| 1 | He waited by the sea until he saw the Ferryman, Ur-Shanabi. |
| 2 | He went into his boat. For fifty days and nights they voyaged across the Waters of Death, and the Ferryman warned Gilgamish not to touch with his hand the waters they passed over. |
| 3 | They reached the limits of the Waters of Death; they came to the land where Gilgamish's ancestor, Uta-Napishtim, had his abode. |
| 4 | Uta-Napishtim the Remote walked with his wife by the waters. He saw the boat of Ur-Shanabi coming towards him. He, astonished that another beside Ur-Shanabi was in the boat, waited by the shore. |
| 5 | Gilgamish came out of the boat, and he went to the two figures that stood by themselves. Uta-Napishtim knew his descendant, and he spoke kindly to Gilgamish. |
| 6 | Then Gilgamish told him of what had happened to him in the world of men; he told how his friend Enkidu had been taken from him, becoming as dust, he who had been like the panther of the desert, he who had aided him to destroy the Bull of Heaven. |
| 7 | "Shall not I myself also be obliged to lay me down and never rise up to all eternity?" he cried to Uta-Napishtim. |
| 8 | And again he cried, "I was horribly afraid. I was afraid of death, and therefore have I fled from my own country." |
| 9 | But Uta-Napishtim the Remote made answer to Gilgamish, and he said, "None may find out the day of their death, for Mammitum, the Arranger of Destinies, has settled it, and none knows but Mammitum." |
| 10 | And as Uta-Napishtim spoke Gilgamish ate and refreshed himself. |
| 11 | Having refreshed himself he lay in the boat and drowsiness overpowered him; he fell into a slumber. |
| 12 | Then Uta-Napishtim said to his wife, "Behold the one who would find immortality; he cannot keep drowsiness away from him." |
| 13 | Gilgamish slept. For six days the wife of Uta-Napishtim baked bread and laid it beside him. |
| 14 | On the seventh day when she brought him bread, she touched him, and Gilgamish wakened up. |
| 15 | Then all day he questioned Uta-Napishtim about the ways of escaping death. |
| 16 | Uta-Napishtim told him that at the bottom of the sea that he had crossed, and in the middle of it, there grew a plant, and that he who ate of it nine days after it had been gathered would escape death. |
| 17 | Having told him this, Uta-Napishtim told the Ferryman to make ready to take Gilgamish back across the Waters of Death. |
| 18 | The Ferryman made ready; the wife of Uta-Napishtim gave Gilgamish bread to last him for his journey across. |
| 19 | When they came to the middle of the sea, Gilgamish fastened stones to his feet and let himself sink down in the water. |
| 20 | He found the plant that grew at the bottom of the sea, and, rejoicing, he gathered it. |
| 21 | He went into the boat and they came to a land under the mountain. |
| 22 | The land was pleasant, and Gilgamish rested himself there. |
| 23 | Not yet had come the time for him to eat the plant he had gathered. |
| 24 | A serpent smelled the plant and came to where Gilgamish was. |
| 25 | Now Gilgamish would bathe in the water of a pool, for he needed the refreshment of water. |
| 26 | He went into the pool. |
| 27 | And while he was in the pool the serpent came upon the plant and ate it--yea, ate all of the plant. |
| 28 | Then was Gilgamish left without that which would have given him escape from death. |
| 29 | He wept, and the spirit of Enkidu came before him, and told him of the Land of the Dead and of how men fared who entered into it. |
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Chapter - 10