Mahmoud Darwish Poems

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

Here the birds' journey ends, our journey, the journey of words,
and after us there will be a horizon for the new birds.
...

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

The two absent ones: you and I
...

To our land,
and it is the one near the word of god,
a ceiling of clouds
To our land,
...

Earth is pressing against us, trapping us in the final passage.
To pass through, we pull off our limbs.
...

O those who pass between fleeting words
carry your names, and be gone
Rid our time of your hours, and be gone
Steal what you will from the blueness of the sea
And the sand of memory
Take what pictures you will, so that you understand
That which you never will:
...

Still there is on thy saucers remains of honey
Kick out the flies so that you can protect the honey
Still there is on their vines clusters of grapes
O, guarders of vines, drive foxes out,
...

O Homeland! O Eagle,
Plunging, through the bars of my cell,
...

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:
...