Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?

Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?
Publishing House: Archipelago Books
WorkNameSort: Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?
Dislocation is not just a theme for Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish ‘ it has made him a disembodied presence within his own work. In this haunting new collection, he speaks like a ghost. ‘I look out like a balcony on what I want,â?� he writes. ‘I look out on my friends carrying the evening mail.â?� Using repetition and images so lovely they nearly become cloying (‘March is/the pampered child of months. It combs cotton from the almond/treeâ?�), this book tells a striking personal narrative of the costs of exile, emotional and metaphysical. Here is the scent of tobacco on the poet’s grandfather’s cloak, so long ago. Here is the poet asking, ‘Who will live in the house after us, father?â?� Not surprisingly, images of land and soil abound, making a conflict so often presented as merely political seem oaken and real. ‘I don’t want from the earth more than/this earth,â?� he writes ‘ just ‘the scent of cardamom and hay.â?�

This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2006.