The Palestinian Wedding

The poems in this powerful bilingual collection range from the rhetorical lyricism of Tawfiq Zayyad to the complex, cosmic imagery of Walid al-Halis, from the romantic idiom of Salma al-Jayyusi to the edgy, convoluted style of Tawfiq Sayigh, all evoking Palestine, the never-forgotten homeland.The rich variety of the work is explored in Abdelwahab Elmessiri's extensive introduction and further reflected in the Arabic-language versions that accompany each selection. Opening with Mahmud Darwish's "The Roses and the Dictionary" and Samih al-Qasim's "To Najib Mahfuz," the collection is organized around six themes: aesthetics of the revolution, elegies, love of Palestine, steadfastness, resistance, and victory.Other poets represented include Laila 'Alush, 'Abd al-Latif 'Aql, Fawzi el-Asmar, Mu'in Basisu, Ahmad Dahbur, Yusuf Hamdan, Ahmad Husayn, Rashid Husayn, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Salim Jubran, Nazih Khayr, Kamal Nasir, 'Abd al-Karim al-Sab‘awi, Mayy Sayigh, and Fadwah Tuqan. The book also includes biographical notes and a selected bibliography.