Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish

Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish
NYRB Poets, 2014

A few weeks ago I visited Novel Idea, the independent bookstore in Kingston, Ontario, to pick up a book I ordered (Lisa Jarnot’s selected poems, Joie de Vivre, City Lights Spotlight No.9, 2014). While I was there I browsed through the bookshelves. A slim collection of poems caught my eye, Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish, NYRB Poets, 2014, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid. I flipped through the pages, reading a poem or two, then put it back on the shelf and left. But something about the book continued to haunt me, and later at home I looked up some of Darwish’s poems online, finding lots of samples, especially at Poetry International. Here's a poem that stuck with me:

IN THE TRAP

The mouse in the trap says: 
History is not on my side
the reptiles are all agents of mankind
and all mankind is against me
and reality too is against me
Yet despite all this I have faith
my progeny will prevail 

Darwish's poems are banged-up and battered, bruised by the world, but there’s also something very lyrical and soothing about them. They’re like the finely tuned gears of a precise clock missing its hands. You don’t know what time it is, but you know the moment is now, and it won’t last long. Looking back I wish I’d bought the book. And if it’s still there the next time I visit Novel Idea I’ll get it without a second thought. Even though I haven’t read it yet I highly recommend this book.