Gilgamesh

The best translations--and bear in mind, I do not know the language--are John Gardner's and Maureen Kovacs's. Kovacs is somewhat more literal, and is more complete (she draws from older sources to fill in the incomplete standard text), but Gardner seems to have a better feel for the poetry of the thing. David Ferry's version, a "poetic retelling" or some such nonsense, is worthless. It is a paraphrase, not a translation, and it lacks any artistic merit of its own.