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11. "The Epic of Gilgamesh"
I finished "The Epic of Gilgamesh" a week or so ago. In the copy I had, the introduction and explanations took up more space than the actual epic. This version also didn't follow one of the many lyric versions of the epic, but borrowed from all of them then change the result into prose. I can't help but feel as much was lost from that translation as is inevitably lost in the translation from an ancient language to a modern one. It did, however, still have a little bit of the feel of a story from the oral tradition (fairy tales and such). I did like this version of the deluge. The inconsistencies are classic I'm telling a tale and forgot what I said before: "oh, never mind that whole thing about Enkidu being innocent, he had a wife and seven kids."
Do wish I knew enough to be able to read it in something close to an early form (not original form, because no one ever -read- it in the original form).
I finished "The Epic of Gilgamesh" a week or so ago. In the copy I had, the introduction and explanations took up more space than the actual epic. This version also didn't follow one of the many lyric versions of the epic, but borrowed from all of them then change the result into prose. I can't help but feel as much was lost from that translation as is inevitably lost in the translation from an ancient language to a modern one. It did, however, still have a little bit of the feel of a story from the oral tradition (fairy tales and such). I did like this version of the deluge. The inconsistencies are classic I'm telling a tale and forgot what I said before: "oh, never mind that whole thing about Enkidu being innocent, he had a wife and seven kids."
Do wish I knew enough to be able to read it in something close to an early form (not original form, because no one ever -read- it in the original form).