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Acknowledgments

Any collection of this sort requires the support and assistance of more people than can be named here. Each of them knows who he or she is, and to each of them many thanks. I offer my sincere appreciation to the Lannan Foundation for their generosity and their unfailing support. Patrick Lannan and the wonderful family of his foundation by their insight, bravery, and service to humanity have taught me dedication. Special thanks to the poet Mahmoud Darwish for his patience in answering my many questions and, of course, for his guidance and very helpful comments along the way. Each poem in this collection has been carefully selected from Darwish’s entire work in collaboration with the poet himself.

This enterprise could not have been possible without an exceptional team of translators. All have known Darwish and his work for a long time. When I expressed to Mahmoud Darwish my desire to translate this collection, he asked me to work in collaboration with a leading American poet who could give the translations a single consistent tone. What Carolyn Forché has done here, in this very short period of time, is an enterprise short of miraculous. She recreated the poems translated with a different sensibility and made them harmonious in a single voice. For this and for her wholehearted dedication I can’t thank her enough. A heartfelt expression of gratitude to Daniel Moore and Laura Cerruti for their painstaking review and exceptional editorial expertise. Their drive, vision, and unique poetic sensibility turned a dream into reality. Very special thanks to Harry Mattison, Ibrahim Muhawi, and Kinda Akash for their insightful reading and their many helpful suggestions, and to Caroline Roberts and Kaia Sand for their meticulous copy editing. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the editors and publishers of the following journals in which some of these poems were first published: Tikkun, Salmagundi, Brick, American Poetry Review, and Fence.

Finally, I have to admit that all the great work in this collection exists thanks to these wonderful people and that every mistake in it is mine.

Munir Akash