Column I

(Gilgamesh determines to seek eternal life)

Gilgamesh bitterly wept for his comrade Enkidu, ranging

over the desert: "I too, shall I not die like Enkidu also?

Sorrow has entered my heart; I fear death as I range o'er the desert.

I will get hence on the road to the presence of Uta-Napishtim,

offspring of Ubara-Tutu is he, and with speed will I travel.

If it is in darkness that I shall arrive at the gates of the mountains,

meeting with lions, then terror fall on me, I will lift my head skywards,

offer my prayer to God alone, let my orison come to Him:

'O deliver me!'" He slept, and a dream . . .

He saw . . . which were rejoicing in life;

poised he his axe in his hand, and drew his glaive from his baldric,

lance-like leapt he amongst them, smiting and crushing.

Column II

(The hero reaches the Mountains of Mashu)

Mashu the name of the hills; as he reached the Mountains of Mashu,

where every day they keep watch over the sun's rising and setting,

unto the zenith of heaven upreared are their summits, and downwards

deep unto the grave reach their breasts; and there at their portals stand sentry

scorpion-men, awful in terror, their very glance death; and tremendous,

shaking the hills, their magnificence; they are the wardens of the sun

both at its rising and setting. No sooner did Gilgamesh see them

than from alarm and dismay was his countenance stricken with pallor;

senseless, he grovelled before them.

Then unto his wife spoke the scorpion-man:

"Lo, he that comes to us, his body is of the flesh of mighty men."

Then to the scorpion-man answered his wife: "Of a mighty frame is he,

and of strength beyond mankind."

(Eight broken lines remain, in which the scorpion-man addresses Gilgamesh, asking why he has gone a far journey, and telling him how hard the traverse is. Gilgamesh tells him that he proposes to ask Uta-Napishtim about death and life. But the scorpion-man says that the journey has never before been made, that none has crossed the mountains. The traverse is by the road of the sun, by a journey of twenty-four hours, beginning with deep darkness. Gilgamesh accepts the trial of his strength, even though his face be weathered with cold and heat. Then the scorpion-man farewells him, wishing him success. When Gilgamesh heard this, he set off at the word of the scorpion-man, taking the road of the sun. The first hours are in deep darkness, without light, which did not allow him to see behind him. Each succeeding period of two hours is the same until the eighth is reached and passed, and by the ninth he comes to the first glimmer of light. Finally, with the twelfth double hour, he reaches the full blaze of the sun, and there he beholds a wondrous tree.)

Bearing its fruit all ruby, and hung about with its tendrils,

fair for beholding, and azure the boskage it bore; it was bearing

fruits all desirable unto the eye.

(Column VI)

"He of the wild things has dressed their pelts and the flesh of them eats.

Gilgamesh, never a crossing shall be where none has been ever,

no, so long as the gale drives water."

God had compassion on him, and called him, thus unto Gilgamesh

speaking:

"Gilgamesh, why dost thou run, forasmuch as the life which thou seekest

thou shalt not find?" Whereat Gilgamesh answered:

"Shall I, after I roam up and down o'er the waste as a wanderer,

lay my head in the bowels of earth, and throughout the years slumber

ever and aye? Let mine eyes see the sun and be sated with brightness,

for the darkness is banished afar if wide be the brightness.

When will the man who is dead ever look on the light of the sunshine?"

(Gilgamesh has now come to the woman Siduri, who keeps a rest-house and provides food and drink to travellers.)