Enkidu Is Dead and Not Dead / Enkidu está muerto y no lo está

Por Tucker Lieberman

In this bilingual collection of poems, inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh, the king grieves the disappearance of his wild friend Enkidu. Each poem appears in English and Spanish, translated by the author.

When you are not talking to me, I conjure you.

When I lose my way between campfires, you are with me.

When my body wastes awa

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Glyph Torrent
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 15 jun 2021
• ISBN: 9781732906075

Tucker Lieberman

Tucker Lieberman-haunted by his acquaintance with the late author of "Eunuchry"-wrote the ghost story "Exit Interview" for DefCon One's "imaginary friends" fiction anthology, "I Didn't Break the Lamp." At Brown University, he received the Casey Shearer Memorial Award for Creative Nonfiction and a bachelor's degree in philosophy. He earned a postgraduate degree in journalism from Boston University. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, he lives with the science fiction writer Arturo Serrano in Bogotá, Colombia. He is turning forty.

Vista previa del libro

Enkidu is Dead and Not Dead

An Origin Myth of Grief

Enkidu está muerto y no lo está

Un mito de origen de la pesadumbre

Tucker Lieberman

Bogotá

Glyph Torrent

2021

ISBN 978-1-7329060-7-5

Cover art: Luis Carlos Barragán

First printing (ebook): June 2021

The gods know who wrote these poems.

Arte de la portada: Luis Carlos Barragán

Primera impresión (libro electrónico): junio de 2021

Los dioses saben quién escribió estos poemas.

Acknowledgments / Agradecimientos

Tablets on the North Wall: Vanishing of Enkidu

Tabletas en la Pared Norte: Desaparición de Enkidu

How I thought it worked / Cómo creía yo que funcionaba

His breath detaches / Su aliento se separa

Enkidu is gone / Enkidu ya no está

Regret / Remordimiento

Omens of liver and stars / Presagios de hígado y estrellas

Every tablet breaks / Toda tableta se rompe

Enkidu dreams of charts / Enkidu sueña con mapas

We must not end this way / No debemos terminar de esta manera

Tablets on the East Wall: Adoration of Enkidu

Tabletas en la Pared Este: Adoración de Enkidu

Absence / Ausencia

I am still tracking you / Todavía te estoy rastreando

Anoint me / Úngeme

Seeing the invisible / Ver lo invisible

Enkidu, Animal-Man-God / Enkidu, Animal-Hombre-Dios

How animals were made / Cómo se hicieron los animales

Scratched in amber / Rayado en ámbar

The coin of Gilgamesh / La moneda de Gilgamesh

Tablets on the South Wall: Friendship Quest

Tabletas en la Pared Sur: Búsqueda de la Amistad

Or call me no king / O no me llames rey

I promise not to call out to you / Prometo no llamarte

If the heavens spoke / Si los cielos hablaran

Why am I not dead? / ¿Por qué no estoy muerto?

A liver grows back / Un hígado vuelve a crecer

First call of the Anzu Bird / El primer grito del Pájaro Anzu

I cannot die in a dream / No puedo morir en un sueño

I restart my life / Reinicio mi vida

Tablets on the West Wall: Emergence

Tabletas en la Pared Oeste: Eclosión

I must go / Debo irme

Here is my liver / Aquí mi hígado

Begin with emptiness / Al principio, el vacío

I honor it by dropping it / Lo honro al dejarlo caer

The freedom to stop dreaming / La libertad de dejar de soñar

Was I what I wanted? / ¿Era yo lo que yo quería?

Now I must live / Ahora debo vivir

Second call of the Anzu Bird / El segundo grito del Pájaro Anzu

Oral Tradition

Tradición oral

Shuila prayer / Oración shuila

About the Author and Cover Artist / Sobre el autor y el artista de portada

Acknowledgments

The Epic of Gilgamesh, thousands of years old, is often identified as the earliest surviving poem. In the story, Gilgamesh, King of Uruk in modern-day Iraq, mourns his wild-dwelling friend Enkidu. I acknowledge the bravery of the first poet who tried to describe grief. That person did not know what the stars might have to say nor whether the future would ever come.

A shuila prayer in Akkadian was recited by a priest in the presence of, and on behalf of, a client who could have been, for example, a king. The final poem is named after this type of prayer.

I carved these tablets. In consecutive iterations, Tanya Singh, alyssa hanna, Christina Xiong, Kristin Garth, Félix González Montejo, Arturo Serrano, Vanessa Maki, and Paula Espitia told me where to smash the tablet and redo the story. One of these poems was also workshopped in a class led by Tess Taylor. I am indebted to them.

All 33 poems in this collection are previously unpublished in their current forms. Several, however, are new iterations of previously published poems. Now they are transformed to resound in the voice of Gilgamesh.

On the Tablets on the East Wall:

Seeing the invisible is based on Object Permanence, previously published in Esthetic Apostle.

Enkidu, Animal-Man-God is based on The Ghosts of Yes and No, previously published in Marias at Sampaguitas.

How animals were made is based on Origin of Species, previously published in Niagara University’s TheAquila.

On the Tablets on the West Wall:

I must go is based on "Bridge