In the Presence of Absence
Mahmoud Darwish
Darwish's late self-elegy — a prose-poetic autobiography in which the poet addresses his younger self across a life of exile and return.
Written in 2006, two years before his death, In the Presence of Absence is Mahmoud Darwish’s farewell to himself: a self-elegy in which the aging poet addresses his younger self, “you who are not you,” across twenty movements of incantatory prose. The book retraces the stations of his life — childhood in the Galilee village of al-Birwa, the flight of 1948, the return to a homeland made unrecognizable, the years of prison, exile, and fame — while meditating on language, love, and mortality.
Neither poem nor memoir but something between, it is among the summits of Darwish’s art, and Sinan Antoon’s English translation, published by Archipelago Books in 2011, was awarded the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
About the author
Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008), born in al-Birwa in the Galilee, was the national poet of Palestine and one of the greatest Arab poets of the modern era. His many collections, including Memory for Forgetfulness and Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?, made him the voice of Palestinian dispossession and longing worldwide.
Details
- Published in Arabic as Fi Hadrat al-Ghiyab, 2006
- English translation by Sinan Antoon, Archipelago Books, 2011
The edition
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Connected in the archive
19 connected records19 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Al-Birwaالبروة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: The book retraces the stations of his life — childhood in the Galilee village of al-Birwa, the flight of 1948, the return to a homeland made unrecognizable, the years of prison, exile, and fame — while meditating on language, love, and mortality.
- Mahmoud Darwishمحمود درويش
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Written in 2006, two years before his death, In the Presence of Absence is Mahmoud Darwish's farewell to himself: a self-elegy in which the aging poet addresses his younger self, "you who are not you," across twenty movements of incantatory prose.
on a related subject — 17 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- A Mountainous Journey: A Poet's Autobiography
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "poetry".
- Dareen Tatourدارين طاطور
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "poetry".
- Deqq
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "memory".
- Fadwa Touqanفدوى طوقان
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "poetry".
- Gate of the Sun
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "memory".
- George Abraham
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Shared tag: "poetry".
- and 11 more
Cite this page
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- Chicago
“In the Presence of Absence.” Library, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/library/in-the-presence-of-absence/.- MLA
“In the Presence of Absence.” Library, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/library/in-the-presence-of-absence/. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-in-the-presence-of-absence, title = {In the Presence of Absence}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/library/in-the-presence-of-absence/}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }