A Dinner Invitation

Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

I told myself: If you want to see her now,
look where the sky meets the mountain
as it descends to the sea.

Her invitation’s eternal now,
and her home is time.

So let others sing their lamentations,
let them surrender to separation.
I’ll sing nothing but your promise,
nothing but your life, falling
like a late spring rain,
your life like a summer breeze.

Let others sing their sorrow.
I’ll sing your joy—
not even death could break it.

Najwan Darwish is one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets. Since the publication of his first collection in 2000, his poetry has been hailed across the Arab world and beyond as a singular expression of the Palestinian struggle. He has published eight books in Arabic, and his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. NYRB Poets published Darwish’s collections Nothing More to Lose (2014) and Exhausted on the Cross (2021). Darwish lives between Haifa and his birthplace, Jerusalem.

Kareem James Abu-Zeid, PhD, is an award-winning translator of poets and novelists from across the Arab world and beyond, and has translated over a dozen full-length books from three different languages. His most recent translation is Najwan Darwish’s Exhausted on the Cross (NYRB Poets, 2021). He is also the author of the book The Poetics of Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy: Poetry as Spiritual Practice (Lockwood Press, 2021).

FROM Volume 70, Number 2

Issue 70.2, Spring 2021

A Dinner Invitation

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