Customer Reviews

The Palestinian Wedding: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry (Three Continents Press)

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This exquisite collection of Palestinian poetry is tour-de-force of some of the masterpieces of resistance poetry produced in the 20th century. Reading through this elegant volume, one can admire the uniqueness of Palestinian poetry which emanates from a collective experience of exile and dispossession. In it, one finds elegy, regret, love, steadfastness, resistance, and an unconquerable hope to live in peace. The poems are extremely moving, and echo the deep meaning Palestinians attach to life. The book is laid out with the Arabic text side by side with the English translation, so one can appreciate the beauty of the Arabic calligraphy in addition to the resonance of the poems. The translation itself is very good, given the difficulties of translating poetry from other languages, especially one as remote to English as Arabic. The pages are further adorned by beautiful line drawings by Kamal Boullata. A short introduction adds context to the poems and explains the evolution of Palestinian poetry, while a biography section at the end illuminates to us the lives of the individual poets, most of whom were symbols of resistance themselves. All in all this is great collection that illuminates much about the inner world of Palestinians, a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the Middle East today. The wide variety of thought-provoking poems therein speak to all of humanity and can be enjoyed by anyone.

Also Recommended: "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories", by Ghassan Kanafani (trans. Barbara Harlow and Karen E. Riley)

This exquisite collection of Palestinian poetry is tour-de-force of some of the masterpieces of resistance poetry produced in the 20th century. Reading through this elegant volume, one can admire the uniqueness of Palestinian poetry which emanates from a collective experience of exile and dispossession. In it, one finds elegy, regret, love, steadfastness, resistance, and an unconquerable hope to live in peace. The poems are extremely moving, and hark to a place where life has meaning. The book is laid out with the Arabic text side by side with the English translation, so one can appreciate the beauty of the Arabic calligraphy in addition to the resonance of the poems. The translation itself is very good, given the difficulties of translating poetry from other languages, especially one as remote to English as Arabic. The pages are further adorned by beautiful line drawings by Kamal Boullata. A short introduction adds context to the poems and explains the evolution of Palestinian poetry, while a biography section at the end illuminates to us the lives of the individual poets, most of whom were symbols of resistance themselves. All in all this is great collection that illuminates much about the inner world of Palestinians, a must-read for anyone serious about understanding the Middle East today. The wide variety of thought-provoking poems therein speak to all of humanity and are can be enjoyed by anyone.

Also Recommended: "Palestine's Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories", by Ghassan Kanafani (trans. Barbara Harlow and Karen E. Riley)