Advances in Embroidery: Poems, with Translations from Mahmoud Darwish

Many poets try their hand at translation, and I owe them a lot, so first I'd like to acknowledge the cool idea of Poets & Traitors Press who blend original poetry with artful translation through Advances in Embroidery.I've only read through this collection once, revisiting a few poems a few times, but am still getting to know Al-Ashqar's work. The translations of Mahmoud Darwish are less accessible to me for some reason, but seem well done; it is just taking me a longer time to absorb them than Al-Ashqar's original poems. In "I Am From There" it is clear he's taken pains with his lines, with the contraction "all've" carefully placed. "The Shadow" is quite accessible and interesting, reminding one of Shel Silverstein wrestling in a more adult mode. "The Cypress Broke" is beautiful.And, I admit, some of the original poems seem written for younger generation, while on the other hand I see a lot of the young poet me in this volume, with its free associations of words and ideas, its turns of phrase and puns, its devoted observations of places, the outsider-insider dynamics, the fragments, the defiance. The poet loves certain subjects--his wife, trees, his table, urban places he's lived--and it comes through clearly. He employs certain styles more than once, e.g., verses in aligned block form, with short lines and effective enjambment. This from "Date Bearing Phoenix":i am my own palm tree shouting downdates wrinkled and sweet am my ownleaves rustling filling night with soundsominous my crown's fond an awning...&c."Chickpeas Garnished" is a sensuous tribute to his wife. "Coup D'État" his conflicted cultural place, "Big Syria Little Syria" contrasts of an ancient land. "Star of Bethlehem," "To Brooklyn," also excellent. My favorite is "Meditation on Structures," with its grounding in place, illustrations, invitation to explore Brutalist and Islamic architecture.New favorites will likely arise. These poems will all bear re-reading--I never expect to take even half of a poem in the first time I read it. The finale, for one, "A Valid Commentary on Time & Space" has a majesty to it that invites one to explore it again and again, although at first it is quite hard to understand. Revisiting, reassessing, and re-ingesting and -digesting poems over time, now that is something we should always make time for. I thank Al-Ashqar and Poets & Traitors for that chance here.