The Butterfly's Burden

Newest work from Mahmoud Darwish--the most acclaimed poet in the Arab world

Translator's Preface

ix

The Stranger's Bed 1998

We Were Missing a Present

5

(6)

Sonnet I

11

(2)

Low Sky

13

(6)

We Walk on the Bridge

19

(4)

Your Night Is of Lilac

23

(2)

Sonnet II

25

(2)

The Stranger Stumbles upon Himself in the Stranger

27

(2)

A Cloud from Sodom

29

(2)

A Doe's Young Twins

31

(2)

Sonnet III

33

(2)

Take My Horse and Slaughter It...

35

(2)

The Stranger's Land/the Serene Land

37

(4)

Inanna's Milk

41

(4)

Sonnet IV

45

(2)

No More and No Less

47

(4)

Wedding Song

51

(4)

Housework

55

(4)

Sonnet V

59

(2)

Two Stranger Birds in Our Feathers

61

(4)

I Waited for No One

65

(4)

Drought

69

(4)

Sonnet VI

73

(2)

The Subsistence of Birds

75

(4)

Maybe, Because Winter Is Late

79

(10)

Who Am I, Without Exile?

89

(4)

Jameel Bouthaina and I

93

(4)

A Mask...for Majnoon Laila

97

(4)

A Lesson from Kama Sutra

101

(4)

The Damascene Collar of the Dove

105

(16)

A State of Siege 2002

"Here, by the downslope of hills, facing the sunset"

121

(58)

Don't Apologize for What You've Done 2003

I. IN THE LUST OF CADENCE

Cadence Chooses Me

179

(2)

I Have the Wisdom of One Condemned to Death

181

(2)

Another Day Will Come

183

(2)

And I, Even if I Were the Last

185

(2)

In My Mother's House

187

(2)

Don't Apologize for What You've Done

189

(2)

On a Day like Today

191

(2)

Set Down, Here, and Now

193

(2)

If You Return Alone

195

(2)

I Didn't Apologize to the Well

197

(2)

No Banner in the Wind

199

(2)

The Horse Fell Off the Poem

201

(2)

To Our Land

203

(2)

And We Have a Land

205

(2)

Nothing but Light

207

(2)

The Beloved Hemorrhaged Anemones

209

(2)

In Jerusalem

211

(2)

In Her Absence I Created Her Image

213

(2)

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday

215

(2)

Two Olive Trees

217

(4)

They Don't Look Behind Them

221

(2)

They Didn't Ask: What's After Death

223

(2)

Murdered and Unknown

225

(2)

The Cypress Broke

227

(2)

A Man and a Fawn Are in the Garden

229

(4)

This Is Forgetfulness

233

(2)

You'll Be Forgotten, As If You Never Were

235

(4)

As for Me, I Say to My Name

239

(2)

Dream, What Is It?

241

(2)

Now, When You Awaken, Remember

243

(2)

The Shadow

245

(2)

Nothing Pleases Me

247

(2)

He's Calm, and I Am Too

249

(2)

Describing Clouds

251

(4)

A Noun Sentence

255

(2)

Say What You Want

257

(2)

Don't Write History as Poetry

259

(2)

What Will Remain?

261

(2)

I Don't Know Your Name

263

(2)

She's Alone in the Evening

265

(4)

While Waiting

269

(2)

If I Were Another

271

(2)

Thanks to Tunis

273

(2)

I Have a Seat in the Abandoned Theater

275

(2)

In Syria

277

(2)

In Egypt

279

(2)

I Recall al-Sayyab

281

(4)

II. THE COASTAL ROAD

"A road that leads to Egypt and Syria"

285

(6)

III. NOT AS A FOREIGN TOURIST DOES

"I walked on what remains of the heart"

291

(8)

IV. A POETRY STANZA/THE SOUTHERNER'S HOUSE

"Standing together beneath a window"

299

(8)

V. LIKE A MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT

"In Pablo Neruda's home, on the Pacific"

307

(8)

VI. THE KURD HAS ONLY THE WIND

"The Kurd remembers, when I visit him, his tomorrow"

315

(6)

Notes

321

(6)

About the Author

327

(1)

About the Translator

327

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The Butterfly's Burden

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials