You're Not Alone in the Wilderness by Ghassan Zaqtan, trans. Fady Joudah

You're Not Alone in the Wilderness is a poem by Ghassan Zaqtan, rendered from the Arabic by Fady Joudah and printed in issue 25 of The Wolf.

The speaker places himself in Jabal Najmeh, by the woods. The poem describes a passage for boats and birds, and a procession of peasants, fishermen, hunters and soldiers, with peoples named from the ancient and medieval Near East. It then turns to voices the speaker expects to hear there: his father's, that of a figure named Malek, and that of Hussein Barghouthi, who is described as laid to rest beneath almond trees. The speaker's own voice, the last in the poem, supplies the title.

Work

You're Not Alone in the Wilderness

Author

Ghassan Zaqtan

Poems in this selection

• You're Not Alone in the Wilderness