Mahmoud Darwish

One of the Arab world's greatest living poets uses the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the shelling of Beirut as the setting for this sequence of prose poems. Mahmoud Darwish vividly recreates the sights and sounds of a city under terrible siege. As fighter jets scream overhead, he explores the war-ravaged streets of Beirut on August 6th (Hiroshima Day).Memory for Forgetfulness is an extended reflection on the invasion and its political and historical dimensions. It is also a journey into personal and collective memory. What is the meaning of exile? What is the role of the writer in time of war? What is the relationship of writing (memory) to history (forgetfulness)? In raising these questions, Darwish implicitly connects writing, homeland, meaning, and resistance in an ironic, condensed work that combines wit with rage.Ibrahim Muhawi's translation beautifully renders Darwish's testament to the heroism of a people under siege, and to Palestinian creativity and continuity.

“There are two maps of Palestine that the politicians will never manage to forfeit: the one kept in the memories of Palestinian refugees, and that which is drawn by Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry.”—Anton Shammas This remarkable collection of Mahmoud Darwish’s poems and prose meditations is both lyrical and philosophical, questioning and wise, full of irony and protest and play. “Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance.” As always, Darwish’s musings on unrest and loss dwell on love and humanity; myth and dream are inseparable from truth. “Truth is plain as day.” Throughout the book, Darwish returns frequently to his ongoing and often lighthearted conversation with death. Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008) was awarded the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom in 2001. He was regarded as the voice of the Palestinian people and one of the greatest poets of our time.

One of the most transcendent poets of his generation, Darwish composed this remarkable elegy at the apex of his creativity, but with the full knowledge that his death was imminent. Thinking it might be his final work, he summoned all his poetic genius to create a luminous work that defies categorization. In stunning language, Darwish’s self-elegy inhabits a rare space where opposites bleed and blend into each other. Prose and poetry, life and death, home and exile are all sung by the poet and his other. On the threshold of im/mortality, the poet looks back at his own existence, intertwined with that of his people. Through these lyrical meditations on love, longing, Palestine, history, friendship, family, and the ongoing conversation between life and death, the poet bids himself and his readers a poignant farewell.

The first English translation of recent poetry by the late Mahmoud Darwish, the most important Palestinian contemporary poet "If I die before you, I leave you the impossible."--Mahmoud Darwish, in "Exile" "A brilliant poet--certainly the most gifted of his generation in the Arab world."--Edward Said "I can only hope that the day will soon come, especially in English, when Darwish's night and dream, jasmine and almond blossoms are seen for what they are: the private lexicon of a singular and eternal, timeless voice in the history of human literature."--Fady Joudah Almond Blossoms and Beyond is one of the last collections of poetry that Mahmoud Darwish left to the world. Composed of brief lyric poems and the magnificent sustained Exile cycle, Almond Blossoms holds an important place in Darwish's unparalleled oeuvre. It distills his late style, in which, though the specter of death looms and weddings turn to funerals, he threads the pulses and fragilities and beauties of life into the lines of his poems. Their liveliness is his own response to the collection's final call to bid "Farewell / Farewell, to the poetry of pain."

Poetry from former national poet of Palestine, illustrated by original drawings by John Berger Mahmoud Darwish was the Palestinian national poet. One of the greatest poets of the last half century, his work evokes the loss of his homeland and is suffused with the pain of dispossession and exile. His poems display a brilliant acuity, a passion for and openness to the world and, above all, a deep and abiding humanity. Here, his close friends John Berger and Rema Hammami present a beautiful new translation of two of Darwish’s later works. Illustrated with original drawings by John Berger, Mural is a testimony to one of the most important and powerful poets of our age.

Esquivando-se ao espartilho da categorização, o presente livro não se deixa arrumar num lugar fixo. Nas palavras de Darwich, em entrevista concedida a Mohammad Shaheen, «[Na Presença da Ausência] não é poesia nem prosa. Não é autobiografia nem romance.» Transita entre géneros, mescla-os, manipula-os, e faz-se num edifício que desafia a própria noção de género, ancorado no desígnio primeiro de «celebração da estética da linguagem». Do prefácio, Manuel Alberto Vieira Volta a ser criança. Ensina-me a poesia. Ensina-me o ritmo do mar. Restitui às palavras a sua inocência primeira. Faz-me nascer de um grão de trigo, não de uma ferida. Faz-me nascer e devolve-me a um mundo anterior ao significado para que possa abraçar-te na erva. Ouves-me? A um mundo anterior ao significado. As árvores altas caminhavam connosco enquanto árvores, não enquanto significado. A lua despida rastejava connosco. Uma lua, não um prato argênteo. Volta a ser criança. Ensina-me a poesia. Ensina-me o ritmo do mar. Toma-me pela mão para que possamos atravessar juntos o abismo que separa a noite do dia. Juntos aprenderemos as primeiras palavras e construiremos um ninho secreto para o pardal, o nosso terceiro irmão. Volta a ser criança para que eu possa ver o meu rosto no teu espelho. Tu és tu? Eu sou eu? Ensina-me a poesia para que eu possa escrever-te uma elegia agora, agora, agora. Como tu ma escreves a mim!

Mahmoud Darwish is a literary rarity: at once critically acclaimed as one of the most important poets in the Arabic language, and beloved as the voice of his people. He is a living legend whose lyrics are sung by fieldworkers and schoolchildren. He has assimilated some of the world's oldest literary traditions at the same time that he has struggled to open new possibilities for poetry. This collection spans Darwish's entire career, nearly four decades, revealing an impressive range of expression and form. A splendid team of translators has collaborated with the poet on these new translations, which capture Darwish's distinctive voice and spirit.

First English publication of interviews with the late Mahmoud Darwish. Palestine as Metaphor consists of a series of interviews with Mahmoud Darwish, which have never appeared in English before. The interviews are a wealth of information on the poet's personal life, his relationships, his numerous works, and his tragedy. They illuminate Darwish's conception of poetry as a supreme art that transcends time and place. Several writers and journalists conducted the interviews, including a Lebanese poet, a Syrian literary critic, three Palestinian writers, and an Israeli journalist. Each encounter took place in a different city from Nicosia to London, Paris, and Amman. These vivid dialogues unravel the threads of a rich life haunted by the loss of Palestine and illuminate the genius and the distress of a major world poet.