The Excellent Poetry I’m Reading

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.