In the Presence of Absence

In the Presence of Absence

Title: In the Presence of Absence
Author: Mahmoud Darwish & Sinan Antoon
Release: 2011-11-04
Kind: ebook
Genre: Fiction & Literature, Books, Poetry
Size: 8249623
Winner of the 2012 National Translation Award

“What Sinan [Antoon] has done with In the Presence of Absence is a kind of miraculous work of dedication and love. Reading this volume is sheer enjoyment and sublimity.”
Saadi Yousef

“There are two maps of Palestine that politicians will never manage to forfeit: the one kept in the memories of Palestinian refugees, and that which is drawn by Darwish’s poetry.”
Anton Shammas

One of the most transcendent poets of his generation, Darwish composed this remarkable elegy at the apex of his creativity, but with the full knowledge that his death was imminent. Thinking it might be his final work, he summoned all his poetic genius to create a luminous work that defies categorization.
 
In stunning language, Darwish’s self-elegy inhabits a rare space where opposites bleed and blend into each other. Prose and poetry, life and death, home and exile are all sung by the poet and his other. On the threshold of im/mortality, the poet looks back at his own existence, intertwined with that of his people.
 
Through these lyrical meditations on love, longing, Palestine, history, friendship, family, and the ongoing conversation between life and death, the poet bids himself and his readers a poignant farewell.

More Books from Mahmoud Darwish & Sinan Antoon

Mahmoud Darwish & Sinan Antoon
Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish & Ibrahim Muhawi
Mahmoud Darwish, Sinan Antoon & Amira El-Zein
Mahmoud Darwish & Catherine Cobham
PEN American Center, Luis Buñuel, Mahmoud Darwish, Gabriel García Márquez, Yoko Tawada, George Saunders, Paul Auster & Salman Rushdie
Mahmoud Darwish, John Berger & Rema Hammami
Mahmoud Darwish & Mohammad Shaheen
PEN American Center, Ian McEwan, Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Jeffrey Eugenides, Mahmoud Darwish, Kimiko Hahn & Sarah Ruhl
Mahmoud Darwish & Jeffrey Sacks
PEN American Center, Colum McCann, David Henry Hwang, Danielle Evans, Mahmoud Darwish, Pico Ayer, Susan Bernofsky & Billy Collins
Mahmoud Darwish, Munir Akash & State of Siege Daniel Abdal-hayy Moore
J.M. Coetzee, William Sutcliffe, Michael Ondaatje, Teju Cole, Alice Walker, Michael Palin, Deborah Moggach, China Miéville, Jeremy Harding, Henning Mankell, Molly Crabapple, Linda Spalding, Adam Foulds, Gillian Slovo, Geoff Dyer, Chinua Achebe, Mahmoud Darwish, Yasmin El-Rifae, Suheir Hammad, Mercedes Kemp, Najwan Darwish, Susan Abulhawa, Suad Amiry, Sabrina Mahfouz, John Horner, Bridget Keenan, Pankaj Mishra, Kamila Shamsie, Atef Abu Saif, Selma Dabbagh, Jehan Bseiso, Omar El-Khairy, Remi Kanazi, Maath Musleh, Ghada Karmi, Ed Pavlic, Muiz, Ru Freeman, Nancy Kricorian, Nathalie Handal, Mohammed Hanif, Victoria Brittain, Rachel Holmes, Raja Shehadeh, Claire Messud, Jamal Mahjoub, Ahdaf Soueif & Omar Robert Hamilton
Mahmoud Darwish