Sand and Other Poems

For the Western observer, the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination may seem to be characterized only by violence and sadness. The words of Mahmoud Darweesh show us something beyond: that this conflict, like all others, has inspired its own cultural and artistic response. Here is the only available English edition of perhaps the most important of contemporary Arab poets, whose poems embody the passionate fusion of political awareness and lyrical intensity so fundamental to the Arab consciousness.