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BOOKS I N BR I E F collection is filled with pain, constant tirades of bombs, tanks, sirens, and bullets, these horrifying images are juxtaposed with recurring images of the Tigris, the Euphrates, Babylon and the Shatt al-Arab. The collection ends with poems whose overarching themes are hope and return; AlBazoon implies that Iraq’s heritage is greater and richer than the wars that threaten to destroy it. Xlibris Corporation, USA, 2011, pbk, 63pp. ISBN: 978-1-4563-1272-4. FC. Poet in Andalucía is the new poetry collection from Nathalie Handal, author of Love and Strange Horses and other collections. Handal’s inspiration for the collection was Federico García Lorca who travelled from Spain to Manhattan in 1929, creating his classic “Poet in New York”. Handal completes his journey in reverse, travelling to Spain to write Poet in Andalucía. Her ambitious poems explore the diversity of Andalucía, the place where, she says, “all of our stories assemble”, where Islam, Christianity and Judaism converge to form a living remnant of a war-torn past. Handal’s verse, interlaced with words in Arabic and Spanish, takes the reader through Andalucía, then various regions of Spain, and finally to Tangiers.The collection is elegant and sorrowful, the author taking on board the region’s complex history. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2012, pbk, pp144, ISBN: 978-0-8229-6183-3. FC. POETIC NARRATIVE In the Presence of Absence and Absent Presence are two separate translations of Mahmoud Darwish’s great elegiac text, the former by Sinan Antoon, the latter by Mohammad Shaheen. Written just two years before his death in 2008, on the threshold of what Archipelago Books terms his “im/mortality”, Darwish composed a work that he thought might be his last. It defies genre; in form, it is not quite prose, but nor is it verse, instead it is a deftly crafted exploration of the fragile conflicts between life and death, homeland and exile.This poignant text bares witness to Darwish’s inimitable genius, which is at its finest as he meditates on love, Palestine, friendships, relationships and, most of all, loss. It reads almost as a self-elegy, partly autobiographical and filled with an awareness that the author’s life is coming to an end. Darwish’s poetic mastery grounds both 216 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES
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BOOKS I N BR I E F translations in his depiction of the romance and tragedy of life. In the Presence of Absence: translated by Sinan Antoon, Archipelago Books, New York, 2011, pbk, 171pp, ISBN: 978-1-935744-01-6. Absent Presence: translated by Mohammad Shaheen, Hesperus Press, Jordan, 2010, pbk, 126pp, ISBN: 978-1-84391-460-0. FC. MEMOIR I Was Born There, I Was Born Here by Mourid Barghouti. He is not just a poet for Palestinians. He is a poet for all humanity, whose words – in poems, essays and memoir – constitute resistance to injustice, cruelty and racism, no matter the perpetrators. I Was Born There, IWas Born Here is a valedictory from a man who declares “I consider myself a poet in decline, near the end of his run”. But some decline! Some end of run! The book, ostensibly a bricolage of memory, poetry, anecdote and polemic, is also a loving testament to his son Tamim al-Barghouti.The book’s title derives from Mourid’s triumph in bringing Tamim to his home village of Deir Ghassanah in the West Bank, Occupied Territories; where from exile he had to say in sorrow: “I was born there.” He could now point with pride: “I was born here.” On their way to Deir Ghassanah they are forced to go through the Israeli checkpoints, one person at a time – “atomized”, he writes, and notes with sorrow: “I ask myself how many times do I have to feel powerless to protect the ones I love.” Barghouti reminds us that it is the telling of stories, personal witness and, yes, poetry that will save the people. “The cruellest degree of exile is invisibility, being forbidden to tell one’s story for oneself.” Translated by Humphrey Davies. Bloomsbury, London, 2011. ISBN 9781 4088 15588. hbk. 216pp. NH. Balconies: A Mediterranean Memoir by Mishka Mojabber Mourani is a series of memoirs taking the reader through the author’s experiences of conflict, exile and identity. From Alexandria to Beirut – wracked by civil war and under siege by the Israelis – to Athens, the balconies that Mourani BANIPAL 43 – SPRING 2012 217

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BOOKS I N BR I E F

collection is filled with pain, constant tirades of bombs, tanks, sirens, and bullets, these horrifying images are juxtaposed with recurring images of the Tigris, the Euphrates, Babylon and the Shatt al-Arab. The collection ends with poems whose overarching themes are hope and return; AlBazoon implies that Iraq’s heritage is greater and richer than the wars that threaten to destroy it. Xlibris Corporation, USA, 2011, pbk, 63pp. ISBN: 978-1-4563-1272-4. FC.

Poet in Andalucía is the new poetry collection from Nathalie Handal, author of Love and Strange Horses and other collections. Handal’s inspiration for the collection was Federico García Lorca who travelled from Spain to Manhattan in 1929, creating his classic “Poet in New York”. Handal completes his journey in reverse, travelling to Spain to write Poet in Andalucía. Her ambitious poems explore the diversity of Andalucía, the place where, she says, “all of our stories assemble”, where Islam, Christianity and Judaism converge to form a living remnant of a war-torn past. Handal’s verse, interlaced with words in Arabic and Spanish, takes the reader through Andalucía, then various regions of Spain, and finally to Tangiers.The collection is elegant and sorrowful, the author taking on board the region’s complex history. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2012, pbk, pp144, ISBN: 978-0-8229-6183-3. FC.

POETIC NARRATIVE

In the Presence of Absence and Absent Presence are two separate translations of Mahmoud Darwish’s great elegiac text, the former by Sinan Antoon, the latter by Mohammad Shaheen. Written just two years before his death in 2008, on the threshold of what Archipelago Books terms his “im/mortality”, Darwish composed a work that he thought might be his last. It defies genre; in form, it is not quite prose, but nor is it verse, instead it is a deftly crafted exploration of the fragile conflicts between life and death, homeland and exile.This poignant text bares witness to

Darwish’s inimitable genius, which is at its finest as he meditates on love, Palestine, friendships, relationships and, most of all, loss. It reads almost as a self-elegy, partly autobiographical and filled with an awareness that the author’s life is coming to an end. Darwish’s poetic mastery grounds both

216 BANIPAL 43 – CELEBRATING DENYS JOHNSON-DAVIES

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