The Play of Gilgamesh

Edwin Morgan’s verse play translation of the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh brings an ancient story to life in a supple, vigorous idiom that moves easily between ritual, comedy and moments of intense beauty. Here a god-king, a great city builder, learns the timeless truth that the only immortality lies in what will be remembered and recorded of his actions. Gilgamesh’s quest takes him, and the audience, on a journey through a world that is both mythic and familiar, inhabited by terrifying demons and ‘disappeared’ political prisoners, by gods and singing transvestites and a Glaswegian jester–and by Enkidu, the beloved child of nature who dies of a virus in the blood, through whom Gilgamesh learns to understand the meaning of loss. Received a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation.

Reviews of The Play of Gilgamesh

'Morgan is not only a poet of Glasgow, but of all Scotland, and beyond.' – The Guardian. 'Now in his eighties, Morgan is the most influential Scottish poet since Hugh MacDiarmid.' – The London Review of Books.