Sophus Helle is a writer, translator, and cultural historian. He lives in Berlin.
“Helle’s translation feels urgent, incandescent, stripped of
academic cladding. . . . The growing popularity of Enheduana gives
all of us readers a chance to discover another lineage—and to bring
this poet and her imagination flashing back to life
again.”—Nilanjana Roy, Financial Times
“This book is the ideal introduction to the priestess-poet. As well
as being a first-rate Assyriologist, Helle is a gifted poet
himself, and he presents us with translations that are nothing
short of gripping.”—Ollie Randall, Times Literary Supplement
“In [this] new translation of her poems, by Sophus Helle, Enheduana
describes herself as ‘the weaver of the tablet.’ Helle argues that
Enheduana compares her writing practice to pulling threads from a
larger textile and rearranging them into a new pattern.”—Tatiana
Hollier, New York Review of Books
“We finally have a good English translation, alongside several
essays, rich in detail, concerning what we know about her and
how.”—Anna Della Subin, London Review of Books
“Helle’s translations are elegant and pleasant to read, and they
mostly succeed in the difficult task of conveying some of the
verbal fabric and poetic texture of the Sumerian originals. To
render in idiomatic English and with a certain level of
faithfulness 4,000-year-old Sumerian literary compositions poses
almost insurmountable challenges.”—Gonzalo Rubio, Poetry Birmingham
Literary Journal
“A wonderful new translation and commentary which returns Enheduana
to her rightful place at the beginning of literary history.”—Zainab
Bahrani, Columbia University
“Helle’s Enheduana is a vibrant work that illuminates the
complexity and wonder of the original texts. It crafts new insights
into Enheduana and her world, invoking both elegance and—as could
be expected of poems dedicated to the goddess Inana—a sense of
awe.”—Gina Konstantopoulos, University of California–Los
Angeles
“Enheduana’s hymns are among the earliest comprehensible poems to
have come down to us. For Sophus Helle they are not ancient fossils
to be revered, but vibrant works of literature, and he has found a
personal diction that makes them ring across the millennia without
distortion. A masterful achievement.”—Piotr Michalowski, University
of Michigan
“I am thrilled to see my ancestor role model Enheduana coming back
to life through this updated, wonderful translation of her poems
and also fascinating research of her life and rituals.”—Dunya
Mikhail, author of The Bird Tattoo
“Sophus Helle’s translation of the world’s first known
author—daughter of the world’s first known emperor—comes hot on the
heels of his splendid edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh. In these
pages the voice of Enheduana reaches across the millennia with more
vibrancy, passion, and immediacy than the Homeric Hymns. The
publication of this book is a major literary event.”—Robert Pogue
Harrison, Stanford University
“Offering valuable and original insights into the study of
authorship in Mesopotamia, this truly interdisciplinary book is
widely accessible to scholars outside the field of Assyriology and
should be read attentively.”—Paul Delnero, Johns Hopkins
University
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