EPIC OF GILGAMESH TABLET X
Siduri Whose Drinks Refresh the Soul, The Boatman, Urshanabi, Gilgamesh Implores Utnapishtim Columns I - VI
- Column I
- This gentle girl is called Siduri
- and she sits by the sea
- where she sways from side to side.
- She made the water pale; she crafted the first gold bowl
- while peeking at the sun
- through a slit across her face veil.
- King Gilgamesh approached the girl's small cottage by the sea
- dressed as a mountain man,
- a meat-eater,
- 10. with an aching heart
- and the stare of one setting out upon some
- arduous, horrid trek.
- The girl who gives her men lifesaving drinks
- said to herself, "Beware of the one
- coming now. He walks as if he'd kill."
- And so Siduri locked the door,
- put stones in place, lay on the floor.
- When Gilgamesh heard sounds inside
- he yelled at her. "Why do you hide?
- 20. Shall I have to break through this door?"
- The girl whose drinks refresh the soul
- then said these words to Gilgamesh:
- "Is there a simple reason, sir, why you're so sad
- or why your face is drawn and thin?
- Has chance worn out your youth or did some
- wicked sorrow consume you like food?
- You look like one setting out on some arduous, horrid trek,
- like one exposed to extremes of hot and cold,
- like one who searches everywhere for grace."
- 30. He responded then to her who gives her men
- lifesaving drinks:
- "Girl, there is no simple reason why I'm so sad
- or why my face is drawn and thin.
- Chance alone did not wear out my youth. Some
- wicked sorrow consumes me like food.
- But I do look like one setting out on some
- arduous, horrid trek, like one exposed
- to extreme hot or cold,
- like one who searches everywhere
- 40. for the breath of life
- because my brother, my only true friend, met death;
- he who raced wild horses there,
- who caught orange tigers here.
- This was Enkidu, my soul's good half,
- who raced wild horses there,
- who caught orange tigers here;
- who did all things while he conquered mountains
- and divine bulls that race
- across the sky like clouds;
- 50. who gave Humbaba, the woodland god,
- reason to weep when he stole through
- the wooded path to slaughter lions."
- Column II
- Gilgamesh continued:
- "I greatly loved my friend who was always there for me.
- I loved Enkidu who was always there for me.
- What awaits us all caught him first
- and I did thirst for one whole week to
- see him once again in splendor until his body decomposed.
- Then I wept for my future death
- 60. and I fled home for mountaintops to breathe
- when my friend's death choked off my wind.
- On mountaintops I roamed content to breathe
- again when my friend's death choked off my wind.
- Walking. Walking. Walking over hills.
- Could I sit down to rest?
- Could I stop crying then
- when my best friend had died
- as I will someday do?"
- Then Gilgamesh said to the fair girl
- 70. whose saving drinks gave life to men:
- "Tell me, girl, how to get to Utnapishtim.
- Where do I look for signs? Show me directions. Help,
- Please let me have safe passage over seas.
- Give me advice to guide me on my way."
- She said to him in swift reply:
- "No man has ever gone that way
- and lived to say he crossed the sea.
- Shamash only ventures there,
- only Shamash would dare
- 80. to stare into the sun.
- Pain joins the voyager soon,
- and soon the traveler grows weary
- where death surrounds the path
- on every side with danger."
- Column III
- The girl whose drinks refresh the soul
- then said these words to Gilgamesh:
- "Remember always, mighty king,
- that gods decreed the fates of all
- many years ago. They alone are let
- 90. to be eternal, while we frail humans die
- as you yourself must someday do.
- What is best for us to do
- is now to sing and dance.
- Relish warm food and cool drinks.
- Cherish children to whom your love gives life.
- Bathe easily in sweet, refreshing waters.
- Play joyfully with your chosen wife."
- "It is the will of the gods for you to smile
- on simple pleasure in the leisure time of your short days."
- 100. "And what, after all, my fellow man,
- would you do when you got to that
- far side where Urshanabi dwells
- among the hills of Utnapishtim?
- He knows only the dead weight of what is dead
- and he is one who plays with deadly snakes.
- Would you put your lips near his?
- if he befriends you then, go on.
- But if he walks away, return to me."
- With that in mind
- 110. Gilgamesh took up his chore,
- unsheathed his sword, slipped toward the shore
- and there joined one who rows the seas of death.
- Gilgamesh sliced through the underbrush as an arrow goes through air
- while cracking the stones of the sacred columns.
- And Urshanabi barely saw the arrow's glint
- and too late heard the ax's thud.
- And so surprised was he that
- there was never any chance to
- hide or to deny the daring man
- 120. at least a chance at
- some safe passage.
- Gilgamesh traveled on to where he next
- found the ferryman of Utnapishtim. This man,
- Urshanabi, said to Gilgamesh:
- "Your face seems tense; your eyes do not glance well
- and Hell itself is part of how you look.
- Grief hangs from your shoulders.
- You look like one who's been without a home, without a bed
- or roof for a long time, wandering the wilds on some random search."
- 130. Gilgamesh replied to the ferryman:
- "Yes sir, it's true my face is tense
- and that my eyes seem harsh.
- My looks are now so hellish,
- for I wear my grief as ill as any other.
- I'm not this way as some refugee
- without a bed or roof for a long time,
- and I don't wander the wilds randomly.
- I grieve for Enkidu, my fair companion and true friend,
- who chased the strongest mule, the swiftest horse
- 140. on mountain high, the quickest panther of the flatland.
- Together we did all things, climbing sky-high peaks,
- stealing divine cattle, humbling the gods, killing Humbaba
- and the precious lions, guardians of the sky.
- All this I did with my best friend who now is dead.
- Mortality reached him first and I am left this week
- to weep and wail for his shriveling corpse which scares me.
- I roam aloft and alone now, by death enthralled,
- and think of nothing but my dear friend.
- I roam the lonely path with death upon my mind
- 150. and think of nothing but my dear friend.
- Over many seas and across many mountains I roam.
- I can't stop pacing. I can't stop crying.
- My friend has died and half my heart is torn from me.
- Won't I soon be like him, stone-cold and dead,
- for all the days to come?"
- Urshanabi replied as he had done before:
- "Your face seems tense; your eyes do not glance well
- and Hell itself is part of how you look.
- Grief hangs from your shoulders.
- You look like one who's been without a home, without a bed
- 160. or roof for a long time, wandering the wilds on some random search."
- And Gilgamesh said to him then in swift reply:
- "Of course my face seems tense and my eyes seem harsh.
- Of course I'm worn out weeping. Why should I not cry?
- I've come to ask directions to Utnapishtim, who lives so
- free beyond death's deep, deep lake. Where can he be?
- Tell me how to venture there where I may learn his secrets."
- Finally, Urshanabi uttered these last words to Gilgamesh:
- "You yourself have hurt this effort most, sir,
- by blasphemy and sacrilege,
- 170. by breaking idols and by holding the untouchably sacred stones.
- You broke stone images!
- So now, Mr. Gilgamesh, raise high your ax."
- Thus chastised, Gilgamesh
- raised high his ax, unsheathed his sword,
- did penance too as he chopped down many trees;
- prepared them then, and then brought them
- to Urshanabi.
- After this, they cast off together,
- with push and pull they launched the skiff
- 180. upon the waving sea.
- They leaped quick, in three short days
- covering a span that any other would
- traverse only after months of passage
- and soon they sailed on to Death's own sea.
- Column IV
- Still directing the king's new efforts, Urshanabi called:
- "Give me another pull, Gilgamesh, upon the mighty oar
- and then another. Give ten times twenty
- and then give twenty times ten pulls upon the
- mighty oars; then ten more twice; then twice
- 190. more ten and then confuse the number of
- the pulls you put upon the oar
- by losing count aloud and starting over."
- Halfway through all that pulling,
- Gilgamesh had worn the oars to bits
- and torn his shirt from off his back
- to raise a helping sail upon the mast.
- Then Utnapishtim glared down from stars and clouds
- and mused aloud, as if to coach the world:
- "How could any human dare to break the idols
- 200. or steer the craft that gods and goddesses use?
- This stranger is not fit to tie the shoes of servants.
- I do see, but I am blind.
- I do know, but cannot understand
- how he behaves like
- the beasts of here and there."
- Column V
- Gilgamesh spoke many words to Utnapishtim
- and told of strife-in-life and
- battles rare. He hailed his friend Enkidu,
- acclaimed their pride and grieved the
- 210. death that saddened his great heart.
- Gilgamesh raised his prayer to the remote Utnapishtim:
- "oh myth-filled god,
- I have traveled many roads,
- crossed many rivers and mountains.
- I never rested. I never slept. Grief consumed me.
- My clothing was ragged by the time I met
- the girl who would help me.
- I killed all manner of animal in order
- to eat and clothe myself.
- 220. When I was rejected, I stooped to squalor.
- Cursed I went,
- being unholy."
- Utnapishtim replied:
- "Why cry over your fate and nature?
- Chance fathered you. Your conception was
- an accidental combination
- of the divine and mortal.
- I do not presume to know how to help
- the likes of you."
- Column VI
- 230. Utnapishtim continued:
- "No man has ever seen Death.
- No one ever heard Death's voice
- but Death is real and Death is loud.
- How many times must a home be restored
- or a contract revised and approved?
- How many times must two brothers agree
- not to dispute what is theirs?
- How many wars and how many floods must there be
- with plague and exile in their wake?
- 240. Shamash is the one who can say.
- But there is no one else who can
- see what Shamash only can see within the sun.
- Behold the cold, cold corpse from a distance,
- and then regard the body of one who sleeps.
- There seems no difference. How can we say
- which is good and which is bad?
- And it is also like that with other things as well.
- Somewhere above us, where the goddess Mammetum decides
- all things,
- Mother Chance sits with the Anunnaki
- 250. and there she settles all decrees of fable and of fortune.
- There they issue lengths of lives;
- then they issue times of death.
- But the last, last matter
- is always veiled from human beings.
- The length of lives can only be guessed."
- Thus spoke Utnapishtim.
- Tablet I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII
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