"Young man, in your own place you are a nobleman, but there in the mountain what would you be?" The god 'Utu' asks Gelgamesh before his adventure to pursue Evil Humbaba in the mountain.
Gelgamesh replies:
"O Utu, Let me tell you something, may you give thought to it.
In my city a man dies, and the heart is stricken,
a man perishes, and the heart feels pain.
I raised my head on the rampart,
my gaze fell on a corpse drifting down the river, afloat the water:
I too shall become like that, just so shall I be.
Since no man escapes life's end, I will enter the mountain and set up my name."
Translated by Prof. Andrew George from the Sumerian Tablets.
Gelgamesh replies:
"O Utu, Let me tell you something, may you give thought to it.
In my city a man dies, and the heart is stricken,
a man perishes, and the heart feels pain.
I raised my head on the rampart,
my gaze fell on a corpse drifting down the river, afloat the water:
I too shall become like that, just so shall I be.
Since no man escapes life's end, I will enter the mountain and set up my name."
Translated by Prof. Andrew George from the Sumerian Tablets.