{"id":169588,"date":"2025-01-10T11:33:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=169588"},"modified":"2025-01-10T11:32:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T16:32:51","slug":"on-najwan-darwish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/","title":{"rendered":"On Najwan Darwish"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Ann Craven, Moon (Paris Review Roof, NYC, 9-19-24, 8:40 PM), 2024<\/em>, 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14″.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNo one will know you tomorrow. \/ The shelling ended \/ only to start again within you,\u201d writes the poet Najwan Darwish in his new collection. Darwish, who was born in Jerusalem in 1978, is one of the most striking poets working in Arabic today. The intimate, carefully wrought poems in his new book, , No One Will Know You Tomorrow<\/em>, translated into English by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, were written over the past decade. They depict life under Israeli occupation\u2014periods of claustrophobic sameness, wartime isolation, waiting. \u201cHow do we spend our lives in the colony? \/ Cement blocks and thirsty crows \/ are the only things I see,\u201d he writes. His verses distill loss into a few terse lines. In a poem titled \u201cA Brief Commentary on \u2018Literary Success,\u2019 \u201d he writes, \u201cThese ashes that were once my body, \/ that were once my country\u2014 \/ are they supposed to find joy \/ in all of this?\u201d Many poems recall love letters: to Mount Carmel, to the city of Haifa. To a lover who, abandoned, \u201cshares my destiny.\u201d He speaks of \u201cjoy\u2019s solitary confinement\u201d because \u201cexile has taken \/ everyone I love.\u201d Irony and humor are present (\u201cI\u2019ll be late to Hell. \/ I know Charon will ask for a permit \/ to board his boat. \/ Even there \/ I\u2019ll need a Schengen visa\u201d), but it is Darwish\u2019s ability to convey both tremulous wonder and tragedy that make this collection so distinct. <\/p>\n

Darwish has talked about the concept of poet as historian in interviews (\u201cwe drag histories behind us,\u201d he has written) and No One Will Know You Tomorrow<\/em> contends with the grief of the Palestinian people since the Nakba of 1948 and amid the genocide currently taking place. But it would be a mistake to reduce Darwish to a \u201cwartime\u201d poet. As Abu-Zeid points out in his introduction to the book, Darwish is doing something more complex: writing across time and place, geography and religion; drawing on a deep well of artistic heritage to inform the present. (\u201cMy country is an Andalus of poems and water, \/ I lost it, \/ I\u2019m still<\/em> losing it\u2014 \/ in loss \/ it becomes my country.\u201d) Darwish also brings the history of Palestinians in relation to those of other peoples in diaspora. For Armenians, Kurds, Baha\u2019i, Syrians, and others, \u201cthe earth\u2014all of it\u2014is a house of refuge. \/ The people\u2014all of them\u2014are citizens of dust.\u201d Literary figures, living and dead, haunt these pages, from legendary pre-Islamic poets like Antarah and Sufi mystics to the Egyptian poet Hafez Ibrahim and the Syrian poet Adonis. \u201cI have so many friends \/ sleeping in tombs from different ages\u2014 \/ at night I tell them stories, \/ more often than I should,\u201d he writes in a poem dedicated to Yahya Hassan, the Danish Palestinian poet who died in 2020. \u201cCome tell me stories and stay \/ above the ground. I\u2019ve company enough already \/ beneath it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darwish rarely gives interviews, but I spoke with him for the Guardian<\/em> at the end of 2023. He was grappling with the horror of Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, which has left more than forty-six thousand Palestinians dead<\/a> and injured and displaced many more. It has taken his friends and fellow artists; wiped out entire families so there\u2019s no one to call to express condolences, he said. Images of Gazan children haunt him. He spoke to me about filling a notebook with poems after October 7 and losing it at an airport; he thought he might never write again. Notebooks appear in several poems in No One Will Know You Tomorrow <\/em>(\u201c<\/em>the last page in a notebook, \/ the last lip, \/ the last finger, \/ the last thread of light, \/ the last bit of darkness\u201d), and I came to see them as a sort of talisman against forgetting: a way to record the dignity of Palestinians, and a bulwark against the colonizers that rewrite history to their advantage.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last poem in the collection, \u201cEndless,\u201d could be read as an elegy, or a ringing call to action\u2014even if that action is to, against all odds, survive. \u201cIn utter darkness, \/ in light, \/ in ruin, \/ in psalms, \/ in a trumpet, \/ in the horn of Israfil, \/ in a labyrinth,\u201d he writes, \u201cin an end that leads \/ to an endless end, \/ I lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alexia Underwood is a writer and award-winning journalist who was born in Kuwait and grew up in Egypt and the U.S. She\u2019s currently at work on a novel.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2554,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68386],"tags":[68813,582],"class_list":["post-169588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-reviews-review","tag-najwan-darwish","tag-palestine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn Najwan Darwish by Alexia Underwood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 10, 2025 \u2013 The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On Najwan Darwish by Alexia Underwood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 10, 2025 \u2013 The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-10T16:33:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alexia Underwood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alexia Underwood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alexia Underwood\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b51c7a861b7cfab4442a7bd2823f22d\"},\"headline\":\"On Najwan Darwish\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-10T16:33:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\"},\"wordCount\":758,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Najwan Darwish\",\"Palestine\"],\"articleSection\":[\"The Review\u2019s Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\",\"name\":\"On Najwan Darwish by Alexia Underwood\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-10T16:33:59+00:00\",\"description\":\"January 10, 2025 \u2013 The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1000,\"caption\":\"Moon (Paris Review Roof, NYC, 9-19-24, 8:40 PM), 2024, 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14\\\".\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On Najwan Darwish\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b51c7a861b7cfab4442a7bd2823f22d\",\"name\":\"Alexia Underwood\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/320816d38b245259b55f1f19db1f27965f58cac88f69d6bff62f69fb005b9f1d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/320816d38b245259b55f1f19db1f27965f58cac88f69d6bff62f69fb005b9f1d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Alexia Underwood\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/aunderwood\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On Najwan Darwish by Alexia Underwood","description":"January 10, 2025 \u2013 The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"On Najwan Darwish by Alexia Underwood","og_description":"January 10, 2025 \u2013 The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2025-01-10T16:33:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Alexia Underwood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Alexia Underwood","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/"},"author":{"name":"Alexia Underwood","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b51c7a861b7cfab4442a7bd2823f22d"},"headline":"On Najwan Darwish","datePublished":"2025-01-10T16:33:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/"},"wordCount":758,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png","keywords":["Najwan Darwish","Palestine"],"articleSection":["The Review\u2019s Review"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/","name":"On Najwan Darwish by Alexia Underwood","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png","datePublished":"2025-01-10T16:33:59+00:00","description":"January 10, 2025 \u2013 The Palestinian poet\u2019s new collection, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, depicts life under Israeli occupation.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/craven-11-1000px.png","width":1000,"height":1000,"caption":"Moon (Paris Review Roof, NYC, 9-19-24, 8:40 PM), 2024, 2024, oil on linen, 14 x 14\"."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/01\/10\/on-najwan-darwish\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On Najwan Darwish"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6b51c7a861b7cfab4442a7bd2823f22d","name":"Alexia Underwood","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/320816d38b245259b55f1f19db1f27965f58cac88f69d6bff62f69fb005b9f1d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/320816d38b245259b55f1f19db1f27965f58cac88f69d6bff62f69fb005b9f1d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Alexia Underwood"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/aunderwood\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169588"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169598,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169588\/revisions\/169598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}