A Violet Darkness
translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
And all that remains for me is to follow a violet darkness
on soil where myths splinter and crack.
Yes, love was time, and it too
splintered and cracked
like the face of our country.
My share of the people
is the transit of their ghosts.
عتَمات بنفسجيّة
ولَيْسَ سِوى أَن أَتْبَعَ عَتَماتٍ بَنَفْسَجيّة
فَوْقَ تُرْبَةٍ تَتَشَقَّقُ فيها الأَساطير
،أَجَلْ، كانَ الحُبُّ زَمَناً وتَشَقَّقَ، هو الآخَرُ
مِثْلَ وَجْهِ بلادِنا
.حِصَّتي مِنَ النّاس عُبورُ أَشْباحِهِم
Copyright © 2024 by Najwan Darwish and Kareem James Abu-Zeid. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 19, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Despite its concision, this evocative and enigmatic poem by Najwan Darwish, one of Palestine’s—and the Arab world’s—most translated and most celebrated poets, reveals a central obsession of his work: a difficult and complex relationship with his splintered, cracked country as well as with its people, who are often portrayed, for reasons that require no explanation here, as existing within a liminal space between life and death.”
—Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Najwan Darwish
Najwan Darwish is the author of nine collections of poetry. The recipient of several awards, including the Sarah Maguire Prize in Translation and the Cilento International Poetry Prize, Darwish lives between Haifa and his birthplace, Jerusalem.