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gilgamesh: a New Renderin in English Verse
A new verse rendering of the great epic of ancient Mesopotamia, one of the oldest works in Western Literature. Ferry makes Gilgamesh available in the kind of energetic and readable translation that Robert Fitzgerald and Richard Lattimore have provided for readers in their translations of Homer and Virgil.
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First published November 11, 2014
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About the author
David Ferry
52 books9 followersDavid Ferry was born in Orange, New Jersey in 1924. He is the author of a number of books of poetry and has translated several works from classical languages. Currently he is the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor Emeritus of English at Wellesley College, as well as a visiting lecturer in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Boston University and a distinguished visiting scholar at Suffolk University.
His book of new and selected poems and translations, Of No Country I Know, published in 1999 by the University of Chicago Press, received the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress.
In 2011 he was awarded the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. Other awards include the Sixtieth Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, the Teasdale Prize for Poetry, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Award, and the William Arrowsmith Translation Prize from AGNI magazine. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998.
He won the 2012 National Book Award for Poetry for Bewilderment.
His book of new and selected poems and translations, Of No Country I Know, published in 1999 by the University of Chicago Press, received the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress.
In 2011 he was awarded the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. Other awards include the Sixtieth Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets, the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, the Teasdale Prize for Poetry, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Award, and the William Arrowsmith Translation Prize from AGNI magazine. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998.
He won the 2012 National Book Award for Poetry for Bewilderment.
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April 8, 2021This is not a new translation of Gilgamesh, but rather a “rendering” by National Book Award winning poet David Ferry. Ferry’s rendering is based on twelve tablets translated by others, prominently acknowledged by Professor Ferry, and written two centuries BCE. Gilgamesh is the origin story of Babylonia and its founder Gilgamesh the King, the “Wild Ox,” two thirds god and one third man, ”who is the strongest of all, the perfect, the terror/ the wise shepherd, protector of the people”. Gilgamesh revolves around the eponymous hero’s relationship with his beloved companion Enkidu, “the hairy-bodied wild man of the grasslands”: their initial meeting and battle for supremacy, their subsequent friendship and fellowship in arms as they venture into the wild Cedar Forest to destroy its guardian demon Huwawa, Gilgamesh’s ”wander[ing] in the wilderness/grieving over the death of Enkidu”, and ultimately Gilgamesh’s seeking to understand the Nether World through meeting with the spirit of Enkidu.
The rhythms of Ferry’s Gilgamesh determine its narrative power and grip. This is a reader’s Gilgamesh, intended for and likely to benefit from re-reading. I can no more attach a star rating to Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse than I could to David Alter’s 2007 translation of The Book of Psalms.
The rhythms of Ferry’s Gilgamesh determine its narrative power and grip. This is a reader’s Gilgamesh, intended for and likely to benefit from re-reading. I can no more attach a star rating to Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse than I could to David Alter’s 2007 translation of The Book of Psalms.
September 4, 2013
Richard Poirier* says in his blurb on the back of this book,
Maybe I should add that I am a passionate fan of Ferry's translations and poetry. Gilgamesh is a partial exception. This is indeed a "new rendering," but for the grit of the original, I'd recommend George.
_______________________
* Poirier is the author of Robert Frost: The Work of Knowing (1978) – one of the best books ever on a poet.
The poetic splendor and sublimity of David Ferry's Gilgamesh is entirely of his own making, and his great poem is no more indebted to earlier versions of its story than is anything of Shakespeare's to North's Plutarch.And maybe that's the right spirit in which to approach this version. However, I found myself missing the grain of the original. For example, the resonant opening phrase of the epic in Andrew George's translation is He who saw the Deep. Ferry writes him who knew the most of all men know – which simply sounds awkward. Ferry also smoothes away many details from the opening tablet. Compare the flavor of the creation of Enkidu, first in Ferry's iambic pentameter:
Aruru listened and heard and then createdThe George translation has, to my ear, much more texture:
out of earth clay and divine spittle the double,
the stormy-hearted other, Enkidu,
the hairy-bodied man of the grasslands,
powerful as Ninurta the god of war,
the hair of his head like the grain fields of the goddess,
naked as Sumuqan the god of cattle.
The goddess Aruru, she washed her hands,I love that "offspring of silence" and "barley" rather than "grain fields." On the other hand, Ferry's version of Gilgamesh's retort to the goddess Ishtar (Tablet VI) is earthy and swift. When the voyeur goddess catches Gilgamesh emerging from his bath, she doesn't mince words.
took a pinch of clay, threw it down in the wild.
In the wild she created Enkidu, the hero,
offspring of silence, knit strong by Ninurta.
All his body is matted with hair,
he bears long tresses like those of a woman:
the hair of his head grows thickly as barley,
he knows not a people, nor even a country.
"Be my lover, be my husband," she spoke and said.But Gilgamesh – knowing the fates of her previous lovers including a shepherd bird, a lion, a wild horse and an unlucky goatherd – is having none of it:
"Give me the seed of your body, give me your semen."
I have nothing to give to her who lacks nothing at all.Snap!
You are the door through which the cold gets in.
You are the fire that goes out. You are the pitch
that sticks to the hands of the one who carries the bucket.
You are the house that falls down. You are the shoe
that pinches the foot of the wearer. The ill-made wall
that buckles when time has gone by. The leaky
waterskin soaking the waterskin carrier.
Maybe I should add that I am a passionate fan of Ferry's translations and poetry. Gilgamesh is a partial exception. This is indeed a "new rendering," but for the grit of the original, I'd recommend George.
_______________________
* Poirier is the author of Robert Frost: The Work of Knowing (1978) – one of the best books ever on a poet.
March 15, 2018
This story is so beautifully powerful; it amazes me every time I think of it that this is the oldest of humanity's stories. It explores the exquisite joy of life, and the crippling fear of death. But instead of focusing on riches, glory, and fame--while those things are certainly sought, its lesson is that the joy of life is camaraderie and community, the love we give to and receive from others. And instead of the hero defeating death, conquering the fate that took his most beloved friend, the lesson is a somber acceptance of heartbreak, loss, and defeat. 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' stares life straight in the eyes and doesn't blink or turn away. It offers the highest and lowest that is in the human experience.
Easily my favorite moment of the story is when Gilgamesh is looking for Utnapishtim. The death of Enkidu has changed him so much, and this journey he undertakes forces him to face that darkness (literally). When I first read this book (a different translation) several years ago, I imagined Gilgamesh running under the twin mountains in some epic marathon-like effort to outrun death. But in this reading, I imagined a slow, unsteady, weeping walk, alone save for the darkness. My heart shook at the line
'At the end of the eighth league he cried aloud
and tried to cry out something against the pressure
of blackness: "Two people, who are companions, they...!"
There was nothing behind or before him in the darkness;
utterly lightless, the way of the sun's night journey.'
I think what makes this story so powerful to me is how blatant it is with its universal applications. Clearly, Gilgamesh's story is the story of each and every one of us. We all have to tame our wild nature, we all have to become civilized, befriend the people and things we once fought. We all have to fight our demons, and learn that we can only triumph when we're helped by others: 'two people, companions; they can prevail together agains the terror.' We're all tormented by our fears, disappointed when our journeys bring us nothing, and beside ourselves with grief when the death we can't escape claims our most beloved. Gilgamesh triumphs the way we all triumph, weeps the way we all weep, and learns what we all have to learn.
The Great Conversation: What does it say?
Fear of death is one of the most potent facets of the human experience. We seek glory and fame in an effort to create something that will outlast us. We might even go to great lengths to literally make fate wait just a little longer. But we all have to be told what Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh: 'from the very beginning nothing at all has lasted.' But with that bitter pill is also Siduri's point. Life is not only the melancholy counting of days until death takes us: life is beautiful and wonderful in its sweetness--a sweetness best shared with others.
Easily my favorite moment of the story is when Gilgamesh is looking for Utnapishtim. The death of Enkidu has changed him so much, and this journey he undertakes forces him to face that darkness (literally). When I first read this book (a different translation) several years ago, I imagined Gilgamesh running under the twin mountains in some epic marathon-like effort to outrun death. But in this reading, I imagined a slow, unsteady, weeping walk, alone save for the darkness. My heart shook at the line
'At the end of the eighth league he cried aloud
and tried to cry out something against the pressure
of blackness: "Two people, who are companions, they...!"
There was nothing behind or before him in the darkness;
utterly lightless, the way of the sun's night journey.'
I think what makes this story so powerful to me is how blatant it is with its universal applications. Clearly, Gilgamesh's story is the story of each and every one of us. We all have to tame our wild nature, we all have to become civilized, befriend the people and things we once fought. We all have to fight our demons, and learn that we can only triumph when we're helped by others: 'two people, companions; they can prevail together agains the terror.' We're all tormented by our fears, disappointed when our journeys bring us nothing, and beside ourselves with grief when the death we can't escape claims our most beloved. Gilgamesh triumphs the way we all triumph, weeps the way we all weep, and learns what we all have to learn.
The Great Conversation: What does it say?
Fear of death is one of the most potent facets of the human experience. We seek glory and fame in an effort to create something that will outlast us. We might even go to great lengths to literally make fate wait just a little longer. But we all have to be told what Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh: 'from the very beginning nothing at all has lasted.' But with that bitter pill is also Siduri's point. Life is not only the melancholy counting of days until death takes us: life is beautiful and wonderful in its sweetness--a sweetness best shared with others.
June 7, 2017
The emotion is raw.
The repetition is long, said Arav, the student of IA
Wailed Arav, the student of IA:
The emotion is raw, the repetition is long
The repetition is long, said Arav, the student of IA
Wailed Arav, the student of IA:
The emotion is raw, the repetition is long
September 27, 2025
The father of all Epics. Gilgamesh did not disappoint. Battling monsters, rejecting the advances of goddesses, chasing (but failing) to grasp immortal life, it's all here. There were definitely some parallels I saw in other epics (Aeneid and Odyssey).
April 22, 2025
Stout Hearts Book Club April 2025
I suggested this tale to my book club to better orient ourselves amongst the western canon. Because what better place is there to start but the beginning? The oldest tale we have I believe.
It is boring, confusing, terribly paced, and far far from heart-piercing. So I must put it in the “due-diligence” category of my mind since I do believe it is a necessary read, just nothing to write home about.
I am grateful it is so short.
1 star for the cool use of numbers, cubits, etc.
I suggested this tale to my book club to better orient ourselves amongst the western canon. Because what better place is there to start but the beginning? The oldest tale we have I believe.
It is boring, confusing, terribly paced, and far far from heart-piercing. So I must put it in the “due-diligence” category of my mind since I do believe it is a necessary read, just nothing to write home about.
I am grateful it is so short.
1 star for the cool use of numbers, cubits, etc.
October 12, 2021
DWC- First book, solid read. Gilgamesh is annoying but fruity AF him and Enkidu 💔 kinda wholesome but sad as well, gilgamesh fucked everything up - similar to achilles and percules
May 22, 2021
I am an SF author. I was about halfway along writing HOW LIKE A GOD when I happened to read this book. It was so exciting an experience I put it into the novel, which immediately took a sharp left turn at that point.
June 28, 2021
Hm, not my favorite of the translations I’ve read so far, but! I do love the inclusion of Tablet 12 (where the repetition and meter works better with the shorter, less plot-driven story), as well as notes re: what other translations influenced Ferry’s decisions.
September 29, 2022
School book!
May 9, 2013
I love David Ferry. His Horace translations are amazing. This is not a translation (Ferry doesn't know Akkadian or Cuneiform) but a reworking of several literal, scholarly translations into unrhyming iambic pentameter couplets.
I read this because several people have recently told me that Gilgamesh rivals both the Hebrew Bible and Homer. Gilgamesh is great, but it's not comparable to Homer or the Bible. I don't think these people have really read any of the three; they just want to celebrate a "non-Western" text. But the category "Western" (much like "European" or "White") doesn't make any sense when applied to an ancient text. Those concepts didn't exist back then. Certainly, there's much to say about overlaps between Gilgamesh and Biblical stories (Noah in particular).
Ferry writes Gilgamesh and Enkidu as lovers, which is interesting. I wonder if that's the case in the original.
I read this because several people have recently told me that Gilgamesh rivals both the Hebrew Bible and Homer. Gilgamesh is great, but it's not comparable to Homer or the Bible. I don't think these people have really read any of the three; they just want to celebrate a "non-Western" text. But the category "Western" (much like "European" or "White") doesn't make any sense when applied to an ancient text. Those concepts didn't exist back then. Certainly, there's much to say about overlaps between Gilgamesh and Biblical stories (Noah in particular).
Ferry writes Gilgamesh and Enkidu as lovers, which is interesting. I wonder if that's the case in the original.
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March 1, 2018Not the version I would have chosen for reading Gilgamesh in its entirety for the first time (generally preferring translations of the original rather than translations of translations) but not half bad either.
October 10, 2018
This is basically an ancient fantasy book that repeats itself a lot and has some weird raunchy stuff mixed in there too. And it's highly theologically inaccurate. But it was interesting in it's own right, and now I can at least say that I've read it.
September 16, 2024
Poet and translator David Ferry offers not a translation of Gilgamesh, but a rendering, what we might also call a 'version' of the poem. He follows the structure of the tablets on which the Standard Babylonian Version of the poem was found, but cuts out much that he found repetitive, and introduces repeated refrains and call backs into the narrative. It is similar enough to the other version of Gilgamesh that I have read - Stephen Mitchell's version, also not a translation - that I trust the basic accuracy. I do feel that the repetition has an archaising effect that makes the poem feel genuinely old, but Ferry's decisions do seem to have made the poem more accessible and enjoyable. I think there is a temptation with ancient texts to want a word-for-word translation - especially for a former Classicist such as myself - but poetic renderings are much more readable. If you want to know or re-experience the epic of Gilgamesh, I think this version is an excellent way to do so.
(As an aside - I am happy to find this version as its own independent Goodreads review, given what I wrote in my review of Stephen Mitchell's version. Unfortunately this is still not standard practice for translations and/or versions of ancient texts, but I appreciate it here.)
(As an aside - I am happy to find this version as its own independent Goodreads review, given what I wrote in my review of Stephen Mitchell's version. Unfortunately this is still not standard practice for translations and/or versions of ancient texts, but I appreciate it here.)
September 16, 2024
Superrrr good for a required school read. The first half was so much better than the second half for a variety of reasons, one of them being I read it before I left for the weekend so I was a lot more invested. The second half the translation had a BUNCH of repetition to the point where Gilgamesh was just telling everybody and their mother the exact same story word for word like 4 sections later after he just said it. Relax buddy. I read when you took the adventure the first time. No need to make me read you explaining it THREE MORE DIFFERENT TIMES. That was annoying. I remember the girl behind me in my class complaining about that. She was real. It was annoying.
I became less interested as the book progressed because i really liked the relationship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu a lot and then bro died and a worm came out of his eye. RIP.
That’s about all I have to say. It was definitely a little homoerotic. Even if you try not to think it is it just comes across that way. That’s okay though. They should be free.
I became less interested as the book progressed because i really liked the relationship of Gilgamesh and Enkidu a lot and then bro died and a worm came out of his eye. RIP.
That’s about all I have to say. It was definitely a little homoerotic. Even if you try not to think it is it just comes across that way. That’s okay though. They should be free.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2019
It's always good to go back to the deep, deep classics and get what feel they can give us for the long-short depth of human history. But that's not to say that Gilgamesh is a lot of fun particularly.
January 27, 2021
The parts I do understand, I liked but I was confused for most of this book. I’ll probably read it again because it’s for a class and I did not understand it enough to actually have a conversation or write a paper on it... so maybe it’ll be better understood the next time.
Read
October 7, 2020Can not be compared to the beautiful Arabic translation by Firas al-Sawwah.
September 29, 2021
It was interesting and a little confusing but ok.
June 5, 2022
wow the first ever shonen. i wonder if ancient sumerians shipped gilgamesh and enkidu and if they called it gilgidu or enkimesh
December 27, 2022
Didn’t like this as much as I liked the first one I read. But it was interesting nonetheless.
January 20, 2024
Interesting, super cool perspective of ancient Mesopotamia
January 14, 2025
Read for my class 😀 it’s fine I’m not smart enough to appreciate it I fear.
September 10, 2017
The Epic of Gilgamesh is probably the earliest coherent piece of creative "literature" that we currently have, in that its primary purpose was not religious, historical or economic, but mostly to entertain and move people in the epic recounting of the deeds and quest for immortality of the great king of Uruk, Gilgamesh. Previous translations have focused on the historical and linguistic quest to reconstruct the text from various fragments across several languages and over the span of a millennium. As such, they focused on the details of historical accuracy, debating what filled the gaps in the surviving texts, and philology. Often ignored completely was the fact that it was an epic poem meant to be recited or sung lyrically to an audience. David Ferry attempts not to bring a new translation to fore (in fact, he can't, as he is a poet and not a historian of languages), but to weld the various translations available into a poetic rendering in English.
The result is very good as a whole, though I have some quibbles with some of the creative decisions he made as an interpreter. First off, he chose to interpret the epic into couplets of blank verse in iambic pentameter, with some leniency of the scansion in certain points mostly to let the verse skip a beat to indicate pause, or because it would make for a bad enjambment on the line break. While keeping with traditional modes of poetic meter and the conventions of the epic poetic genre (i.e. lots of verse repetitions), his word choice shows the heavy influence of modernist minimalism in stylistics. The language is simple, stark and evocative. The effect when read aloud is quite striking.
Gone is the purple prose of early translations of the epic... but at the same time, in his desire to create a modern rendition of the poem, I think he cut off a bit too much of the meat along with the fat in some places. For example, my favorite section comes from tablet 10 of the Babylonian version when Siduri the alewife addresses Gilgamesh regarding his quest for immortality. Early prose translations said thus:
"Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man."
Maximalist, and probably a bit overly verbose considering the amount of lines covered in the original, but compare to Ferry's interpretation:
"Who is the mortal who can live forever?
The life of man is short. Only the gods
can live forever. Therefore put on new clothes,
a clean robe and a cloak tied with a sash,
and wash the filth of the journey from your body.
Eat and drink your fill of the food and drink
men eat and drink. Let there be pleasure and dancing"
Really changes the tone, doesn't it? Yes, it rolls off the tongue better... but it comes across as less existentially astute an observation and probably omits a bit too much from the original text. By the same token, the battle against Huwawa in tablets 4 and 5 come across a bit too modern and indirect, as opposed to the sort of blood and guts action that this sort of thing was supposed to convey to the audiences of the time. There's making a modern interpretation of the language, and then there's a modernist interpretation of the original set of sensations the poem was supposed to convey. The former is fine, the latter, not so much. In the same way early translations of the epic bowdlerized Enkidu's seduction by the temple priestess, and Inana's attempted seduction of Gilgamesh (and Ferry doesn't hold back there, at least), the attempt to soften the violent aspects so they come across as more artful to current mores, as opposed to Gilgamesh and Enkidu tag teaming to kick a demon's ass in fine detail until he begs for mercy and receives none, is something of a thematic dishonesty.
We have to remember, they didn't have the lines in art we do now. Poems like this were supposed to titillate the audience with what we would regard as softcore erotica and action movie violence because to the people of the times, this was entertainment first, and aesthetics second, if at all (and for every ancient epic that is "immortal" in the way Gilgamesh or Homer's was, there are countless ones with no timeless themes or modern reading value that are out there). A successful translation or interpretation has to take that into account.
That said, I'm still going to recommend this interpretation. Why? Because poems first and foremost are to be read aloud in order for them to live as they should, and this text allows you to do so in a manner, that while not in the same cadences and rhythms of Sumerian, Akkadian or Babylonian, follow the same spirit of being a text you hear with your ears and into your soul.
The result is very good as a whole, though I have some quibbles with some of the creative decisions he made as an interpreter. First off, he chose to interpret the epic into couplets of blank verse in iambic pentameter, with some leniency of the scansion in certain points mostly to let the verse skip a beat to indicate pause, or because it would make for a bad enjambment on the line break. While keeping with traditional modes of poetic meter and the conventions of the epic poetic genre (i.e. lots of verse repetitions), his word choice shows the heavy influence of modernist minimalism in stylistics. The language is simple, stark and evocative. The effect when read aloud is quite striking.
Gone is the purple prose of early translations of the epic... but at the same time, in his desire to create a modern rendition of the poem, I think he cut off a bit too much of the meat along with the fat in some places. For example, my favorite section comes from tablet 10 of the Babylonian version when Siduri the alewife addresses Gilgamesh regarding his quest for immortality. Early prose translations said thus:
"Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping. As for you, Gilgamesh, fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man."
Maximalist, and probably a bit overly verbose considering the amount of lines covered in the original, but compare to Ferry's interpretation:
"Who is the mortal who can live forever?
The life of man is short. Only the gods
can live forever. Therefore put on new clothes,
a clean robe and a cloak tied with a sash,
and wash the filth of the journey from your body.
Eat and drink your fill of the food and drink
men eat and drink. Let there be pleasure and dancing"
Really changes the tone, doesn't it? Yes, it rolls off the tongue better... but it comes across as less existentially astute an observation and probably omits a bit too much from the original text. By the same token, the battle against Huwawa in tablets 4 and 5 come across a bit too modern and indirect, as opposed to the sort of blood and guts action that this sort of thing was supposed to convey to the audiences of the time. There's making a modern interpretation of the language, and then there's a modernist interpretation of the original set of sensations the poem was supposed to convey. The former is fine, the latter, not so much. In the same way early translations of the epic bowdlerized Enkidu's seduction by the temple priestess, and Inana's attempted seduction of Gilgamesh (and Ferry doesn't hold back there, at least), the attempt to soften the violent aspects so they come across as more artful to current mores, as opposed to Gilgamesh and Enkidu tag teaming to kick a demon's ass in fine detail until he begs for mercy and receives none, is something of a thematic dishonesty.
We have to remember, they didn't have the lines in art we do now. Poems like this were supposed to titillate the audience with what we would regard as softcore erotica and action movie violence because to the people of the times, this was entertainment first, and aesthetics second, if at all (and for every ancient epic that is "immortal" in the way Gilgamesh or Homer's was, there are countless ones with no timeless themes or modern reading value that are out there). A successful translation or interpretation has to take that into account.
That said, I'm still going to recommend this interpretation. Why? Because poems first and foremost are to be read aloud in order for them to live as they should, and this text allows you to do so in a manner, that while not in the same cadences and rhythms of Sumerian, Akkadian or Babylonian, follow the same spirit of being a text you hear with your ears and into your soul.
November 24, 2012
The original bromance, Ancient Sumer style, and it's still setting the standard.
Like many people my age (or so I'd like to think) the first I ever heard of Gilgamesh was in the "Batman: The Animated Series" episode where Bane makes his debut. The secret prison science experiment that turned a ruthless, hardened, hyper-intelligent convict into a ruthless, hardened, hyper-intelligent supervillain by pumping untested chemicals straight into his brain was called "Project Gilgamesh"…I was intrigued.
It wasn't until many years later that I found out that one of my all time favorite Star Trek episodes, TNG's "Darmok" (wherein Picard is sort of kidnapped by an alien captain whose species communicates only via literary metaphor/allusion so that the two of them can participate in an [ultimately pretty rad] joined-forces hero's quest) was based rather closely on certain parts of Gilgamesh. At that point it became a straight-up imperative: I had to read it.
And I did. And I liked it.
But I wasn't exactly *moved* by it.
What I read then was the scholarly Norton edition (The epic of Gilgamesh : a new translation, analogues, criticism -- Benjamin R Foster; (Benjamin Read); Douglas Frayne; Gary M Beckman translated and edited by Benjamin R. Foster. The Sumerian Gilgamesh poems / translated by Douglas Frayne. The Hittite Gilgamesh / translated by Gary Beckman.) That book was extremely well researched, carefully arranged and supplemented by some great commentary & historical background. I'd recommend it to anyone. But the translations, though authoritative, were very academic…stilted. You were getting an understandable, literal, English version of the original Akkadian-language Gilgamesh tablets. It was often quite powerful (the line "he was yearning for someone to know his heart, a friend" comes to mind).
However strong that edition was though, I don't believe it allowed us to hear the epic in the way that people in ancient Mesopotamia heard it: as powerful poetry.
And that is where David Ferry (he of the 2012 National Book Award) comes in. He took a group of varied modern scholarly translations of a language that's been dead in general use for more than 2.5 millennia, infused & transformed them with his own, formidable, poetic skill, and ended up with a book of verse that makes you feel a proper sense of the *epic* nature of epic poetry. A book that makes you wish you had a friend you'd follow into death (if you are not lucky enough to have one already). Solid work I'd say.
As the hero puts it:
"It is I who killed the lions in the passes.
It is Gilgamesh, who killed the demon guardian,
Huwawa the guardian of the Cedar Forest.
It is I, who wrestled the Bull of Heaven and killed him.
My fame will be secure to all my sons."
Damn Straight.
Like many people my age (or so I'd like to think) the first I ever heard of Gilgamesh was in the "Batman: The Animated Series" episode where Bane makes his debut. The secret prison science experiment that turned a ruthless, hardened, hyper-intelligent convict into a ruthless, hardened, hyper-intelligent supervillain by pumping untested chemicals straight into his brain was called "Project Gilgamesh"…I was intrigued.
It wasn't until many years later that I found out that one of my all time favorite Star Trek episodes, TNG's "Darmok" (wherein Picard is sort of kidnapped by an alien captain whose species communicates only via literary metaphor/allusion so that the two of them can participate in an [ultimately pretty rad] joined-forces hero's quest) was based rather closely on certain parts of Gilgamesh. At that point it became a straight-up imperative: I had to read it.
And I did. And I liked it.
But I wasn't exactly *moved* by it.
What I read then was the scholarly Norton edition (The epic of Gilgamesh : a new translation, analogues, criticism -- Benjamin R Foster; (Benjamin Read); Douglas Frayne; Gary M Beckman translated and edited by Benjamin R. Foster. The Sumerian Gilgamesh poems / translated by Douglas Frayne. The Hittite Gilgamesh / translated by Gary Beckman.) That book was extremely well researched, carefully arranged and supplemented by some great commentary & historical background. I'd recommend it to anyone. But the translations, though authoritative, were very academic…stilted. You were getting an understandable, literal, English version of the original Akkadian-language Gilgamesh tablets. It was often quite powerful (the line "he was yearning for someone to know his heart, a friend" comes to mind).
However strong that edition was though, I don't believe it allowed us to hear the epic in the way that people in ancient Mesopotamia heard it: as powerful poetry.
And that is where David Ferry (he of the 2012 National Book Award) comes in. He took a group of varied modern scholarly translations of a language that's been dead in general use for more than 2.5 millennia, infused & transformed them with his own, formidable, poetic skill, and ended up with a book of verse that makes you feel a proper sense of the *epic* nature of epic poetry. A book that makes you wish you had a friend you'd follow into death (if you are not lucky enough to have one already). Solid work I'd say.
As the hero puts it:
"It is I who killed the lions in the passes.
It is Gilgamesh, who killed the demon guardian,
Huwawa the guardian of the Cedar Forest.
It is I, who wrestled the Bull of Heaven and killed him.
My fame will be secure to all my sons."
Damn Straight.
November 21, 2013
This is an interesting tale for the modern reader. Gilgamesh is the demi-god king of Uruk, challenged by Enkidu, the hairy wild-man created to be the challenger and equal of Gilgamesh. They go on adventures, and are posed as threats to the gods themselves--in true pagan fashion.
It is a quick read--I read it in a little more than an hour. It is in the mold of Beowulf and I dare say Tolkien was influenced by the style.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story, of course, is Gilgamesh's encounter with Utnapishtim, the flood-survivor. He's clearly the Babylonian's representative for Noah. It is widely known that cultures around the world have their own version of Noah and of the world wide flood.
It is a quick read--I read it in a little more than an hour. It is in the mold of Beowulf and I dare say Tolkien was influenced by the style.
One of the most interesting aspects of the story, of course, is Gilgamesh's encounter with Utnapishtim, the flood-survivor. He's clearly the Babylonian's representative for Noah. It is widely known that cultures around the world have their own version of Noah and of the world wide flood.
January 7, 2014
I recommend Gilgamesh to anyone who enjoys ancient literature and epic poetry, or who simply wants to experience reading a very old text. Students of the bible and classical mythology will enjoy making comparisons with the the book of Genesis and Homer’s Odyssey. While I am not qualified to comment on the quality of Ferry’s translation, I found the poetry to be both meaningful and engaging. By the time I had finished reading, I was curious to learn more about ancient Mesopotamia and Gilgamesh.
August 23, 2015
The original epic. Loved this book.
July 9, 2018
Gilgamesh is a Sumerian epic recorded in cuneiform tablets around 2700 BC, and as such may be the oldest story in all written history. No doubt it had an even older oral tradition. The epic poem centers on Gilgamesh, the might semi-divine king of Uruk. He is a bully and the prayers of his people lead the goddess Arunu to create an equal, the wild man Enkidu who comes to town and challenges the king. They fight hard and Gilgamesh so admires him that they become BFFs and go on adventures together. They trek to the Lebanon, cut cedar for the temples of Uruk (which otherwise had only mud to work with) and kill the forest demon. Later they fight and kill the Bull of Heaven. Enkidu is cursed, however, grows sick and dies. Gilgamesh is distraught and realizes his mortality. He journeys alone across the sea of death seeking advice from Utnapishtim, the only human granted immortality on how to do it. There he learns the old man’s story which is the flood myth. The wind god told him the gods were planning to destroy mankind by flood and he should build a boat and bring two of each kind on board. The tip works and Utnapishtim is saved. The chief god Enlil is initially outraged, but is eventually convinced he had been unjust to wipe out man and gives Utnapishtim immortality. Sadly for Gilgamesh we can’t pass the test to be granted immortality but goes back to Uruk to work on being a good king, Later he helps spring Enkidu temporarily form the underworld where he learns that the happiest people in death are those with lots of children and others to remember their name. Makes sense. David Ferry is an American poet. He does not read Cuneiform but uses at least three scholarly translations to fashion the story into an English poetic form. I have read other versions of the tale and this one is my favorite. I think he has done a superb job of rendering this amazingly important tale into an accessible form for modern readers.
January 2, 2021
The tale of Gilgamesh is fantastic. Like the Iliad, it holds up amazingly well across the millennia. I’m not so keen on Ferry’s rendering though. In the notes Ferry says he based it on two of the more literal translations, and it shows. Many items are described in very plain terms, like the Stone Things on the boatkeeper’s island and the Male Dragon Thing guarding the dark tunnel. These descriptors may be truer to the original than, say, Stephen Mitchell’s anything-goes adaptation, but they don’t do much for immersive storytelling.
I do appreciate Ferry’s inclusion of the underworld story (tablet XII). It doesn’t at all jive with the rest of the Epic, so I’m glad he made it an appendix, but it brings some new material I hadn’t read before and shows how pre-Modern literature often behaved like fan fiction, with familiar characters providing the structure for new and unrelated stories.
I do appreciate Ferry’s inclusion of the underworld story (tablet XII). It doesn’t at all jive with the rest of the Epic, so I’m glad he made it an appendix, but it brings some new material I hadn’t read before and shows how pre-Modern literature often behaved like fan fiction, with familiar characters providing the structure for new and unrelated stories.
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