Nineb Lamassu

The Bow and the Reed: Ekphrastic Poems Nineb Lamassu

These ekphrastic poems were written by Nineb Lamassu as part of British Museum's 'I am Ashurbanipal' exhibition. The poet wrote these poems during a number of visits to the exhibition and they were translated by Jamie Osborn. This collection is the first set of ekphtrastic poems to have been published in Assyrian and Nineb Lamassu's innovative ways of toying with his language feels like one is reading the tablets of an ancient Assyrian scribe: each poem is formed like a clay tablet, each tablet with a different shape, beauty and content.