In the Presence of Absence

Praise

Winner of 2012 ALTA National Translation Award 

A major poet, near death, meditating in lyric prose on all that he has lost: freedom, homeland, childhood, love. In this moving translation, Sinan Antoon generously invites the English-speaking reader into the immensity—and metaphysical subtlety—of Darwish’s grief. —Richard Sieburth

The truest of poets… In the Presence of Absence is a book possessed of a remarkable and enduring beauty. —Chuck Wachtel

Beautiful… inescapably lyrical. —Bookslut

Mahmoud Darwish [is] perhaps the foremost Palestinian poet of last century. —Tablet

There are two maps of Palestine that politicians will never manage to forfeit: the one kept in the memories of Palestinian refugees, and that which is drawn by Darwish’s poetry. —Anton Shammas

Then came silence. Mahmoud Darwish began to read. We did not know a word of Arabic, but we heard his voice reach out and sink deep down to pluck the strings of the Palestinian soul. It was a magical night in Ramallah, the magician, Mahmoud Darwish, whose spell was cast the way it has been through ages–simply by being that elusive archetype, much envied and feared by power—a poet at ease with, because attuned to, his own people. —Wole Soyinka

Mahmoud Darwish is one of the greatest poets of our time. In his poetry Palestine becomes the map of the human soul. —Elias Khoury

Darwish is the premier poetic voice of the Palestinian people… lyrical, imagistic, plaintive, haunting, always passionate, and elegant–and never anything less than free—what he would dream for all his people. —Naomi Shihab Nye

[A] unique achievement… It offers costly wisdoms from a life journey, rendered in the opaque lyricism of Darwish’s poetry…His is the voice of dispossessed Palestine but its longings, including sheer lust, are universal. This book overflows with resonant lines and questions… It is a book for life. —The Independent