Mural - Tapa dura

"Did as much as anyone to forge a Palestinian national consciousness." Peter Clark, Guardian "His was a constant voice calling for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians." The Times "[Mural] is an exquisitely designed book, enhanced by several of Berger's evocative drawings and marred only by Berger's strident, grandstanding introduction. .. For Mural is a spiralling and circuitous poem, alive with swerves and sly twists, moving along corridors that dead-end only to open out unexpectedly into detours and hidden passageways. That single adjective, conspicuous in Darwish's spare style, presages the very structure of Mural. " Eric Ormsby, Bookforum

Mahmoud Darwish was the Palestinian national poet. One of the greatest poets of the last half-century, his work evokes the loss of his homeland and is suffused with the pain of dispossession, exile and loss. His poems also display a brilliant acuity, a passion for and openness to the world and, above all, a deep and abiding humanity. Here, his close friends John Berger and Rema Hammami present a beautiful new translation of two of Darwish's later works, his long masterpiece "Mural", a contemplation of his life and work written following lifethreatening surgery, and his last poem, "The Dice Player", which Darwish read in Ramallah a month before his death. Illustrated with original drawings by John Berger, "Mural" is a testimony to one of the most important and powerful poets of our age.