If I Were Another Poems

Winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for TranslationMahmoud Darwish was that rare literary phenomenon: a poet both acclaimed by critics as one of the most important poets in the Arab world and beloved by his readers. His languagelyrical and tenderhelped to transform modern Arabic poetry into a living metaphor for the universal experiences of exile, loss, and identity. The poems in this collection, constructed from the cadence and imagery of the Palestinian struggle, shiftbetween the most intimate individual experience and the burdens of history and collective memory. Brilliantly translated by Fady Joudah,If I Were Anotherwhich collects the greatest epic works of Darwish's mature yearsis a powerful yet elegant work by a master poet and demonstrates why Darwish was one of the most celebrated poets of his time and was hailed as the voice and conscience of an entire people.

Mahmoud Darwish was born in the village of al-Birweh in what was then Western Galilee, Palestine. He published more than twenty volumes of poetry and ten volumes of prose. He was the recipient of numerous awards for both his poetry and his political activism.

Fady Joudah is a physician, poet, and translator. His translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s The Butterfly’s Burden was a finalist for the 2008 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.

Introduction: Mahmoud Darwish's Lyric Epic	p. vii
I See What I Want (1990)
Rubaiyat	p. 4
Take Care of the Stags, Father	p. 9
Truce with the Mongols by the Holm Oak Forest	p. 16
A Music Sentence	p. 21
The Tragedy of Narcissus the Comedy of Silver	p. 23
The Hoopoe	p. 42
Eleven Planets (1992)
Eleven Planets at the End of the Andalusian Scene	p. 57
On the last evening on this earth
How do I write above the clouds?
I have behind the sky a sky
And I am one of the kings of the end
One day, I will sit on the sidewalk
Truth has two faces and the snow is black
Who am I after the stranger's night?
Water, be a string to my guitar
In exodus I love you more
I want from love only the beginning
The violins
The "Red Indian's" Penultimate Speech to the White Man	p. 69
A Canaanite Rock in the Dead Sea	p. 78
We will Choose Sophocles	p. 83
Rita's Winter	p. 88
A Horse for the Stranger	p. 94
Mural (2000)	p. 99
Exile (2005)
Tuesday and the Weather is Clear	p. 149
Dense Fog over the Bridge	p. 160
Like a Hand Tattoo in the Jahili Poet's Ode	p. 171
Counterpoint	p. 183
Notes	p. 195
Glossary	p. 197
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If I Were Another Poems

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials