In Jabal Najmeh, by the woods, the wizard will stop me Note: Summaries are taken from promotional materials supplied by the publisher, unless otherwise noted.įady Joudah and Ghassan Zaqtan read You’re Not Alone in the Wilderness from Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems Departing from the lush aesthetics of such celebrated predecessors as Mahmoud Darwish and Adonis, Zaqtan’s daily, delicate narrative, whirling catalogues, and at times austere aesthetics represent a new trajectory, a significant leap for young Arabic poets today. With these poems Zaqtan enters new terrain, illuminating the vision of what Arabic poetry in general and Palestinian poetry in particular are capable of.
In this inspired translation of Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems, Ghassan Zaqtan’s tenth and most recent poetry collection, Fady Joudah brings to English-language readers the best work by one of the most important and original Palestinian poets of our time. Joudah, as translator to translator, as poet to poet, as doctor to doctor.” – Wang Ping Summary Joudah delivered with such grace and power. About the translation: as a translator of poetry myself, I know the danger, frustration and the joy in the process of catching the fire from the original and delivering it through/into another language, another culture, another sentiment. His magic leads us to the clearing where hope becomes possible, where healing begins across individuals, countries, races … and we are one with air, water, soil, birds, fish, trees … our daily words pregnant with beauty, and we begin to sing again till ‘ … the singer / and the song / are alike (Biography in Charcoal)’. His words turn dark into light, hatred into love, death into life. His singing reminds us why we live and how, in the midst of war, despair, global changes. His poetry awakens the spirits buried deep in the garden, in our hearts, in the past, present and future. It’s a poet’s job to bring this gift out and back, this gift that makes us human again. “What does poetry do? Nothing and everything, like air, water, soil, like birds, fish, trees, like love, spirit, our daily words … It lives with us, in and outside us, everywhere, all the time, and yet, we are too often oblivious of this gift. He returned to Palestine in 1994 and now lives in Ramallah. He was born in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, and has lived in Jordan, Beirut, Damascus and Tunis. Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan is a novelist, editor, and the author of ten collections of poetry. Among his translations are two poetry collections by Mahmoud Darwish, The Butterfly’s Burden (2007) and If I Were Another, for which he won the 2010 PEN USA Literary Award. Biographiesįady Joudah is a practicing physician of internal medicine and an award-winning poet and translator.
Book: Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other PoemsĬlick here to read and listen to an excerpt.
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