Gilgamesh

This is an enthralling re-working of an epic poem first written in cuneiform on clay tablets in about 2100 BC. Its eponymous hero is the king of Uruk whose oppressed subjects appeal to the gods to help them end the abuses of their ruler and, in particular, his insistence on sleeping with every new bride before her husband may do so. They send a wild man, Enkidu, to curb his excesses but although a battle ensues, the two end up as firm friends and their rampages begin. Displeased again, the gods decide that Enkidu must die, and Gilgamesh passes many years in a fruitless search for immortality. The reader should not be daunted by the antiquity of the original. Hines prefaces the poem with a concise but informative introduction and provides a useful glossary, thereby ensuring that we know what is going on without detracting from the poetry. His version of this epic does not claim to be a translation but rather a contemporary interpretation, and his aim to 'recapture... some of the vigour and excitement' of the original is wonderfully successful. The language is on the one hand innovative and vibrant ('Ishtar staples him with a look') and on the other rhythmic and lyrical ('And how do you sleep, love,/now time has looked away?'). His use of imagery is stunning; within four stanzas he has employed the most mundane of everyday objects to tell us how Gilgamesh 'pulls women like beer rings' but then hauntingly describes Enkidu as 'so handsome he robs the world of horizon -/for no one's gaze lifts beyond him'. This quality of writing, together with Hines's skill in combining the ancient and mythical with the modern and mundane, reinforces the timeless quality of the work and ensures that the fragment left to us by the people of Mesopotamia will continue to endure. (Kirkus UK)