Unfortunately, It Was Paradise. Mahmoud Darwish

      University of California PressBerkeley · Los Angeles · London

      University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

      University of California Press

      Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

      University of California Press, Ltd.

      London, England

      © 2003, 2013 by The Regents of the University of California

      ISBN: 978-0-520-27303-0

      eISBN: 9780520954601

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Darwish, Mahmoud.

      [Poems. English. Selections]

      Unfortunately, it was paradise : selected poems / Mahmoud Darwish ; translated and edited by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché, with Sinan Antoon and Amira El-Zein.

      p. cm.

      ISBN 978-0-520-23754-4 (paper : alk. paper)

      I. Akash, Munir. II. Forché, Carolyn. III. Title.

      PJ7820.A7 A222003

      892’.716—dc212002068454

      Printed in the United States of America

      20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Holland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with renewable biogas energy. It is acid-free and EcoLogo certified.

      The publisher gratefully acknowledges

      the generous contribution to this book

      provided by the Lannan Foundation.

      Pero yo ya no soy yo

      Ni mi casa es ya mi casa.

      But now I am no longer I,

      nor is my house any longer my house.

      Federico García Lorca

      Contents

      AcknowledgmentsMunir Akash

      IntroductionMunir Akash and Carolyn Forché

      Foreword for 2013Fady Joudah

      from Fewer Roses (1986)

      I Will Slog over This Road

      Another Road in the Road

      Were It Up to Me to Begin Again

      On This Earth

      I Belong There

      Addresses for the Soul, outside This Place

      Earth Presses against Us

      We Journey towards a Home

      We Travel Like All People

      Athens Airport

      I Talk Too Much

      We Have the Right to Love Autumn

      The Last Train Has Stopped

      On the Slope, Higher Than the Sea, They Slept

      He Embraces His Murderer

      Winds Shift against Us

      Neighing on the Slope

      Other Barbarians Will Come

      They Would Love to See Me Dead

      When the Martyrs Go to Sleep

      The Night There

      We Went to Aden

      Another Damascus in Damascus

      The Flute Cried

      In This Hymn

      from I See What I Want to See (1993)

      The Hoopoe

      from Why Have You Left the Horse Alone? (1995)

      I See My Ghost Coming from Afar

      A Cloud in My Hands

      The Kindhearted Villagers

      The Owl’s Night

      The Everlasting Indian Fig

      The Lute of Ismael

      The Strangers’ Picnic

      The Raven’s Ink

      Like the Letter “N” in the Qur’an

      Ivory Combs

      The Death of the Phoenix

      Poetic Regulations

      Excerpts from the Byzantine Odes of Abu Firas

      The Dreamers Pass from One Sky to Another

      A Rhyme for the Odes (Mu‘allaqat)

      Night That Overflows My Body

      The Gypsy Woman Has a Tame Sky

      from A Bed for the Stranger (1999)

      We Were without a Present

      Sonnet II

      The Stranger Finds Himself in the Stranger

      The Land of the Stranger, the Serene Land

      Inanna’s Milk

      Who Am I, without Exile?

      Lesson from the Kama Sutra

      Mural (2000)

      Mural

      Three Poems (before 1986)

      A Soldier Dreams of White Tulips

      As Fate Would Have It

      Four Personal Addresses

      Glossary

      Acknowledgments

      Any collection of this sort requires the support and assistance of more people than can be named here. Each of them knows who he or she is, and to each of them many thanks. I offer my sincere appreciation to the Lannan Foundation for their generosity and their unfailing support. Patrick Lannan and the wonderful family of his foundation by their insight, bravery, and service to humanity have taught me dedication. Special thanks to the poet Mahmoud Darwish for his patience in answering my many questions and, of course, for his guidance and very helpful comments along the way. Each poem in this collection has been carefully selected from Darwish’s entire work in collaboration with the poet himself.

      This enterprise could not have been possible without an exceptional team of translators. All have known Darwish and his work for a long time. When I expressed to Mahmoud Darwish my desire to translate this collection, he asked me to work in collaboration with a leading American poet who could give the translations a