{"product_id":"gilgamesh","title":"Gilgamesh: A Rendering in English Verse by David Ferry","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe classic verse rendering of the great epic of ancient Mesopotamia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGilgamesh \u003c\/i\u003eis the story of the godlike ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian city Uruk. The start of the poem finds Gilgamesh as a brutal tyrant, whose potency is unmatched and unchecked. The god Aruru fashions him a match, a wild man called Enkidu, who fights the ruler but soon becomes Gilgamesh's beloved companion and friend. The story of their shared heroism, the pain of Enkidu's untimely death, and of Gilgamesh's quest for immortality was told across a series of cuneiform clay tablets. It is said to be the oldest recorded literary work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Ferry's elegant verse rendering transmutes the ancient epic into the language of our time. Much like Robert Fitzgerald's \u003ci\u003eOdyssey \u003c\/i\u003eor Seamus Heaney's \u003ci\u003eBeowulf\u003c\/i\u003e, Ferry's \u003ci\u003eGilgamesh\u003c\/i\u003e is a work whose poetic invention and lyrical rendering makes new that which is ancient, and draws forth the antique echoes that persist in our moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Ferry's version [of \u003ci\u003eGilgamesh\u003c\/i\u003e will] become the standard English text.\"\u003cb\u003e --Fred Marchant, \u003ci\u003e The Harvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"There have been other English accounts of this hero with a thousand descendants, but this is the first one that is as much poetry as scholarship.\" \u003cb\u003e--Michael Dirda, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Ferry's skill brings a fresh interpretation to the power of \u003ci\u003e Gilgamesh\u003c\/i\u003e.\" \u003cb\u003e--John Ray, \u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Ferry (1924-2023) \u003c\/b\u003ewas a poet and translator. His translation of \u003ci\u003eGilgamesh\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, and he was honored with the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, given by the Academy of American Poets; the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, given by the Library of Congress; and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He translated, among other works, the Epistles of Horace, and both Virgil's \u003ci\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEclogues. \u003c\/i\u003eFerry was the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor of English Emeritus at Wellesley College.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Macmillan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46333446291642,"sku":"9781250437594","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0444\/2213\/5968\/files\/91xFfcHNI8L._SL1500.jpg?v=1786631152","url":"https:\/\/naturenurture.shop\/products\/gilgamesh","provider":"nature+nurture","version":"1.0","type":"link"}