A review by badspringbye
In the Presence of Absence, by Mahmoud Darwish

4.5

"When asleep, you are your own overlord and sovereign. Alive, but without life's burdens."

"...you tell reality: You are only a figment, and tell imagination: You are the only reality I can depend on."

"You lived at zero, perhaps less, perhaps more."

one of the most difficult things I have read this year and in my entire reading journey generally. challenging to a great extent but always worth the time delving through the meaning behind the metaphors thrown down on every corner of every chapter. it's either you get lost in between words and sentences or find yourself floating on top of them and see it through with outmost clarity. I think the best way to understand the context/sense of this whole thing is to consume the writing yourself first-hand and let the writing consume you.

more excerpts:
"And you must defend the discrete letters of your name as a cat would its kittens. Do what you must: defend the window's right to look at passerby. Do not ridicule yourself if you are incapable of providing proof."
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"Letters are restless, hungry or an image, and the image is thirsty for a meaning. [...] Rub one letter against another and a star is born. Bring a letter close to another and you can hear the sound of rain."
*
"You are you, and more.
You are you, and less. 
You are you and not you at the same time."
*
"Are we what we do with time, or are we what time does with us? Finding a response does not interest you as much as slowing down time. You do not want this autumn to end, just as you do not want the poem to grow to fullness and end. You do not want to reach winter. Let autumn be your private eternity."
*
"Death does not pain the dead, it pains the living."
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"Longing lies and never tires of lying, because it lies honestly."
*
"Are you what you were, or what you are now? You fear you will forget tomorrow while mired in the question: In which time do I live?"