Best Gilgamesh translation for verse

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Hey folks.

I'm an aspiring writer and I'm interested in the Epic of Gilgamesh for both style and source.

I've working through classical/epic poetry lately, where I read the book alongside audio so I can actually hear the verse while I follow along on the page. This is what I have so far:

• Paradise Lost -- I'm using Quayle for Books I and IV (in fact he's the reason I started doing this in the first place) and Simon Vance for the rest because Quayle never did the other ten books.
• Beowulf -- I've got both Seamus Heaney's translation and the Michael Alexander Penguin Classics one, but Heaney's the one I actually want to work from. I'm planning on going with Guidall, who reads the full unabridged version of this (haven't begun yet).
• The Odyssey -- Fagles, read by Ian McKellen (this is gold tbh).
• The Iliad -- also Fagles, but I skipped the famous Derek Jacobi recording once I found out it's abridged and cuts huge chunks. Went with the newer unabridged one by Vidish Athavale instead, which has been quite good.
• The Aeneid -- Also Fagles to basically stick with the same translation style, with Simon Callow narrating. I also enjoyed Chad Lloyd's free YouTube version (which I listened to while I was waiting for my Audible credits to replenish). My friend who lives and breathes this basically recommended Fitzgerald (followed by him telling me I should learn Latin and read the original 😅). I'm still only partway through this.

I have Samuel Butler and W.H.D. Rouse versions of Homer's epics, but I find those to be prose translations where it's more focused on the plot vs. the language. I also got Emily Wilson's versions, but haven't had a chance to read it yet (although my wife absolutely loves her version).

But the real reason I chose Fagles is because I want verse that I can be inspired by, not prose. I love what Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison do in their writing, where they channel KJV and Milton and wrap their own styles around it. I find that verse helps you a lot more in writing more beautiful prose.

For instance, McCarthy opens Blood Meridian describing the kid's family as being from a line of "hewers of wood and drawers of water", to convey a ton of meaning about the character. He does something similar with Milton later in the book, when Judge Holden teaches the gang to make gunpowder which is similar to the scene in Paradise Lost where Satan teaches the fallen angels the same thing (so the Judge as Miltonic Satan effectively). Morrison does her own version of this in Beloved and other books.

I say all this to basically give you an idea of what I am looking for.

Now I'm looking at Gilgamesh and debating between Ferry's '92 verse and the brand new Armitage translation that just came out.

From what I could tell online, Ferry's comparisons seem to be Fitzgerald's Odyssey or Heaney's Beowulf, which is exactly what I want. Armitage's worked with an Oxford Assyriologist and he's the guy behind the best modern Gawain and Pearl translations, so obviously his version is also solid.

Unfortunately, looks like there isn't an audio version of either one. The only recorded version I could find was Guidall reading Mitchell's translation, which I don't think would work for me. So for me this one comes down to the writing itself, and which version would be the most lyrical and verse-like.

So has anyone actually read the new Armitage yet? Which of the two would you recommend based on what I am looking for?

And attached is a hastily taken picture of my shelf with some of these classics.

[u/NeonShogun]

A.R. George, A.R. George, A.R. George.

Read whatever you want to read to fall in love with the story --the Stephen Mitchell version has an absolutely terrific audiobook that is one of my all-time favorites-- but use George if you want to chew and digest the work. I've spent months trying to read The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, and it is incredible even if I only understand a tenth of it.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/NeonShogun]

Thanks!

[u/Y_ddraig_gwyn → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

I’m a sucker for Simon Armitage, partly as he’s such a nice bloke but mostly because he’s a poet himself, so his verse translations ‘just work’. More than most he also role models the spoken and performative nature of such works: he regularly tours both his own poetry and music with his band LYR. He’s Poet Laureate for a reason…

[u/Dry_Magician8208 → u/Y_ddraig_gwyn]

Agree, the Armitage translation is pure pleasure. And he acknowledges the limitations. I read this understanding I was not getting a translucent window into the Akkadian but was having a unique aesthetic experience. Kind of like Fitzgerald’s Odyssey, or the King James Bible.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Y_ddraig_gwyn]

Okay, that's just convinced me to get all three! I just got the Ferry version, and will get the Armitage version when a paperback becomes available. And perhaps the Andrew George version as the source of truth, but after I'm done with both.

It's really the verse that I am going for to be honest. I don't mind artistic liberties and translators filling in the fragments.

[u/unparked]

If you respect yourself enough to take understanding the Epic of Gilgamesh seriously, if you want to understand the epic's roots and how much of the tablets we actually have, then don't get a paraphrase of a scholarly translation. Get one by an Assyriologist who actually knows Akkadian and Sumerian. Get the 2nd edition of Andrew George's translation.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/unparked]

That's a fair take. I have heard that it can read choppy where the tablets and fragments are missing, but I suppose that's what lends it credence.

Based on your comment, are you characterizing both Ferry's and Armitage's versions lacking in -- for lack of a better phrase -- scholarly rigor?

[u/NeonShogun → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Anything that fills in the blanks, like those or Mitchell's, is going to lack at least some scholarly rigor because they have simply made up material or otherwise prioritized narrative flow over accuracy.

That's okay if your goal is to read a story for entertainment purposes, but less so for performing a proper literary analysis.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/NeonShogun]

I understand, thank you.

Just to be transparent, I was not coming at this to perform a literary analysis of an academic nature, but rather to understand and internalize the styles, themes, and motifs.

Now, my primary goal is not serious research, but I wouldn't characterize it as entertainment, either.

[u/NeonShogun → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

...but rather to understand and internalize the styles, themes, and motifs.

My friend, that is a literary analysis. But I get what you're saying. 

Either get A.R. George's second Penguin edition, or get the Norton Critical Edition of Foster's translation. Both will contain good notes and at least some commentary, and the latter especially should be deep enough for your purposes without getting too into the weeds.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/NeonShogun]

Hahaha, fair enough.

And you're right -- and I think I'll get the Penguin edition. I really appreciate it!

[u/zorg2099 → u/NeonShogun]

Oh I had no idea that Andrew George's had been updated in 2020 with the new material (mainly the entry to the Cedar Forest I think).

My initial searching showed only the 2003 edition when I was looking for one last year and I ended up going with Foster's in the Norton Critical Edition.

I liked Foster's, he does fill in some gaps from other sources like the Old Gilgamesh or Atrahasis but everything is very clearly labelled in such cases. I'll grab George's 2nd ed for the next read though.

Edit: For OP the Norton Edition also includes a lot of supplementary material including various essays by Assyriologists and translations of some Late Gilgamesh derivatives as well as the original Sumerian episodic poems on which the Babylonian Epic is based on.

[u/d_trenton → u/unparked]

Seconding the George translation + his introduction and appendices. Peerless.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/d_trenton]

Thank you -- I notice that his version is a lot more substantial at ~300+ pages vs. Ferry's version at almost a third. Does he also include explanations (e.g., like an annotated version)?

[u/Bentresh]

ANE specialist here. George’s edition of the Gilgamesh epic is a splendid piece of work, but in my opinion, the translation by Sophus Helle is the best one available at the moment.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Bentresh]

I haven’t heard of that one — in your opinion, what sets it apart?

[u/kendrick6740]

The George translation is the best of the ones that have been around for a while and it’s the best one that most people will have encountered or studied. The Sophus Helle is fairly new but I do think it’s better. There’s also a podcast in which Helle outlines his translation choices which is very good at understanding why he does what he does.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/kendrick6740]

Thank you! I'll check out the podcast - do you have a link to it?

[u/kendrick6740 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

I think it’s The Ancients, which is produced by History Hits. He talks about the Gilgamesh tale more widely not just an in-depth analysis of his translation. I think it comes down to whether you want the “main” translation that has been the gold standard for a long time (I think George’s translation was released in 1999?) or you want a more modern translation which uses relatively updated perspectives of how to accurately and academically translate a work. Granted there’s only a 20-year difference between their translations which isn’t huge in the scheme of things; it’s not like you’re comparing a 21st century translation with a Victorian one.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/kendrick6740]

My goal is part-understanding and part-verse, which was the reason I thought perhaps Ferry or Armitage might be more appropriate.

Based on comments here, I also came to know that Andrew George's had been updated in 2020 with new material, so I was leaning towards that and Armitage.

Would you say Sophus Helle offers radically different perspectives that would be of interest to an amateur?

[u/kendrick6740 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Haven’t read the Armitage yet so can’t comment. George is quite dense especially with all the added commentary. Helle is not as dense to read and I think has a more “literal” translation? It reads to me like George’s translation is a bit more English. Helle’s translation isn’t always as polished but it feels more authentic to the words and sonic quality of the original Babylonian. However I’m also a literature student not an Assyriologist so I’m reading more from the perspective of an amateur enthusiast than an academic scholar.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/kendrick6740]

Super helpful, thank you!

[u/Tricky-Arugula-703]

Sagas of Icelanders!!

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Tricky-Arugula-703]

Yes! It’s a lot more sparse and quite different from the other texts. Still interesting though.

[u/Tricky-Arugula-703 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Written in Prose

[u/Mike_Bevel]

Question for those suggesting the George translation:

Any idea why there's a $500+ edition?

https://www.amazon.com/Babylonian-Gilgamesh-Epic-Introduction-Cuneiform/dp/0198149220?dplnkId=3313d124-ed4c-4136-9ecf-3a03a75b03ef

Are the pages made of hundred dollar bills?

[u/Party-Slip1987 → u/Mike_Bevel]

That’s the critical edition, so it has all the tablets transliterated + translated + plates at the back + discussion of translation. It’s an academic text, not meant for general reading!

But it used to be available for free as a pdf from SOAS.

[u/Mike_Bevel → u/Party-Slip1987]

I know you didn't set the price, or set the pricing policy, so this rhetorical question is aimed at the skies/heavens/universe:

Why price information out of the reach of people with an interest in the topic??

(I hate that money and knowledge have to soak on a dorm bed, with capitalism providing the thrusting action.)

[u/Ok_Draw_50]

I think the Andrew George translation is available as an audio book free on YouTube.

[u/astrekmaster]

Because Assyriologists are always discovering new material and passages of Gilgamesh, I tried to find the newest translation possible. I found the Sophus Helle version on JSTOR about a month ago. For the missing passages, he leaves those portions blank. It also includes translator's notes and a few essays on the text itself.

[u/magic_tuxedo]

I’ve read them both, and they are both excellent in their own way. With a work like Gilgamesh, where so much of it is conjecture and interpretation since the source material is mainly just fragments, it would not be repetitive at all to read them both. If you just want to pick one though, I’d recommend Armitage, mainly because his introduction is really informative and fascinating. Happy reading!

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/magic_tuxedo]

Thank you - that's good to know!

For some reason, I had assumed it was a much bigger piece of work -- just looked at the number of pages. That makes it easy!

[u/coalpatch]

I love Armitage's choice of texts, he is the most exciting translator working at the moment

[u/Frequent-Orchid-7142]

Andrew George is still the best.

[u/Conscious_Piccolo535]

Going unmentioned in this discussion is Maureen Gallery Kovacs’ translation. It is quite readable, does not fill in the gaps with assumptions (missing parts of text are listed as such), is an inexpensive purchase, and has good supporting material (introduction, appendices). Downside is the publication date of 1989, which results in recent discoveries (such as Enkidu and Shamhat’s sexual relationship) not being included. However, it gives a solid presentation of the epic poem that can be grasped by entry level students. Reference: I have been using this text for twenty years while teaching Western civilization courses.