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| Mural by Mahmoud Darwish |
Translated by John Berger, and Rema Hammami
A major new translation of remarkable, late poems by the great Palestinian poet. 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, exile and loss. His poems also 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, his long masterpiece “Mural,” a contemplation of his life and work written following life-threatening surgery, and his last poem, “The Dice Player,” which Darwish read in Ramallah a month before his death. Illustrated with original drawings by John Berger, Mural is a testimony to one of the most important and powerful poets of our age.
Salma Abu Ayyash reads from Mahmoud Darwish's "Mural" in Arabic & English at Harvard University, September 18, 2008. The event, a celebration of Darwish's life and work forty days after his death, was co-sponsored by the GSAS Alliance for Justice in the Middle East, the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and Justice for Palestine at Harvard Law School.
