The Paris Review - Najwan Darwish's Poetry of the Unspeakable
my defeated banner. This poem, âMy Defeated Banner,â is from the fifth section of the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwishâs latest collection, Exhausted on the Cross, and in its devastating beauty, it represents one of the peak moments of his poetry as well as of the writing of our time. As in all of Darwishâs poetry, this defeated banner presents us with a primordial scene, possibly inserted in the depths of what we persist in calling the human, where the feelings of a particular being, that sudden nostalgia that grips us, that desire, that love, crosses over and merges with...
Source: theparisreview.org