Exhausted on the Cross af Najwan Darwish (Bog)

Forfatter: Najwan Darwish
Sprog: Engelsk
Antal sider: 145
Forlag: New York Review of Books
Udgivelsesår: 2021
A much-anticipated follow-up to Nothing More to Lose, this is only the second poetry collection translated into English from a vital voice of Arabic literature. “We drag histories behind us,” the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish writes in Exhausted on the Cross, “here / where there’s neither land / nor sky.” In pared-down lines, brilliantly translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Darwish records what Raúl Zurita describes as “something immemorial, almost unspeakable”—a poetry driven by a “moral imperative” to be a “colossal record of violence and, at the same time, the no less colossal record of compassion.” Darwish’s poems cross histories, cultures, and geographies, taking us from the grime of modern-day Shatila and the opulence of medieval Baghdad to the gardens of Samarkand and the open-air prison of present-day Gaza. We join the Persian poet Hafez in the conquered city of Shiraz and converse with the Prophet Mohammad in Medina. Poem after poem evokes the humor in the face of despair, the hope in the face of nightmare. This English-only edition does not include the poems in their original language.
Titel: Exhausted on the Cross

Sammendrag: Poesisamling af Najwan Darwish, hvor korte, stramt komponerede digte skildrer livet under og efter krig, besættelse og eksil set fra et palæstinensisk perspektiv. Digtene bevæger sig gennem steder som Shatila, Gaza, Bagdad, Samarkand og Shiraz og lader historiske, religiøse og litterære skikkelser optræde side om side med nutidige erfaringer. Samlingen fungerer både som vidnesbyrd om vold og undertrykkelse og som en poetisk undersøgelse af medfølelse, tro, håb og menneskelig værdighed.
Type: Paperback