell

down through a hole in the floor of the Upper World.

The demon Namtar did not seize and hold him.

Ashak the fever demon did not hold him.

Nergal's pitiless viceroy did not seize him.

It was the Cry of the Dead that seized and held him.

He did not fall in battle. It was the Cry.

The Nether World itself it was that seized him;

Ereshkigal the Queen it was who held him.

I pray that the god of the moon will intercede.”

The god of the moon was deaf to what he asked.

Then Gilgamesh went grieving to the edge

of Apsu the abyss, to the god Ea:

“O Father Ea, into the Nether World

my Drum has fallen through a hole; my Drumstick

fell through a hole, down into the world below.

The Cry of the Nether World has seized my servant,

Enkidu, whom I sent to bring me back

the Drum and Drumstick that I had that fell

down through the hole in the floor of the Upper World.

Namtar the demon did not seize and hold him.

Ashak the fever demon did not hold him.

Nergal's pitiless viceroy did not seize him.

It was the Cry of the Dead that seized and held him.

He did not fall in battle. It was the Cry.

The Nether World itself it was that seized him;

Ereshkigal the Queen it was who held him.”

The god of the abyss heard what he said,

and interceded for the grieving king.

He said to Nergal, King of the Nether World:

“Open a hole in the roof of the Nether World

so Enkidu may rise up like a vapor

out of the Nether World into the Upper.”

Nergal obeyed the voice of Ea the god.

The hole in the floor of the Upper World was open.

The spirit of Enkidu, a puff of breath,

came forth from the Nether World into the Upper.

Then Gilgamesh and Enkidu, companions,

tried to embrace and kiss one another, companions.

Sighing toward one another they spoke these words:

“Now tell me how it is in the Nether World.”

“I will not tell you. If I told you how

it is in the Nether World, the arrangement of things,

you would sit down and weep because I told you.”

“Now tell me how it is although I may

sit down and weep because of what you tell me.”

So Enkidu told him the way it is down there.

“The vermin eat my body that once made

Gilgamesh the companion rejoice to touch;

as if it was old clothes, filthy, discarded,

the vermin eat the body of Enkidu.”

Then Gilgamesh cried woe and fell to the ground,

because of the things that Enkidu was telling.

iv

After a time he further questioned him

about the way it is among the dead.

“Have you seen down there the man who has no son?”

“I have seen the sonless man in the Nether World.”

“How is it with the man who has one son?”

“I have seen the man. He sits by the wall and weeps.”

“Have you seen the man down there who has two sons?”

“He sits on two bricks and has some bread to eat.”

“How is it with the man who has three sons?”

“He drinks from the waterskin his sons have brought.”

“Have you seen the man down there who has four sons?”

“His heart rejoices as the heart rejoices

of a farmer with four asses yoked to his cart.”

“How is it with the man who has five sons?”

“They treat him in the Nether World as if

he were a scribe of the court, dispenser of justice.”

“Have you seen down there the man who has six sons?”

“His heart rejoices as the heart rejoices

of one who drives his plow in a rich field.”

“How is it with the man with seven sons?”

“As if he were a companion of the gods

he sits upon a throne and listens to music.”

“Have you seen the man who fell from the mast and drowned?”

“I have seen the drowned man in the Nether World.”

“How is it with the man who suddenly died?”

“They bring pure water to him on his couch.”

“Have you seen in the Nether World the famous warrior,

he who fell on the battlefield in glory?”

“The grieving parents raise up the head of the son;

the mourning wife grieves at the couch of death.”

“And he whose corpse was thrown away unburied?”

“He wanders without rest through the world down there.”

“The one who goes to the Nether World without

leaving behind him any to mourn for him?”

“Garbage is what he eats in the Nether World.

No dog would eat the food he has to eat.”

NOTES

I should explain the constraints within which I have worked. I cannot read cuneiform and do not know the language, or languages, the Gilgamesh epic was written in. As my sources and authorities I have used three literal line-by-line translations, first and foremost “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” by E. A. Speiser, in
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
(Princeton University Press, 1969), and two more recent works,
Gilgamesh,
by John Gardner and John Maier (Vintage, 1985), and
The Epic of Gilgamesh,
by Maureen Gallery Kovacs (Stanford University Press, 1989). I have also consulted the excellent prose free version by N. K. Sandars,
The Epic of Gilgamesh
(Penguin, 1972), based on Sumerian as well as Akkadian originals. I did not see the new translation by Stephanie Dalley,
Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others
(Oxford World Classics, 1989), in time for my own work to be much affected by it. The new version by Robert Temple,
He Who Saw Everything
(Rider, 1991), is still more recent. I have consulted Jeffrey H. Tigay's
The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982). I have also read the free-verse free version by Herbert Mason,
Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative
(Mentor, 1970). While I have tried to avoid borrowing the language of the scholarly translations, I have also tried to use as few expressions as possible which have no authority deriving from one or another of them. (I have pointed out in the notes a few places where I have borrowed an irresistibly telling word or phrase. No doubt there are others.)

Speiser remarks of “Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World” (Tablet XII) that “contents and circumstantial evidence mark this tablet as an inorganic appendage to the epic proper.” Tablet XII is an Akkadian translation of part of a Sumerian poem and it does seem to me to be different in character from the main poem. To include it as an organic part of the main poem would cause a number of problems, the most obvious of which is that it would spoil the effect of Tablet XI's conclusion, which returns to the language of the opening passage of the poem. I present it therefore as a separate poem, giving it the title conventionally assigned to the Sumerian poem.

There are many gaps in the tablets and therefore in the literal translations, and these gaps have provided both problems and opportunities for me. Tablet I is pretty full, so there is only one line (“Shadow of Darkness over the enemy field”) without any authority. Tablets VI and XI are also relatively full, so there are relatively few instances of unauthorized invention by me. In the account of the fight against Huwawa, Tablets IV and V, there are more such instances because there are lots of gaps. This is also true of the opening passages of Tablet IX. These are examples.