Skip to main content

Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish published thirty poetry and prose collections before his death in 2008. His final book of poems, If I Were Another, translated by Fady Joudah, is forthcoming from FSG in November, and an edition of his notebooks A River Dies of Thirst will appear from Archipelago Books in December.

Author

I Love Autumn and the Shadow of Meaning

I love autumn and the shadow of meaning, and I like in autumn a light mystery of diaphanous handkerchiefs, like poetry in the burst after birth, dazzled by the incandescent night or the dimness of light. It crawls and doesn’t find the names for [...]

I Used to Love Winter

In the past I used to bow to winter respectfully, and listen to my body. Rain, rain, like a shameless love letter flowing from the lewd heaven. Winter. A calling. A hungry echo to embrace women. An air seen from afar atop a mare who carries the [...]

Funeral

Winter 2009 | Poetry

I saw the procession, followed the coffin like the others, with head respectfully bowed. I found no reasons to ask them, Who’s this stranger? Where’d he live? How’d he die? There are many causes of death, among them the ache of life. I asked m [...]

The Dice Player

Winter 2009 | Poetry

Who am I to say to you what I say to you? when I’m not a stone burnished by water to become a face or a reed punctured by wind to become a flute . . . I’m a dice player I win some and lose some just like you or a little less . . . born b [...]

With the Mist So Dense on the Bridge

With the mist so dense on the bridge, he said to me, “Is anything known to the contrary?” I said, “At dawn, things will be clear.” He said, “There is no time more obscure than dawn. Let your imagination succumb to the river. In [...]