Mahmoud Darwish was pitched to me at the Palestian poet, a great export and articulate poet who kept up with anti-colonial resistance. This specific collection of his poems is set with the arabic originals and english translations facing each other, while i am sure allows those with some familiarity with arabic to get more meaning from his work, what it said to me is the translate was confident with their translations to have it compared in real time.

the collection of poems in this books that really stood out and i went back to read a second time was, "a State of Siege". it was poetic, at times utopic and others dark, it spoke on people living through war and facing it with chins held high. It is now in my top 5 works of poetry!