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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
"They never left. They never returned./ Their hearts were almonds in the streets," writes Darwish (Mural) in "The Tragedy of Narcissus, the Comedy of Silver." A revered Palestinian poet recipient of France's Knight of Arts and Belles Lettres medal and the Lotus Prize, and author of 20 poetry collections among other works Darwish was six at time of the Israeli occupations of 1948; his father was killed and his family fled to Lebanon. As a young man, he was repeatedly imprisoned for reading his poetry and not carrying the proper papers. He has since lived all over the world, and advised the PLO Executive Committee between 1982 and 1993, when he resigned in protest of the Oslo accords. In these 14 long and serial poems, translated by various hands and put into their final English versions here by Daniel Abdalhayy Moore, variegated repetitions evince the panorama and detail of refugee experience: "a desert for eternal absurdity/ a desert for the tablets of the law/ ...for school books, prophets and scientists." The voice throughout accumulates a rich mix of world-weariness and endurance: "Ruba'iyat" repeats the refrain "I've seen all I want to see of..." with different referents ("of the sea," "of blood," "of lightning"), while in "Eleven Planets," the speaker finds his own identity foreign: "fearing... my fountain's water,/ milk on the lips of figs, fearing my own language." (Apr.)Forecast: Darwish's work was at the center of an Israeli curriculum controversy last year, reported in the New York Times and elsewhere. When it was announced that Darwish's work would be compulsory for Israeli high school students, everyone from Jewish hard-liners to then Prime Minister Ehud Barak weighed in. American readers, with these fine translations now available, can decide for themselves. Expect serious sales on campus.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
As He Walks Away
Eleven Planets In The Last Andalusian Sky
Hooriyya's Teaching
A Horse For The Stranger
A Non-linguistic Dispute With Imri' Al-quays
O Helen, What A Rain
On A Canaanite Stone At The Dead Sea
The Phases Of Anat
Ruba Iyat
Speech Of The Red Indian
The Tatar's Swallows
The Tragedy Of Narcissus The Comedy Of Silver
The Well
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
Eleven Planets In The Last Andalusian Sky
Hooriyya's Teaching
A Horse For The Stranger
A Non-linguistic Dispute With Imri' Al-quays
O Helen, What A Rain
On A Canaanite Stone At The Dead Sea
The Phases Of Anat
Ruba Iyat
Speech Of The Red Indian
The Tatar's Swallows
The Tragedy Of Narcissus The Comedy Of Silver
The Well
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A second excellent collection,
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This review is from: The Adam of Two Edens (Paperback)
Unless your interest is specifically political poetry, I recommend reading "Unfortunately, It Was Paradise" before reading "The Adam of Two Edens." The former is slightly more mature poetry and slightly better translated. While the selections in "The Adam of Two Edens" are poems of political exile, Darwish is not a poet of Palestinian radicalism so much as a poet of the human race. In his poetry, he moves easily between cultures that have inhabited Palestine - Mesopotamian, Kurdish, Greek, Roman, Jewish, Islamic, Christian. This comprehesive view gives his poetry a wisdom and universalism rarely found in contemporary poetry. His poetry is concrete with subtle surprising use of language: "We have only one dream: / that friendly breezes blow / aromas of Arabian coffee / to our hills surrounded by / summer and strangers." OR "The night is the exact size of my horses."In an odd way Darwish's understanding of exile is closely related to that of Jabes. Therefore, it seems reasonable to me that Darwish be taught in Israeli schools (see editorial reviews above). "This is my absence, a master who imposes his laws / on the descendants of Lot / and sees no scapegoat for Sodom but myself."
4.0 out of 5 stars
Less than perfect translation,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Adam of Two Edens (Paperback)
So I have read the original work by Darwish (in Arabic) and heard recordings of some of the poems in the book. I bought the book in English as a gift for a friend of mine, and the translation was a bit disappointing. I did not feel the easy flow of Darwish's distinctive style. It might be that Darwish does not translate well, or that this particular translation is less than perfect. I think the latter is more likely.
I still do recommend it.
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