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Gilgamesh: A New Verse Translation
A propulsive and lyrical version of ancient Mesopotamia’s greatest adventure–tale, by the bestselling translator of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Originating nearly four thousand years ago, Gilgamesh tells the story of a tyrannical king and his wild counterpart, Enkidu, whom the gods spawn to rein in the king’s cruel tendencies. Their unlikely friendship leads to adventure, tragedy, and a quest for immortality. This archetypal tale is one of the most compelling and memorable in all of world literature.
It’s a testament to the story’s inherent power that Gilgamesh continues to enthrall readers despite a long line of English translations that have privileged punctiliousness over narrative energy and readability. Now, in the hands of Simon Armitage, poet laureate of the United Kingdom, this profound ancient epic swells and flows in contemporary English with a vitality and immediacy that only a truly poetic rendering can achieve. Grounded in the latest scholarship, (Jacob L. Dahl of Oxford University, an expert in Assyriology, advised Armitage throughout), this version brings the ancient text to new life, offering readers a thrilling portal into the very dawn of storytelling.
Originating nearly four thousand years ago, Gilgamesh tells the story of a tyrannical king and his wild counterpart, Enkidu, whom the gods spawn to rein in the king’s cruel tendencies. Their unlikely friendship leads to adventure, tragedy, and a quest for immortality. This archetypal tale is one of the most compelling and memorable in all of world literature.
It’s a testament to the story’s inherent power that Gilgamesh continues to enthrall readers despite a long line of English translations that have privileged punctiliousness over narrative energy and readability. Now, in the hands of Simon Armitage, poet laureate of the United Kingdom, this profound ancient epic swells and flows in contemporary English with a vitality and immediacy that only a truly poetic rendering can achieve. Grounded in the latest scholarship, (Jacob L. Dahl of Oxford University, an expert in Assyriology, advised Armitage throughout), this version brings the ancient text to new life, offering readers a thrilling portal into the very dawn of storytelling.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published April 14, 2026
19 people are currently reading
297 people want to read
About the author
Simon Armitage
152 books380 followersSimon Armitage, whose The Shout was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, has published ten volumes of poetry and has received numerous honors for his work. He was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 2019
Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."
Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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April 25, 2026WSJ has a rave review, for a retelling in verse for one of the oldest pieces of literature extant. Which is sadly incomplete.
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"This is not a museum-piece translation, a dusty tablet behind glass, but a reanimation, a voice tugged up from the clay and made to speak again in a tongue that is ours. Mr. Armitage writes with a poet’s mastery of rhythm and rupture, refusing both the sterile fidelity of the scholar and the vulgar opportunism of the adapter. His is an epic that breathes—raggedly, unevenly, but thrillingly alive.
....
Remember that the original handlers of the poem, from the anonymous Sumerians to Sin-leqi-unninni—the scribe most regard as the primary compiler, redactor and editor of the Standard Babylonian version of “Gilgamesh”—were themselves engaged in acts of imaginative repair.
....
Gilgamesh’s grief, that great wound in the belly of the book, has a quieter, more devastating register: “Gilgamesh wept for his dead friend.”
The portrayal of that grief is where Mr. Armitage’s translation achieves its most transcendent power. When Enkidu dies—and we know, from the moment of his creation from clay, that he must—the epic contracts around the fact of mortality with an almost unbearable pressure."
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"This is not a museum-piece translation, a dusty tablet behind glass, but a reanimation, a voice tugged up from the clay and made to speak again in a tongue that is ours. Mr. Armitage writes with a poet’s mastery of rhythm and rupture, refusing both the sterile fidelity of the scholar and the vulgar opportunism of the adapter. His is an epic that breathes—raggedly, unevenly, but thrillingly alive.
....
Remember that the original handlers of the poem, from the anonymous Sumerians to Sin-leqi-unninni—the scribe most regard as the primary compiler, redactor and editor of the Standard Babylonian version of “Gilgamesh”—were themselves engaged in acts of imaginative repair.
....
Gilgamesh’s grief, that great wound in the belly of the book, has a quieter, more devastating register: “Gilgamesh wept for his dead friend.”
The portrayal of that grief is where Mr. Armitage’s translation achieves its most transcendent power. When Enkidu dies—and we know, from the moment of his creation from clay, that he must—the epic contracts around the fact of mortality with an almost unbearable pressure."
April 20, 2026
There are two camps when it comes to literary translation. The first, favoring meticulousness and precision, makes the transmission of meaning their number one concern. The second, refusing to obsess over dictionaries, frets instead over sound, sense, and mood. The split, such as it is, boils down to a taste for denotation or for connotation. A useful illustration sets Richmond Lattimore’s fairly literal, remarkably learned version of Homer’s Iliad against Christopher Logue’s radically inventive rendition.
Yet no work so strenuously defines the terms of this dichotomy – between the expert and the interloper, the scholar and the poet – than the ancient Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh. By way of illustration: At any given point over the last two thousand years, many thousands of people, if pressed, could have handled the rigors of Homer’s Greek. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, however, when the Gilgamesh text was first discovered, it’s estimated that only a couple of hundred people, plucked from any given generation, have known enough Akkadian to go toe-to-toe with Gilgamesh in its standard form. That's to say nothing of the fact that the language problem, however formidable, remains just one of many bafflements when it comes to this text. Simon Armitage would have us imagine a jigsaw puzzle in its place. ...
Read the rest here: https://ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/04/1...
Yet no work so strenuously defines the terms of this dichotomy – between the expert and the interloper, the scholar and the poet – than the ancient Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh. By way of illustration: At any given point over the last two thousand years, many thousands of people, if pressed, could have handled the rigors of Homer’s Greek. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, however, when the Gilgamesh text was first discovered, it’s estimated that only a couple of hundred people, plucked from any given generation, have known enough Akkadian to go toe-to-toe with Gilgamesh in its standard form. That's to say nothing of the fact that the language problem, however formidable, remains just one of many bafflements when it comes to this text. Simon Armitage would have us imagine a jigsaw puzzle in its place. ...
Read the rest here: https://ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/04/1...
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May 6, 2026It feels kind of silly to give a star rating to an ancient Mesopotamian text, and I unfortunately don't have enough knowledge to compare this translation to previous ones.
I will say that the poem itself was very interesting and that everything was laid out in a pleasing way, with footnotes, a glossary, and explanations of what happens on each tablet at the start of the chapter. I also appreciated the end notes where they further explain some of the passages that may not be fully understood, or otherwise debated. Overall a very fun read.
I will say that the poem itself was very interesting and that everything was laid out in a pleasing way, with footnotes, a glossary, and explanations of what happens on each tablet at the start of the chapter. I also appreciated the end notes where they further explain some of the passages that may not be fully understood, or otherwise debated. Overall a very fun read.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Why is it that a belief system from 4,000 years ago and the stories of Indigenous tribes contain more wonder than the Christianity that sought to erase them? Could it be an omen that designating one all-powerful male as God is a smoke and mirrors for dominance? Is the desire for immortality a repudiation of nature?
I'm glad to have read this translation after paying so much attention to the Iliad, as well as reflections on Siddartha. These stories all have something to teach us.
With regards to Joseph Campbell and Herman Hesse.
I'm glad to have read this translation after paying so much attention to the Iliad, as well as reflections on Siddartha. These stories all have something to teach us.
With regards to Joseph Campbell and Herman Hesse.
Review of advance copy
the gilgamesh and enkidu bromance will never not be funny to me
May 11, 2026
Befriending your own clay monster shadow self, we’ve all been there haven’t we?
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews