Gilgamesh: A Klingon Translation

Roger Cheesbro’s Gilgamesh: A Klingon Translation builds upon the trend Nick Nicholas and Andrew Strader began with The Klingon Hamlet and Much Ado About Nothing: The Restored Klingon Version in translating Shakespearean texts into Klingon following the Klingon characters’ Shakespearean references in Nicholas Meyer’s 1991 film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Here, Cheesbro moves into works beyond Shakespeare, adapting Gilgamesh as ghIlghameS, a work Star Trek: The Next Generation famously referenced in the fifth season episode “Darmok.” The hero’s journey of Gilgamesh easily makes sense as a Klingon work much like the in-universe stories of Kahless. Unlike earlier translations of Shakespearean works, Klingon show more Language Institute Director Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen presents a scenario in the introduction in which an unknown, shipwrecked Klingon translated this tale from Earth upon the bulkheads of his wrecked ship. This builds on the tradition of Marc Okrand’s Klingon for the Galactic Traveler, which positioned these as in-universe texts that readers could engage with as part of the canonical changes in Klingon-Federation relations during Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Cheesbro’s book will further aid those looking to learn the Klingon language, particularly as it helps place the language in context with examples of its use through narratives familiar to the reader. The parallel translation – with Klingon on the left and English on the right – will aid Klingon language scholars. show less