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Poems from Palestine
About the episode
We read from the work of Palestinian poets Maya Abu Al Hayyat, Fady Joudah, Asma Azaizeh and Najwan Darwish, who writes: “Death has liberated me/ from the shackles of our small jailers,/ just as poetry has liberated us/ from the greatest jailer–time.”
Show Notes
In Palestine these days, the olive harvest is under assault from Israeli settlers. Six prominent Palestinian human rights and civil socierty NGOs have just been designated terrorist organizations.
Maya Abu Al-Hayyat’s You Can Be The Last Leaf, Trans. Fady Joudah, is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions
Najwan Darwish’s Collection Exhausted On the Cross, Trans. Karim James Abu Zeid, is out from New York Review Books.
Fady Joudah curated The Baffler’s series of lyric dispatches from Palestine, from which Marcia read Asma Azaizeh’s Reflection.
We read Fady Joudah’s poem Dehiscence, from his new collection Tethered to Stars.
And if you are interested in hearing much more Arabic poetry, check out the podcast Maqsouda, another Sowt production.