Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) was a prominent Palestinian poet, activist, and editor who won several literary awards and international peace prizes. This collection of standard and prose poems, fragments and journal entries was written just prior to his death, and was published in English by Archipelago Books last year. The pieces in this collection are deeply personal, reflecting on his youth and the wisdom that comes with age, and include grim and sorrowful poems about the Palestinian struggle along with playful and witty takes on everyday life.

Here is a representative poem from this collection:

If we want to

We will become a people, if we want to, when we learn that we are not angels, and that evil is not the prerogative of others

We will become a people when we stop reciting a prayer of thanksgiving to the sacred nation every time a poor man finds something to eat for his dinner

We will become a people when we can sniff out the sultan's gatekeeper and the sultan without a trial

We will become a people when a poet writes an erotic description of a dancer's belly

We will become a people when we forget what the tribe tells us, when the individual recognises the importance of small details

We will become a people when a writer can look up at the stars without saying: 'Our country is loftier and more beautiful!'

We will become a people when the morality police protect a prostitute from being beaten up in the streets

We will become a people when the Palestinian only remembers his flag on the football pitch, at camel races, and on the day of the Nakba

We will become a people, if we want to, when the singer is allowed to chant a verse of Surat al-Rahman at a mixed wedding reception

We will become a people when we respect the right, and the wrong

Fortunately Archipelago will publish at least two more of his earlier collections in the near future, including Journal of an Ordinary Grief later this year and In the Presence of Absence next spring. ( )