NAJWAN DARWISH

Five Poems

Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

I Often Dream

I often dream that the waves of Haifa’s sea
are dunes of blue
and that an ageless camel driver
is emerging from them,
dragging the days behind him.
He stops, for a little while, beneath my window
so I can give him everything
the Arabs have laid away with me:
the openings of unrecited poems,
and wars that never ended.
I give him all of it,
all their desperate love.

And as he’s loading these troves onto his steed
I convince him to take my life as well,
for which I’ve found no city,
and my city,
for which I’ve found no life.
And I wave to him as he cuts across the dunes of blue,
returning with his haul.

My joy is indescribable:
The Mediterranean
has become a sea of dunes.

On the Heights

You’re exhausted, fields of reeds,
but who exhausts the winds that exhaust you,
and what about the other winds, the ones
that fill you with sadness?

Who would you be if the storms
didn’t blow so violently through you?
If your unseen passions
failed to convulse and tremble
on the surface of the lake?

Exhausted like you, I lumber
toward the heights—
it’s only with my death
that my song begins.

I Wasn’t

I wasn’t among the ones striving,
nor with those who despair.
I neither advanced
nor retreated,
I neither held my ground
nor wavered in confusion.
And when they searched the land
they didn't find me.

So,
where was I then?

A Variation on a Verse by Al-Ma’arri[1]

My body’s a rag that will be woven
into the mortal dirt.
O Weaver of Worlds, weave me.
-  Abu Al-‘Ala Al-Ma’arri

My body’s a blue the heavens forgot,
an orchard that fled from the spring.
O Weaver of Worlds,
what harm would be done
if you didn’t weave me?

[1] Abu Al-Alaa Al-Ma’arri (973-1057 CE) was a prominent ascetic Arab poet and philosopher.

A Yemeni Rhythm[1]

Traveler, if you happen to meet my drinking companions from Najran, tell them
we shall never meet again.
-        Abd Yaguth Al-Harithi Yamani[2]

Don't blame me, or I
will walk away
and leave Al-Mukalla…
-        Abu Bakr Salim[3]

Not because they destroyed an ancient castle
or palaces whose keys were simple stone,
nor because of the desolation,
but because tonight
I
am grieving
my people.

A song in the wadi
is all that remains.

***

No one’s riding to Najran tonight,
and my drinking companions will never know.

It’s memory—not me—
who’s calling a rider to Najran tonight.
From the very beginning
I’ve preferred to drink alone,
and I never spoke those words,
not even to my god:
“Take this cup away from me.”

[1] This poem was written during the brutal ongoing war in Yemen that has destroyed many historical sites, in addition to the untold human losses.

[2] Yamani (ca. 578-618 AD) was a pre-Islamic poet, and was said to have written these verses while in captivity, as he was awaiting execution. As for Najran, it is an ancient city in the Arabian Peninsula (located in modern-day Saudi Arabia, near the border with Yemen). It is perhaps best known for the persecution and slaughter of Christians that took place there at the hands of the Himyarite king Dhu Nuwas’ between 517 and 527 CE.

[3] Abu Bakr Salim (1939-2017) was a well-known Yemeni singer. He passed away in Saudi Arabia, whose military was involved in the war in Yemen. Al-Mukalla is a city in modern-day Yemen.

Najwan Darwish (b. 1978) is one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets. Since the publication of his first collection in 2000, his poetry has been hailed across the Arab world and beyond as a singular expression of the Palestinian struggle. He has published eight books in Arabic, and his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. NYRB Poets published Darwish’s Nothing More to Lose, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, in 2014, which was picked as one of the best books of the year by NPR and nominated for several awards. His second major collection in English, Exhausted on the Cross, was published by NYRB Poets in 2021, with a Foreword by Raúl Zurita, and was awarded the Sarah Maguire Prize. Darwish lives between Haifa and his birthplace, Jerusalem.

Kareem James Abu-Zeid, PhD, is an Egyptian-American translator of poets and novelists from across the Arab world who translates from Arabic, French, and German. He has received the Sarah Maguire Prize for poetry in translation, an NEA translation grant, PEN Center USA's translation prize, Poetry Magazine's translation prize, a Fulbright research fellowship, and residencies from the Lannan Foundation and the Banff International Center for the Arts, among other honors. His book-length translations include work by Najwan Darwish (Palestine), Adonis (Syria), Dunya Mikhail (Iraq), and Rabee Jaber (Lebanon). He is also the author of the book The Poetics of Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy: Poetry as Spiritual Practice. The online hub for his work is www.kareemjamesabuzeid.com