A Map of Absence Read online

  Yahya Yakhlif (1944–)

  Yahya Yakhlif was born in the village of Samakh near Lake Tiberias in Palestine. He was forced to move to Jordan with his family in 1948. He studied Arabic literature at the Arab University of Beirut, then joined the Palestinian National Movement and became a prominent member of its National Council, and eventually the Minister of Culture in the Palestinian Authority. He has written several collections of short stories and a number of novels, including The Sky’s Water, which was nominated for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

  Ghassan Zaqtan (1954–)

  Ghassan Zaqtan is a writer, born near Bethlehem in Beit Jala and now living in Ramallah. He lived in Amman, Jordan, for twelve years where he qualified as a teacher. Critically acclaimed among avantgarde artists in the Arab world, he has published numerous poetry collections, including The Silence That Remains, and two novels. The English translation of his collection Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me won the 2013 Griffin International Poetry Prize.

  Tawfiq Zayyad (1929–1994)

  Tawfiq Zayyad was a Palestinian poet, writer, academic and politician. He was elected mayor of Nazareth and served as a member of the Israeli Knesset. He co-authored a report on Israeli prison conditions and the abuse of Palestinian inmates for the UN General Assembly report, where it was described as ‘perhaps the best evidence of the truth of the reports describing the repugnant inhumane conditions endured by Arab prisoners’. Zayyad was allegedly targeted for assassination by the Israeli occupation. In addition to his translations of Russian literature and the work of the Turkish poet Nazem Hikmat, Zayyad published a number of collections of his own poems, including I Press on Your Hands.

  CREDITS

  We are grateful to the following copyright holders who have given us permission to reprint the selections found in this anthology.

  Adania Shibli

  ‘Out of Time’ by Adania Shibli was first presented during the workshop ‘The Politics of Images: Practices and Approaches to Art in the Middle East and North Africa; organised by documenta 12, on November 20th, 2006, in Bruno Kreisky Forum, Vienna.

  Ahmad Dahbour

  ‘New Suggestions’ by Ahmad Dahbour, translated by A. M. Elmessiri (Palestine InSight, 29 December 2017).

  Banipal

  One Sky by Liana Badr, translated by Becki Maddock, was first published in Banipal 57 (Autumn/Winter 2016). ‘At a Train Station that Fell Off the Map’ by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Sinan Antoon, was first published in Banipal 33 (Autumn/Winter 2008).

  Beacon Press and Comma Press

  Excerpt from The Drone Eats with Me by Atef Abu Seif, (US: Beacon Press, 2016. UK & Comm: Comma Press, 2015).

  Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Excerpt from Out of It © Selma Dabbagh 2012, (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012).

  Columbia University Press

  ‘Martyr’ by Zuheir Abu Shayeb, translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘The Vinegar Cup’ by Muin Bseiso, translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘Against’ by Rashid Hussein, translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘Refugee’ by Salem Jubran, translated by Lena Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘We Will Return’ by Abdelkarim Al-Karmi, translated by Sharif S. Elmusa and Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘The Martyr’, translated by Adib S. Kawar, and ‘The Aqsa Mosque’ translated by Salma K. Jayyusi and Trevor LeGassick, by Abdelrahim Mahmoud; ‘Dawn Visitors’ by Izzuddin Manasra, translated by May Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘Departure’ by May Sayigh, translated by Lena Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye; from Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature, edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Columbia University Press, 1995).

  Copper Canyon Press

  ‘To Our Land’ by Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah from The Butterfly’s Burden (Copper Canyon Press, 2006).

  Darwish Foundation

  ‘I Am from There’ translated by A. Z. Foreman (Poems in Translation Blog, 2010); ‘On This Earth’ translated by Karim Abuawad (As It Ought To Be Magazine, 24 August 2010); ‘Standing Before the Ruins of Al-Birweh’ translated by Sinan Antoon from Darwish’s posthumous collection, La Uridu Li-Hadhihi al-Qasidati an Tantahi (I Don’t Want This Poem to End) (Riyad al-Rayyis, 2009), (Jadaliyya, 13 March 2011) by Mahmoud Darwish, reprinted here by kind permission of the Darwish Foundation.

  Fadwa Tuqan

  Excerpt from ‘Call of the Land’ by Fadwa Tuqan, translation © 2006 by Tania Tamari Nasir and Christopher Millis from Wahsha: Moustalhama min Qanoon al Jathibiya (Al Karmel 72-73, 2002 by arrangement with the estate of Fadwa Tuqan); ‘Hamza’ ‘Labour Pains’ and ‘The Deluge and the Tree’ by Fadwa Tuqan, translated by Tania Tamari Nasir and Christopher Millis (Al Karmel 72-73, 2002 by arrangement with the estate of Fadwa Tuqan).

  Ghayath al-Madhoun

  ‘How I Became’, ‘Massacre’ and excerpt from ‘Schizophrenia’ by Ghayath al-Madhoun, translated by Catherine Cobham from Adrenalin (Action Books, 2017).

  Hanan Ashrawi

  ‘From the Diary of an Almost-Four-Year-Old’ by Hanan Ashrawi (Madaale.com); ‘Hadeel’s Song’ by Hanan Ashrawi (Media Monitors Network, 11 November 2000).

  Ibrahim Nasrallah

  Excerpt from Street Olives by Ibrahim Nasrallah, translated by Johnathan Wright, published in Arabic as Zaytuun al-Shawaari’ (Arab Scientific Publishers, 2002).

  Interlink Books

  ‘Flawed Landscape’ and ‘In the Refugee Camp’ from Flawed Landscape by Sharif S. Elmusa (Interlink books, 2008). Excerpt from The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist by Emile Habibi, translated by Salma K. Jayyusi and Trevor LeGassick (Interlink World Fiction Series, 2001). Excerpt from Wild Thorns by Sahar Khalifeh, translated by Trevor LeGassick and Elizabeth Fernea (US: Interlink Books, 2000. UK: Saqi Books, 2005).

  Issa J. Boullata

  ‘Without Roots’ by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, from Modern Arab Poets: 1950-1975 (Three Continents Press, 1967). ‘My Homeland’ and ‘Red Tuesday’ by Ibrahim Tuqan, from Tradition and Modernity in Modern Arabic Literature, translated and edited by Issa J. Boullata (University of Arkansas Press, 1997).

  Lisa Suhair Majaj

  ‘Fifty Years On / Stones in an Unfinished Wall’ by Lisa Suhair Majaj, from Geographies of Light, (Del Sol Press, 2009).

  Lynne Rienner Publishers

  ‘No’ by Muin Bseiso, translated by Abdul Wahab Al-Messiri; ‘The Prison’ by Ahmad Dahbour, translated by A. M. Elmessiri; ‘On the Trunk of an Olive Tree’ by Tawfiq Zayyad, translated by Adel Wahhab Elmessiri; from The Palestinian Wedding: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Resistance Poetry, edited and translated by

  A. M. Elmessiri. (Boulder, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2011. Reprint from Three Continents Press, Inc., 1982). Excerpt from Hunters in a Narrow Street: A Novel by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (Three Continents Press, 1990). ‘A Present for the Holiday’ by Ghassan Kanafani, translated by Barbara Harlow, from Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa and Other Stories (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).

  Maya Abu Al-Hayyat

  ‘Children’ by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Graham Fulton from A Bird is not a Stone: An Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry edited by Henry Bell and Sarah Irving (Freight Books, 2014).

  Naomi Shihab Nye

  ‘Blood’ and ‘Different Ways to Pray’ from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye (A Far Corner Book) (The Eighth Mountain Press, 1994); ‘How Palestinians Keep Warm’ from Red Suitcase by Naomi Shihab Nye (BOA Editions Ltd, 1994) reprinted here by kind permission of the author, Naomi Shihab Nye, 2018.

  Nathalie Handal

  ‘Echoes: A Historical Afterward’, ‘Here’ and ‘The Oranges’, by Nathalie Handal (This Week in Palestine, Issue 227, March 2017); ‘Bethlehem’, ‘Gaza City’ and ‘Jenin’ by Nathalie Handal (Made in Palestine, October 2003). Reprinted here by kind permission of the author.

  New York Review of Books

  ‘Nothing More to Lose’ from Nothing More to Lose © 2000, 2012, 2013, 2014 by Najwan Darwish, translation © 2014 b
y Kareem James Abu-Zeid (New York Review of Books, 2014). All rights reserved.

  Penguin Random House

  Excerpt from Gate of the Sun by Elias Khoury, translated from Arabic by Humphrey Davies published by Harvill Secker. Reproduced by permission of The Random House Group Ltd. © 2005

  Ramzy Baroud

  Excerpt from The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story by Ramzy Baroud (Pluto, 2018).

  Remi Kanazi

  ‘A Poem for Gaza’, by Remi Kanazi, from www.remikanazi.com. ‘Nakba’, by Remi Kanazi, from Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine (Haymarket Books, 2015).

  Saqi Books

  Excerpt from The Lady from Tel Aviv by Raba’i Al-Madhoun, translated by Eliott Colla (Telegram, 2013).

  Sayed Kashua

  ‘Memoire: On Nakba Day’ by Sayed Kashua, excerpted from ‘The Stories Sayed Kashua Wouldn’t Dare Tell His Children’ (Haaretz,

  17 May 2012).

  Smokestack Books

  ‘I’m a Destitute Woman’ by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat and Naomi Foyle; ‘The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants’ translated by Jonathan Wright, ‘Cracked Skin’ and ‘Being a Refugee’ translated by Waleed Al-Bazoon and Naomi Foyle, by Ashraf Fayadh; ‘Mimesis’ by Fady Joudah; ‘Everything in Our World Did Not Seem to Fit’ by Naomi Shihab Nye; ‘Resist, My People, Resist Them’ translated by Tariq Haydar, and ‘A Poet Behind Bars’ translated by Tariq Haydar by Dareen Tatour; from A Blade of Grass: New Palestinian Poetry, edited by Naomie Foyle (Smokestack Books, 2018).

  Tawfiq Zayyad

  ‘We Shall Remain’ by Tawfiq Zayyad, translated by Adib S. Kawar from The Enemy of the Sun: Poetry of Palestinian Resistance edited by Naseer Hasan Aruri and Edmund Ghareeb (Drum and Spear Press, 1970).

  Taylor & Francis Group

  ‘Man and His Alarm Clock’ by Samira Azzam from Middle Eastern Literatures, 18:1, 86–92, Joseph R. Farag (Introduction), Wen-Chin Ouyang, Michael Beard & Nora E. Parr (Translation) (2015).

  The American University in Cairo Press

  Excerpt from Mapping My Return: A Palestinian Memoir by Salman Abu Sitta (The American University in Cairo Press, 2016).

  The Operating System

  ‘Being a Refugee’ translated by Mona Kareem and Jonathan Wright, ‘Cracked Skin’ translated by Waleed Al-Bazoon and Naomi Foyle, and ‘The Last of the Line of Refugee Descendants’ translated by Jonathan Wright, from Instructions Within by Ashraf Fayadh (The Operating System, 2016). Reprinted with permission from The Operating System, Brooklyn, NY. Publisher/Editor Lynn DeSilva-Johnson.

  The Permissions Company

  ‘Exodus’ by Taha Muhammad Ali, translated by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi and Gabriel Levin from So What: New & Selected Poems 1971-2005 (Copper Canyon Press, 2006). Copyright © 2006 by Taha Muhammad Ali. Translation copyright © 2000, 2006 by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

  The Wylie Agency

  ‘Edward Said on his experience of the Nakba’, copyright © 2000, Edward Said (Democracy Now! 16 October 2000), used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited. ‘Jerusalem Revisited’ by Edward Said copyright © 1998, Edward Said (Al-Ahram Weekly, ‘Special pages commemorating 50 years of Arab dispossession since the creation of the State of Israel, 1998’).

  Verso Books

  Excerpt from In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi (Verso, 2002).

  Yale University Press

  ‘A Picture of The House in Beit Jala’, ‘Beirut, August 1982’, ‘Beyond That’, ‘Four Sisters from Zakariya’ and ‘Remembering the Grandmother’ by Ghassan Zaqtan translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah, from Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me: And Other Poems (Yale University Press The Margellos World Republic of Letters, 2012).