Winner of the 2012 National Translation Award
"What Sinan [Antoon] has done with In the Presence of Absence is a
kind of miraculous work of dedication and love. Reading this volume is
sheer enjoyment and sublimity."
***--*Saadi Yousef **
"There are two maps of Palestine that politicians will never manage to
forfeit: the one kept in the memories of Palestinian refugees, and that
which is drawn by Darwish's poetry."
**--Anton Shammas
One of the most transcendent poets of his generation, Darwish composed
this remarkable elegy at the apex of his creativity, but with the full
knowledge that his death was imminent. Thinking it might be his final
work, he summoned all his poetic genius to create a luminous work that
defies categorization.
In stunning language, Darwish's self-elegy inhabits a rare space where
opposites bleed and blend into each other. Prose and poetry, life and
death, home and exile are all sung by the poet and his other. On the
threshold of im/mortality, the poet looks back at his own existence,
intertwined with that of his people.
Through these lyrical meditations on love, longing, Palestine, history,
friendship, family, and the ongoing conversation between life and death,
the poet bids himself and his readers a poignant farewell.
