Mahmoud Darwish Poems

On a day like this, in a hidden corner
of a church, in full feminine magnificence,
...

The exiles don't look back when leaving
one place of exile - for more exile
...

And we, too, have the right to love the last days of autumn and ask:
Is there room in the field for a new autumn, so we may lie down like coals?
...

and the Galilean women were wet
with butterflies and dew,
dancing above chrysanthemum

The two absent ones: you and I
...

We journey towards a home not of our flesh. Its chestnut trees are not of our bones.
Its rocks are not like goats in the mountain hymn. The pebbles' eyes are not lilies.
...

I didn't apologize to the well when I passed the well,
I borrowed from the ancient pine tree a cloud
...

So, we are who we are, as the Mississippi flows,
and what remains from yesterday is still ours-
but the color of the sky has changed,
the sea to the East has changed.
...

If I were told:
By evening you will die,
...

In Her Absence I Created Her Image
In her absence I created her image: out of the earthly
the hidden heavenly commences. I am here weighing
the expanse with the Jahili odes ... and absence
is the guide, it is the guide. For each rhyme a tent
is pitched. And for each thing blowing in the wind
a rhyme. Absence teaches me its lesson: If it weren't
for the mirage you wouldn't have been steadfast ...
...

Don't say to me:
Would I were a seller of bread in Algiers
That I might sing with a rebel.
Don't say to me:
...