A review by e333mily
Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 by Mahmoud Darwish

5.0

Hauntingly beautiful. Part poetry, part memory, part something else that resists definition. The translation is so well done, but I can’t begin to imagine how breathtaking this book must be in the original Arabic.

“And I want nothing more from the passing days than the aroma of coffee. The aroma of coffee so I can hold myself together, stand on my feet, and be transformed from something that crawls, into a human being.”

“I want a language that I can lean on and that can lean on me, that asks me to bear witness and that I can ask to bear witness…”

“Something is missing from me. And I can't. I can't.”