Book record
Exhausted on the Cross
Najwan Darwish
Translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Exhausted on the Cross, by Najwan Darwish and translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid from Arabic, brings Arabic-language poetry from Palestine into English through Palestinian crucifixion imagery, exhaustion, and Najwan Darwish's ability to make the sacred feel politically exposed. The metadata gives the reader a doorway, but the real value is what happens once the poem starts making its own weather. I would read it for cross, fatigue, witness, and the body asked to carry more history than a body should, not as a fixed lesson about Palestine. The best entry point is still the poem itself: the line that catches, the image that refuses to explain itself, the feeling that arrives before paraphrase. Exhausted on the Cross belongs in the translated poetry library because it belongs as a sharp contemporary Palestinian lyric of burden, irony, and survival.
- Published
- 2021
- Publisher
- NYRB Poets
- Language
- Arabic
- Country
- Palestine
- ISBN
- 9781681375526