NAJWAN DARWISH

“I’VE SEEN NOTHING OF WHAT I BELIEVED, BUT IF A GOD EXISTS IT IS THE SAME GOD FOR ME AND FOR THE PALESTINIAN POET NAJWAN DARWISH.” — RAÚL ZURITA

We Never Stop

I have no country to return to
and no country to be banished from:
a tree whose roots
are a running river:
it dies if it stops,
it dies if it doesn’t.

On the cheeks and arms of death
I spent the best of my days,
and the land I lost each day
I gained each day anew.
The people had a single country,
but mine multiplied in loss,
renewed itself in absence.
Its roots, like mine, are water:
if it stops it withers,
if it stops it dies.
Both of us are running
with a river of sunbeams,
a river of gold dust
that rises from ancient wounds,
and we never stop.
We keep on,
never thinking to pause
so our two paths can meet.

I have no country to be banished from,
no country to return to:
I’ll die if I stop,
I’ll die if I keep going.

Najwan Darwish
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

Najwan Darwish is a poet from Jerusalem, Palestine. He has published eight poetry books in Arabic and his work has been translated into over twenty languages. New York Review Books, which published the English translation of his books Nothing More to Lose (NYRB Poets, 2014) and Exhausted on the Cross (NYRB Poets, 2021) describes him as, “one of the foremost Arabic-language poets”.

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