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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