Song of Gilgamesh 480X270

The Song of Gilgamesh A lyrical translation of humankind's oldest known epic Fred Hornaday THE INITIATE While wilderness mischief excites botheration West of the Indus and south of Tbilisi The sun god called Shamash delivers temptation Sumerian time and the living is easy And summons a temple seductress so charming Imagine a Mesopotamian setting That Enkidu finds her enticements disarming The land of the crescent we can’t be forgetting Submitting himself to her holy seduction A king they call Gilgamesh, strong and sagacious For seven plus seven long nights of instruction But also a tyrant with habits audacious And this way he learns to be polished and civil He’s one-third a mortal and two-thirds divinity No longer consorting with beasts and their drivel Destined to wander in heaven’s vicinity WHAT WOULD ENKIDU ? He dominates Uruk, unfair and unkind The ravishing Shamhat adorns him in style With subjects mistreated, abused and maligned And shepherds invite him to stay for a while They plea to the gods for divine intervention Partaking of civilized foods and libation So goddess Aruru provides an invention As Enkidu opens his eyes to creation The primitive Enkidu, hairy and gritty And learns about kingdoms and ways of oppression A rival for Gilgamesh, man of the city How Gilgamesh governs with gross indiscretion He dwells in the woods among uncultured creatures It seems that before a new bride has her groom In want of a way of refining his features The king has the right to intrude in her room THE CALLING Now Enkidu enters the city with reason Wise men discourage it, so do the leaders That some could equate with a true act of treason Confronting the beast from the Forest of Cedars Today he determines to challenge his highness There’s no greater menace in all the dominion And rescue the wife from a savage unkindness So Gilgamesh asks for his mother’s opinion Defending the bride from the hands of the king But Ninsun, the goddess, has deep reservations And allowing the groom to get on with his thing Afraid of her son’s overblown aspirations But who could’ve dreamt of a hero deserving The ogre Humbaba, that dreadful destroyer As tough as the tyrant with courage unswerving Can crush with one finger a powerful warrior The people of Uruk, astonished and curious But not to be daunted, the two are insistent Watch as the battle grows more and more furious So Shamash and Ninsun respect their commitment Enkidu proving his mettle with gallantry The gods and the elders confer their protection Gilgamesh wrestles him down like a fallen tree And send the men off in the proper direction Leading the two to abandon their grievances From dawn until dusk they traverse the far reaches Forming instead one of time’s great allegiances Approaching the forest of cedars and beeches Pledging their friendship like brothers unstoppable By nighttime their dreams appear dark and malicious Bound for a quest though their odds are improbable Though Enkidu reads them as something auspicious Mount Cedar has beckoned these valiant fellows And Gilgamesh ponders this gentle solution Humbaba salutes them with thundering bellows But Enkidu urges a swift execution To stop them from felling his trees of enchantment Dispatched by our hero without hesitation The bad mouthing monster now makes an advancement Ensuring a highly renowned reputation And battle ensues with a violent eruption The giant and all seven children beheaded Contesting the cedars they want for construction The victors float home to be rightfully fêted With smashing and crashing of axes resounding The city of Uruk awards them with glory While terrified Enkidu’s heart begins pounding And even the gods up above hear the story VICTORY WOMAN SCORNED So Gilgamesh, acting in sheer desperation Enamored of Gilgamesh, Ishtar proposes Will summon the sun god with meek supplication But this sort of union the hero opposes And Shamash delivers a thirteen-storm wonder He knows how the goddess has victimized others To punish Humbaba with lightning and thunder Her previous partners and various lovers And thus overpowered the ogre surrenders The Goddess of Beauty, now seriously slighted Concocting a bargain he woefully tenders Demands that the Bull out of Heaven’s invited The men can possess every tree that’s been planted She calls on her father to let loose the Taurus If only a measure of mercy is granted If not, then the dead will rise up and devour us CONSEQUENCES The Bull brings a seven-year curse of starvation Informed of this judgment, the news has incensed him So Ishtar provides and prepares an oblation To those who once helped him, he’s turning against them Then welcomes the unholy bovine to frighten He wishes he’d waited and stayed on the pasture And sunder the Earth like a terrible titan And never been wooed by that harlot of rapture So Enkidu wrestles the Bull in a tussle But Shamash reminds him of gladness and pleasure And Gilgamesh enters with weapons and muscle His friend, above all, the most valuable treasure Inserting his sword through the gap in the shoulders So Enkidu now understands that tomorrow And placing the corpse on an altar that smolders His allies will grieve him and wallow in sorrow The mettlesome men have prevailed in the battle For Shamhat he kindles a fond reminiscence While Ishtar, defeated, laments her slain cattle But now comes the time to return to the essence And curses the two who have brought this disaster His earthly attachment is slowly eroding But Enkidu tosses a bull haunch right past her And dreams bring a sense portentous foreboding And all over Uruk the city rejoices The underworld creatures with feathers and talons But Enkidu’s dreams include ominous voices Will capture his soul to be weighed in the balance In judging this man who was nurtured by herders While wasting away among dirt, dust and ashes The gods declare death for his blasphemous murders His hope for a noble death suddenly dashes For twelve days he sickens, and once it has ended Immortal existence: the ultimate secret His funeral service is widely attended By perilous journey our hero will seek it The birds and the rivers all mourn his departure A quest of his own independent defiance But Gilgamesh suffers a loss so much larger He traipses the wilderness, clashes with lions Demolished by Enkidu’s untimely passing Arriving at last with the moon god’s assistance A statue is built for his friend everlasting The Mountain of Mashu appears in the distance And Gilgamesh grieves with a conscience afflicted From out of the desert a pair of projections As Shamash the sun god correctly predicted The twin peaks are pointing in different directions IN SEARCH OF One faces west as the seeker surmises Concerning himself with the human condition The other looks east where the morning sun rises The king wanders off on a dubious mission And scorpions stand at the entrance defending Mortality’s no easy biscuit to swallow The tunnel that Gilgamesh plans on descending So old Utnapishtim is whom he must follow The scorpion husband attempts to deter him The one who survived the Great Flood of the ancients But Gilgamesh wields enough strength to assure them But finding him takes perseverance and patience He’s gifted with far more than adequate powers According to legend, it’s he and his missus To pass through the mountain for twelve double hours Who guard the reward that was once the abyss’s THE CROSSING Till finally emerging from out of the shadows The guardian questions the foreigner closely And into the glorious, jewel-covered meadows And Gilgamesh talks about Enkidu mostly The pilgrim now gazes out over the ocean So boatman agrees to deliver the drifter He's almost in reach of that life-giving potion Who’s travelled so far to pursue the elixir A beer maiden finds him disheveled and fragrant But ten dozen tree trunks must first be collected Assuming he must be some villain or vagrant And with them a seaworthy craft is erected And hearing his story in thorough summation By which the injurious waters are traveled She offers her guest a refreshing libation In hope that his fate can be shrewdly unraveled But Gilgamesh only has one aspiration And reaching the island he sees Utnapishtim To reach Utnapishtim and taste the salvation He’s eager to meet and partake of his wisdom If only the Waters of Death can be managed However the sage is standoffish and quiet The hero can pass and obtain his advantage For death is quite certain, you cannot deny it The ferryman knows every inch of the river But Gilgamesh presses, demanding the hidden Though no one can cross but the miracle giver Solution to life that they say is forbidden Moreover the king has behaved with annoyance And here Utnapishtim insists on expressing And shattered the Stones who assist with the voyage That men of this earth are unfit for this blessing So Gilgamesh plunges the dark ocean surface To dwell on such things is a dangerous distraction Retrieving the Box Thorn, fulfilling his purpose That keeps you from living with true satisfaction He pledges to carry the boon to his people But then the philosopher makes a suggestion To share with the elders who pray by the steeple Stay up for a week and I’ll answer your question But on his way home he submits to a blunder For how can he think he can overcome dying While taking a bath and indulging in slumber When not even sleep is he fit for defying? Neglecting the need to be sharp and observant It’s clear from the food that’s accrued on his plate His promising plant is usurped by a serpent That the hero’s been sleeping for seven days straight

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