The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet Ten

English version translated by Benjamin R. Foster

Mankind, whose descendants are snapped off like reeds in a canebrake,
The handsome young man, the lovely young woman,
Death will rob them of their [ … ] all too soon.
No one sees death,
No one sees the face [of death],
No one [hears] the voice of death,
But cruel death cuts off mankind.
There is a time for building a house,
There is a time for starting a family,
There is a time for brothers to divide an inheritance,
There is a time for disputes to prevail in this world.?
There is a time the river, having risen and brought high water,
Mayflies are drifting downstream on the river,
Their faces gazing at the sun,
Then, suddenly, there is nothing!’
The missing and the dead, how alike they are!
They limn not death’s image,
No one dead greets a living being in this world.
The supreme gods, the great gods, being convened,
The goddess-mother Mammitum, she who created their
(own) destiny, ordained (with them):
They established death and life,
The time of death they did not make known.

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中文译本选自《吉尔伽美什》 拱玉书 译

人类就像芦苇丛中的芦苇，其后裔常被折断，
不论英俊男儿，还是美丽少女，
都难免夭折于华年。
谁也没有经历过死亡，

谁也没有见过死神的面。
谁也没有听到过死亡的声音，
然而人却可能猝然命丧九泉。

在某个阶段，我们把房屋建造，
在某个阶段，我们搭窝筑巢。

在某个阶段，兄弟分爨而居，
在某个阶段，仇恨遍布大地。
在某个阶段，洪水泛滥，河水四溢，
浮游在水上自在地游来漂去，
晒着太阳甚惬意。

顷刻间，一切都会化为乌有成子虚。

被劫持与死亡，二者何其相像。
谁也画不出死亡是个啥模样。
死者不能在人间祈福祈祥。
大神阿努纳吉，聚在一起把事情商谈，
命运缔造者玛米图亦在他们中间，共同对人类命运做出了最后决断。
他们确定了生与死，
却没有透露死亡期限。