Mahmoud Darwcesh was born in Palestine in 1942. As a child of six, he recalls how his native village of Al-Birwa was destroyed by the Israeli army. A refugee in his own country, he moved to the Galilee where he began writing. He worked as a journalist in Haifa, but as his poetry became more popular, he became a victim of Israeli military harassment. He was jailed many times, and finally put under house arrest.
Chapter 1 If I could choose again from the beginning
Chapter 2 We walk towards a land
Chapter 3 Earth narrows before us
Chapter 4 The flute speaks
Chapter 5 Sand
Chapter 6 Al-Mutanabbi's Voyage into Egypt
Chapter 7 Gypsy song
Chapter 8 Sirhan drinks his coffee in the cafeteria
Chapter 9 The river is the stranger
Chapter 10 Always
Chapter 11 The train at One
Chapter 12 I asked you to take me as autumn and river
Chapter 13 On Fifth Avenue he greeted me
Chapter 14 Words
Chapter 15 I love the seas I love
Chapter 16 Birds die in Galilee
Chapter 17 Woman
Chapter 18 Beirut
Chapter 19 Fog on a mirror
Chapter 20 Last evening in Paris
Chapter 21 Another year only
Chapter 22 Pigeons settle, pigeons fly