Kramer's Translation of a Gilgamesh Prologue
After heaven and earth had been separated
and mankind had been created,
after An±m,
Enlil and Ereskigal had taken posesssion
of heaven, earth and the
underworld;
after Enki had set sail for the underworld
and the sea ebbed and flowed in honor of its
lord;
on this day, a huluppu tree
which had
been planted on the banks of the Euphrates
and
nourished by its waters
was uprooted by the south wind
and carried away by the Euphrates.
A goddess
who was wandering among the banks
siezed the
swaying tree
And -- at the behest of Anu and Enlil --
brought it to Inanna's garden in Uruk.
Inanna
tended the tree carefully and lovingly
she hoped
to have a throne and a bed
made for herself from
its wood.
After ten years, the tree had matured.
But in the meantime,
she found to her dismay
that her hopes could not
be fulfilled.
because during that time
a
dragon had built its nest at the foot of the tree
the Zu-bird was raising its young in the crown,
and the demon Lilith had built her house in the middle.[1]
But
Gilgamesh, who had heard of Inanna's plight,
came
to her rescue.
He took his heavy shield
killed
the dragon with his heavy bronze axe,
which
weighed seven talents and seven minas.
Then the Zu-bird flew into the
mountains
with its young,
while Lilith,
petrified with fear,
tore down her house and fled
into the wilderness
Notes
[1] In a subsequent translation with Wolkstein,
this passage is given as:
...a serpent who could not be charmed
made its nest in the roots of the tree,
The
Anzu bird set his young in the branches of the tree,
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the
trunk.
(Wolkstein 83:
p. 8)
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