Mural

A major new translation of remarkable, late poems by the great Palestinian poet

Darwish's poetry is an epic effort to transform the lyrics of loss into the indefinitely postponed drama of return.

The most celebrated writer of verse in the Arab world.

The translation is very fine . . . It's a joy to read and among the very best Palestinian literature.

Did as much as anyone to forge a Palestinian national consciousness.

an exquisitely designed book, enhanced by several of Berger's evocative drawings ... Mural is a spiraling and circuitous poem, alive with swerves and sly twists, moving along corridors that dead-end only to open out unexpectedly into detours and hidden passageways. That single adjective, conspicuous in Darwish's spare style, presages the very structure of Mural .

The conundrum of what is individual and what is collective, and inevitably political, is inescapable for both Darwish and his readers. But the primary concern of Mural is emphatically the question of identity.

Mahmoud Darwish (1942-2008) published some thirty books of poetry and prose; his work has been translated into thirty-five languages. His many international awards include the Lenin Peace Prize and the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom.