"Gilgamesh touched the heart of the companion. There was nothing at all. Gilgamesh covered
Enkidu's face with a veil like the veil of a bride. He hovered like an eagle over the body,
or as a lioness does over her brood." -anonymous, trans. David Ferry
"Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, for the dead I loved so well, For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands -- and this for his dear sake, Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul, There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim." -Walt Whitman
"You have left me behind, old friend, at the Yellow Crane Terrace, On your way to visit Yang-chou in the misty month of flowers; Your sail, a single shadow, becomes one with the blue sky, Till now I see only the river, on its way to heaven." -Li Po, trans. Witter Bynner
