Poetry
Fewer Roses
ورد أقل
Mahmoud Darwish · 1986
Synopsis
Short poems written after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the departure from Beirut, in which the voice speaks of exile, of the road and of travel, of addresses for the soul outside any place, of airports and departed trains. The collection contains “On This Earth”, whose line “on this earth there is what makes life worth living” has become a formula for a whole Arab generation, a refusal of despair.
Context
Darwish stayed in Beirut until the Israeli army entered, in September 1982, then left in secret for Damascus and Tunis; he later lived on and off for about ten years in Paris, where he said his true poetic talent was born. Abdellatif Laâbi translated the collection for Éditions de Minuit in 1989. In 2014 the composer Kaija Saariaho set to music one of his poems, about a last train that has left.
Who it is for
Short poems, accessible in French in Abdellatif Laâbi's translation; the bilingual edition helps.
Prizes and reception
His poems have been translated into more than twenty-two languages; the line from “Sur cette terre” has passed into common usage.
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