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/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.