Herbert Mason > Quotes

“Gilgamesh was called a god and a man; Enkidu was an animal and a man. It is the story of their becoming human together.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“He looked at the walls,
Awed at the heights
His people had achieved
And for a moment -- just a moment --
All that lay behind him
Passed from view.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“You have known, O Gilgamesh,
What interests me,
To drink from the Well of Immortality.
Which means to make the dead
Rise from their graves
And the prisoners from their cells
The sinners from their sins.
I think love's kiss kills our heart of flesh.
It is the only way to eternal life,
Which should be unbearable if lived
Among the dying flowers
And the shrieking farewells
Of the overstretched arms of our spoiled hopes.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“Everything had life to me,’ he heard Enkidu murmur, ‘the sky, the storm, the earth, water, wandering, the moon and its three children, salt, even my hand had life. It’s gone. It’s gone.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“Friendship is vowing toward immortality and does not know the passing away of beauty (Though take care!) because it aims for the spirit. Many years ago through loss I learned that love is wrung from our inmost heart until only the loved one is and we are not.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“Even the gods
Cowered like dogs at what they had done.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“Don't moralize at me! I have no love
For images, old gods, prophetic words.
I want to talk to Utnapishtim!
Tell me how.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“It could go on for years and years,
And has, for centuries,
For being human holds a special grief
Of privacy within the universe
That yearns and waits to be retouched
By someone who can take away
The memory of death.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“What we finally do, out of desperation ... is go on an impossible, or even forbidden, journey or pilgrimage, which from a rational point of view is futile: to find the one wise man, whomever or wherever he may be; and to find from him the secret of eternal life or the secret of adjusting to this life as best we can.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“You are a human being now, not like them [the animals].”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“As if some faces could be doorways in
To life one has an image of
But never sees. The vista was
A strange and beautiful
Release”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“Gilgamesh was king of Uruk,
A city set between the Tigris
And Euphrates rivers
In ancient Babylonia.
Enkidu was born on the Steppe
Where he grew up among the animals.
Gilgamesh was called a god and man;
Enkidu was an animal and man.
It is the story
Of their becoming human together.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“He entered the city asked a blind man if he had ever heard the name Enkidu, and the old man shrugged and shook his head, then turned away, as if to say, ‘It is impossible to keep the names of friends whom we have lost”
― Herbert Mason

“They fell like wolves
At each other’s throats,
Like bulls bellowing,
And horses gasping for breath
That have run all day.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“All that is left to one who grieves
Is convalescence. No change of heart or spiritual
Conversion, for the heart has changed
And the soul has been converted
To a thing that sees
How much it costs to lose a friend it loved.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“I think love's kiss kills our heart of flesh.

It is the only way to eternal life,

Which should be unbearable if lived

Among the dying flowers

And the shrieking farewells

Of the overstretched arms of our spoiled hopes.

-Book III”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“[Humbaba’s] sound is like a flood’s sound
Slowly forming in the distance,
Then enveloping all other sounds”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“But my hand was too small to do the gathering. [Epic of Gilgamesh, p. 79]”
― Herbert Mason

“He imagined the gazelles raising the dry dust
Like soft brush floating on the crests of sand.”
― Herbert Mason, The Epic of Gilgamesh

“She spoke as to a child who could not understand
All the futility that lay ahead
Yet who she knew would go on to repeat
Repeat repeat the things men had to learn.
The gods gave death to man and kept life for
Themselves. That is the only way it is.
Cherish your rests; the children you might have;
You are a thing that carries so much tiredness.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“How will you find eternal life
To bring back to your friend?
He pondered busily, as if
It were just a matter of getting down to work
Or making plans for an excursion.
Then he relaxed, as if there were no use
In this reflection. I would grieve
At all that may befall you still
If I did not know you must return
And bury your own loss and build
Your world anew with your own hands.
I envy you your freedom.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“Youth is very
Cruel to an old face,
He said in a hushed voice.
It looks into its lines for wisdom
So touchingly
But there is nothing there to find.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh

“[Gilgamesh] pushed his people half to death… And left his people dreaming of the past
And longing for a change.
They had grown tired of his contradictions.”
― Herbert Mason

“As when we can recall so vividly
We almost touch,
Or think of all the gestures that we failed
To make.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“He looked into the old man’s face, and it seemed changed,
As if this one had fought within himself a battle
He would never know, that still went on.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“It is that inner atmosphere that has
An unfamiliar gravity or none at all
Where words are flung out in the air but stay
Motionless without an answer,
Hovering about one’s lips
Or arguing back to haunt
The memory with what one failed to say,
Until one learns acceptance of the silence
Amidst the new debris
Or turns again to grief
As the only source of privacy,
Alone with someone loved.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“The only nourishment
He knew was grief, endless in its hidden source
Yet never ending hunger.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative

“It is an old story
But one that can still be told
About a man who loved
And lost a friend to death
And learned he lacked the power
To bring him back to life.
It is the story of Gilgamesh
And his friend Enkidu.”
― Herbert Mason, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative