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In Jerusalem and Other Poems

“Whether lyrical, narrative, or allegorical, whether about the chess game or Jerusalem, these poems continually surprise us with their images, insights, and juxtapositions. The poet scoops up the everyday and hitches the freight to a broader social and historical memory. Al-Barghouti’s is an educated imagination.”
—Sharif S. Elmusa, poet, scholar, and translator

“Tamim al-Barghouti’s poetry rings with irony, fury, scorn, and despair, as well as moments of tender sympathy. Like a tragic chorus who see and tell of what they see as truthfully as they can, he fashions the historical injustices and daily trials of existence as a Palestinian-Egyptian into varied poetic forms.  Drawing from classical Arabic literary tradition, he revisits and re-invents fable, satire, philosophical dialogue, parody, prophecy, elegy, and lyricism; and the results flash with wonderfully original, often witty, mordant fantasy. This collection of his writing in translation is very welcome.  He is celebrated all over the Arab world for his charismatic performances, and although something is lost in translation here—the excitement of the original Arabic sounds and rhymes and rhythms—the translations resonate with  his uniquely forthright voice, as he witnesses and critiques the relentless destruction of justice and freedom in the Middle East today. In the steps of Mahmoud Darwish, Al-Barghouti is remembering the role of poetry in building ‘the country of words,’ where language puts up a resistance, history and reality tilt, and an alternative world can be imagined.”

In Jerusalem and Other Poems

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