The voices of the dust (2)

Me did he lead to the Dwelling of Darkness, the home of Irkalla,
Unto the Dwelling from which he who entereth cometh forth never!
(Aye), by the road on the passage whereof there can be no returning,
Unto the Dwelling whose tenants are (ever) bereft of the daylight,
Where for their food is the dust, and the mud is their sustenance:
                bird-like
Wear they a garment of feathers: and, sitting (there) in the darkness,
Never the light will they see.

R. Campbell Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamesh. A new translation from a collation of the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum rendered literally into English hexameters (1928).