I’m reading and rereading the books of two great poets, Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Zaqtan. These were translated from Arabic into English by Fady Joudah. I mentioned that his translation of Zaqtan’s Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me won him and Zaqtan the Griffin Poetry Prize this year. Reading Straw Bird has led me to Darwish’s If I Were Another. Joudah, the translator, has given English speakers a gift in translating these works that are of the highest quality writing.
Arts of May 