Description
This excerpt from a book reviews fifteen poems by Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim, and Adonis, translated from Arabic to English. The poems were written in response to the events of the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, the Lebanese Civil War, and the 1982 Israeli siege of Beirut.
Since pre-Islamic days poetry has been the mass art form of the Arabic language. In modern times poets in the region have had a greater impact on popular culture than novelists, and there can be no doubt that Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim and Adonis are among the leading poets of the Arab world today. Victims of a Map presents fifteen translated poems by each poet. It includes thirteen poems by Darwish never before published in book form, even in Arabic, and a long work by Adonis written during the 1982 siege of Beirut, also published here for the first time.