Column I

(Enkidu addresses the Gate)

Enkidu lifted his eyes and spoke to the Gate as though it were human:

"O thou Gate of the Forest, without understanding,

sentience which thou hast not . . .

For full forty leagues have I admired thy wonderful timber,

till I sighted the towering cedar . . .

thy wood has no peer in the country . . .

Six gar thy height, and two gar thy breadth . . .

thy stanchion, thy socket, thy pivot, thy lock, and thy shutter,

all of them must have been fashioned for thee in the city of Nippur!

O, if I had but known, O Gate, that this was thy grandeur,

this, too, the grace of thy structure, then either an axe had I lifted

or I had . . . or bound together . . ."

(Of the next columns only fragments remain)

". . . let me pray to God . . . may thy Lord be . . ."

". . . haste thee, withstand him, he will not pursue thee;

we will go on down into the wood, not daunted, together.

. . . Thou shalt put on seven garments . . .

putting on, and six . . ."

He, like a mighty wild bull,

flung the portal afar, and his mouth was filled with his challenge;

he cried to the guard of the Forest: "Up! . . .

It is I who will challenge Humbaba . . ."

Column VI

(Enkidu is speaking)

"Trouble I foresee wherever I go . . .

O my friend, I have seen a dream which . . ."

The day of the dream he had seen fulfilled . . .

(Enkidu is stricken with fear at the thought of the combat)

Enkidu lay for a day, yea, a second—Enkidu lying

prone on his couch, was a third and a fourth day, a fifth, sixth and seventh,

eighth, ninth, and tenth. While Enkidu lay in his sickness, the eleventh,

until the twelfth, on his couch was Enkidu lying.

He called to Gilgamesh . . .

"O my comrade, . . . because within Erech

I was afraid of the combat . . . My friend, who in battle . . ."

(Gilgamesh has answered. Enkidu replies)

Enkidu opened his mouth and spoke to Gilgamesh, saying:

"Nay, my friend, let us in no wise go down to the depths of the Forest,

for my hands have grown weak, and my arms are stricken with palsy."

Gilgamesh opened his mouth and spoke to Enkidu, saying:

"Shall we, O friend, play the coward? . . .

Thou shalt surpass them all . . .

Thou, O my friend, art cunning in warfare, art shrewd in the battle;

so shalt thou touch the . . . and of death have no terror.

So that the palsy now striking thine arms may depart, and the weakness

pass from thy hands, be brave and resist! O my comrade, together

we will go down—let the combat in no wise diminish thy courage!

O forget death, and be fearful of nothing; for he who is valiant,

cautious and careful, by leading the way has his own body guarded,

and will safeguard a comrade."

A name by their valour they will establish. And now they together arrive at the barrier;

stilled into silence was their speech, and they themselves suddenly stopped.