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Two Poems

by Taha Muhammad Ali

There Was No Farewell

We did not weep
when we were leaving—
for we had neither
time nor tears,
and there was no farewell.
We did not know
at the moment of parting
that it was a parting,
so where would our weeping
have come from?

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Poem of the WeekTaha Muhammad Ali

Taha Muhammad Ali was born in 1931 in the Galilee village of Saffuriyya, destroyed during the 1948 war. The owner of a souvenir shop in Nazareth, he is the author of five books of poetry in Arabic and of So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971–2005 (Copper Canyon Press, 2006). His biography, by Adina Hoffman, is entitled My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century.

Photograph by Nina Subin.
Poems of the Week: 2008–2009

Poems of the Week: 2008–2009

Reader Comments

  • Ali's language cuts into my flesh, making me aware of life...
  • This is gut-wrenching simplicity at its best. I feel I am...
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