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The Epic of Gilgamesh

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Start date: July 1, 2019

Finish date: July 31, 2019

Discussion: Current Group Reads

Why we're reading this: July 2019 Old School Group Read
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What Members Thought

Mar 06, 2012 Katy rated it liked it

Okay, first off the translator of this epic really makes a difference!
I read the translation by N. K. Sandars and one by Danny P. Jackson.
Mr. Jackson's version is a bit too modern in speech and R-rated for rude and crude.
I much preferred the Sandars version, although written in prose instead of in verse. ...more

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Apr 18, 2018 Melanti rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tales-folklore-and-mythology, illustrated, poetry, classics, anthology, 2018, intotheforest-2018

I read this once, years ago, with the Sandars' prose translation, and this time around I decided to try a poetic translation.

Unforunately, this particular edition is too academic for my tastes. George used brackets to set apart any bit of text that was missing from the original tablets but that he was able to infer from either repetition or other sources, and ellipses to indicate missing text he wasn't able to fill in.

This is the approach that I really enjoyed in If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sa ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 18, 2010 Sinisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, 2020

What else than 5 stars. It’s like giving a star rating to Egyptian pyramids or the Stonehenge.
The mere fact that you are reading some of the oldest saved literature pieces is thrilling – almost magical.
It’s impossible to compare it with anything modern, of course, but it gives us a wonderful window into the mind of the first civilized people.
The most important question for Gilgamesh is: Why do I have to die? What’s the meaning of everything if everything has to vanish, sooner or later.
Isn’t th ...more

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Nov 20, 2010 Mark rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A wonderful translation of the first work of literature, the one that is the blueprint for every heroic work to follow. The work whose themes are THE themes-death, immortality, friendship, the meaning of existence, etc. All of that, and perhaps the greatest curse in all of literature (no one curses like the Sumerians, baby).

This translation is user-friendly, that is, it reads well and is easy to read. If you are wondering what people were thinking about several thousand years ago, well, it was ...more

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