Friday, September 04, 2009

Mahmoud Darwish



We have just received a new collection of poems by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (we carry a number of his books) His new book A River Dies of Thirst - journals - is translated from the Arabic by Catherine Cobham and published by Archipelago Books. Darwish has said "I want to find a language that transforms language itself into steel for the spirit - a language to use against these sparkling silver insects, these jets. I want to sing, I want a language...that asks me to bear witness and that I can ask to bear witness, to what power there is in us to overcome this cosmic isolation."
Here's a poem from the book:
I am only him

Far away, behind his footsteps
wolves bite moonbeams

Far away, ahead of his footsteps,
stars light up the treetops

close to him
blood flows from the veins of stones

Therefore he walks and walks and walks
until he melts away
and the shadows swallow him up at the end of this journey

I am only him
and he is only me
in different images.

Mahmoud Darwish
1941-2008

3 Comments:

Blogger ron huber.55 said...

Quite a poem - that one by Mahmoud Darwish, Gary. Thanks for sharing it.

6:09 AM  
Blogger destinykin said...

Sitting in book designer David Bullen's office with poet Jerry Martien yesterday looking at the entire gorgeous collection of Archipelago Books. This one by Darwish is a tour de force. Long live archipelago.

9:34 AM  
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