The Butterfly's Burden

by Darwish, Mahmoud

• ISBN13: 9781556592416
• ISBN10: 1556592418
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-30
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Pr

Summary

Newest work from Mahmoud Darwish--the most acclaimed poet in the Arab world

Table of Contents

Translator's Preface	ix
The Stranger's Bed 1998
We Were Missing a Present	5	(6)
Sonnet I	11	(2)
Low Sky	13	(6)
We Walk on the Bridge	19	(4)
Your Night Is of Lilac	23	(2)
Sonnet II	25	(2)
The Stranger Stumbles upon Himself in the Stranger	27	(2)
A Cloud from Sodom	29	(2)
A Doe's Young Twins	31	(2)
Sonnet III	33	(2)
Take My Horse and Slaughter It...	35	(2)
The Stranger's Land/the Serene Land	37	(4)
Inanna's Milk	41	(4)
Sonnet IV	45	(2)
No More and No Less	47	(4)
Wedding Song	51	(4)
Housework	55	(4)
Sonnet V	59	(2)
Two Stranger Birds in Our Feathers	61	(4)
I Waited for No One	65	(4)
Drought	69	(4)
Sonnet VI	73	(2)
The Subsistence of Birds	75	(4)
Maybe, Because Winter Is Late	79	(10)
Who Am I, Without Exile?	89	(4)
Jameel Bouthaina and I	93	(4)
A Mask...for Majnoon Laila	97	(4)
A Lesson from Kama Sutra	101	(4)
The Damascene Collar of the Dove	105	(16)
A State of Siege 2002
"Here, by the downslope of hills, facing the sunset"	121	(58)
Don't Apologize for What You've Done 2003
I. IN THE LUST OF CADENCE
Cadence Chooses Me	179	(2)
I Have the Wisdom of One Condemned to Death	181	(2)
Another Day Will Come	183	(2)
And I, Even if I Were the Last	185	(2)
In My Mother's House	187	(2)
Don't Apologize for What You've Done	189	(2)
On a Day like Today	191	(2)
Set Down, Here, and Now	193	(2)
If You Return Alone	195	(2)
I Didn't Apologize to the Well	197	(2)
No Banner in the Wind	199	(2)
The Horse Fell Off the Poem	201	(2)
To Our Land	203	(2)
And We Have a Land	205	(2)
Nothing but Light	207	(2)
The Beloved Hemorrhaged Anemones	209	(2)
In Jerusalem	211	(2)
In Her Absence I Created Her Image	213	(2)
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday	215	(2)
Two Olive Trees	217	(4)
They Don't Look Behind Them	221	(2)
They Didn't Ask: What's After Death	223	(2)
Murdered and Unknown	225	(2)
The Cypress Broke	227	(2)
A Man and a Fawn Are in the Garden	229	(4)
This Is Forgetfulness	233	(2)
You'll Be Forgotten, As If You Never Were	235	(4)
As for Me, I Say to My Name	239	(2)
Dream, What Is It?	241	(2)
Now, When You Awaken, Remember	243	(2)
The Shadow	245	(2)
Nothing Pleases Me	247	(2)
He's Calm, and I Am Too	249	(2)
Describing Clouds	251	(4)
A Noun Sentence	255	(2)
Say What You Want	257	(2)
Don't Write History as Poetry	259	(2)
What Will Remain?	261	(2)
I Don't Know Your Name	263	(2)
She's Alone in the Evening	265	(4)
While Waiting	269	(2)
If I Were Another	271	(2)
Thanks to Tunis	273	(2)
I Have a Seat in the Abandoned Theater	275	(2)
In Syria	277	(2)
In Egypt	279	(2)
I Recall al-Sayyab	281	(4)
II. THE COASTAL ROAD
"A road that leads to Egypt and Syria"	285	(6)
III. NOT AS A FOREIGN TOURIST DOES
"I walked on what remains of the heart"	291	(8)
IV. A POETRY STANZA/THE SOUTHERNER'S HOUSE
"Standing together beneath a window"	299	(8)
V. LIKE A MYSTERIOUS INCIDENT
"In Pablo Neruda's home, on the Pacific"	307	(8)
VI. THE KURD HAS ONLY THE WIND
"The Kurd remembers, when I visit him, his tomorrow"	315	(6)
Notes	321	(6)
About the Author	327	(1)
About the Translator	327