Gilgamesh : A New Rendering in English Verse
Page 4
Belit-Seri the Scribe who holds the tablet
on which the fate of everyone is written.
She turned her head and looked at us and said:
‘Who has led here this latest to arrive?’”
v
Gilgamesh said: “The dream is terrible.”
Enkidu said: “We went together through
the dangers of the Forest and we killed
the Bull of Heaven. Do not forget how we,
two people together, prevailed against the terror.”
Enkidu lay suffering on the bed of terror
another day and another day and another,
and the long nights between, and day after day
the suffering of Enkidu grew worse.
On the twelfth day he raised up in his bed
and spoke these words to Gilgamesh and said:
“Gilgamesh, who encouraged me in the battle,
saying, ‘Two people, companions, they can prevail,’
Gilgamesh is afraid and does not help me!”
After that Gilgamesh heard the death rattle.
TABLET VIII
i
With the first light of the early morning dawning,
in the presence of the old men of the city,
Gilgamesh, weeping, mourned for Enkidu:
“It is Enkidu, the companion, whom I weep for,
weeping for him as if I were a woman.
He was the festal garment of the feast.
On the dangerous errand, in the confusions of noises,
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 ha
s 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?’”
Then veiled Siduri replied to Gilgamesh:
“Who is the mortal who can live forever?
The life of man is short. Only the gods
can live forever. Therefore put on new clothes,
a clean robe and a cloak tied with a sash,
and wash the filth of the journey from your body.
Eat and drink your fill of the food and drink
men eat and drink. Let there be pleasure and dancing.”
But Gilgamesh replied to the tavern keeper:
“Tell me the way to find the only one
of men by means of whom I might find out
how death can be avoided. Tell me the way.
What are the signs of the way to Utnapishtim?
If I must cross the sea, I will cross the sea.
If not, I will wander in unknown places, seeking.”
The tavern keeper replied to Gilgamesh:
“Not from the beginning of time has anyone ever
been able to go across the glittering sea.
Shamash alone, the Sun, crosses the sea.
He is the only one. Nobody else.
The waters are treacherous, crossing the waters is fearful,
and far out in the waters, forbidding the way,
there slide the other waters, the waters of death.
Urshànabi the boatman dwells out there,
on an island out there somewhere in the waters.
What will you do if you get as far as his island?
He guards the Stone Things and he searches out,
there in the island forest, the Urnu-Snakes.
What will you do if you get to his far-off island,
far out in the treacherous waters? Let Urshànabi
look at the face of Gilgamesh. Perhaps
he will take you with him across the waters of death;
if not, then Gilgamesh must abandon the crossing.”
ii
After he crossed the treacherous glittering waters
as far as the island where Urshànabi was,
Gilgamesh raised his ax and drew out his dagger