The Harps That Once...: Sumerian Poetry in Translation | National Humanities Center

Work of the Fellows: Translations; Fiction and Poetry

The Harps That Once…: Sumerian Poetry in Translation

Edited and translated by Thorkild Jacobsen (NHC Fellow, 1986–87; 1988–89)

Sumerian Literature; Poetry

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987

From the publisher’s description:

The eminent Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, author of Treasures of Darkness, here presents translations of ancient Sumerian poems written near the end of the third millennium b.c.e., including a number of compositions that have never before been published in translation. The themes developed in the poems—quite possibly the earliest poems extant—are those that have fascinated humanity since the time people first began to spin stories: the longings of young lovers; courage in battle; joy at the birth of a child; the pleasures of drink and song.
Subjects
Literature / Classics / Sumerian Literature / Poetry /

Jacobsen, Thorkild (NHC Fellow, 1986–87; 1988–89), ed. and trans. The Harps That Once..: Sumerian Poetry in Translation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.