Available now! A new translation of GILGAMESH

Feb. 2, 2012 - PRLog -- Announcing the inaugural publication of Contra Mundum Press, a new translation by Stuart Kendall of the ancient Mesopotamian epic poem, Gilgamesh. The story of a visionary journey beyond the limits of human experience, Gilgamesh is a tale of friendship, adventure, mortality, and loss. The legends it collects ultimately informed Greek and Egyptian myths, Hebrew Scriptures, and Islamic literature.

Known for his translations of Bataille, Blanchot, Éluard, and others, Kendall’s first translation of an ancient text is informed by his work in the history of consciousness at the intersections of poetics, philosophy, theology, and visual culture.

While scholarly translations often dilute the expressive force of the original and popular versions distort its pagan ethics, Kendall’s Gilgamesh honors both, creating what Jerome Rothenberg has called nothing less than “the exemplary version for our time.”

Stuart Kendall, Gilgamesh (New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2012) ISBN: 9780983697206. 18 USD, 14 GBP, 12 €. Bookstores can order through Ingram. The general public can acquire copies through local retailers or Amazon and similar sites worldwide. For a review, desk copy, or interview request write to:  info@contramundum.net

For a free sample of the text, please visit our website to download the pdf:
http://contramundum.net


ENCOMIUMS

“As Gilgamesh enters the domain of the classical—as it has for several decades now—each new generation looks for a way to bring it from its ur-world into the living present. Toward this end Stuart Kendall’s is the exemplary version for our time, a reading that allows the mind to see what had been too long lost to us and what we so much need to make us fully human. This is the place to go for further sustenance.”—Jerome Rothenberg

“This new translation of the Gilgamesh tale ventures outside the straitjackets that have often constrained the text, understanding its complicated transmission-history in the Sumerian and East Semitic languages of the ancient Near East and the way it evades modern ideas of ‘epic’ and ‘fiction’ often foisted upon it. In sharp, imagistic prose, Kendall shows how Gilgamesh’s story is not just an instructive yarn but a concerted act of ontological investigation. A needed provisioning of a much-discussed but little understood work.”—Nicholas Birns, Eugene Lang College

# # #

Contra Mundum Press is a new publishing venture dedicated to the value and the indispensable importance of the individual voice. CMP is devoted primarily to publishing poetry, literature, philosophy, criticism, and essays.