I saw Ramallah / Mourid Barghouti ; translated by Ahdaf Soueif ; with a foreword by Edward W. Said.
Language: English Original language: Arabic Publication details: London, England : Bloomsbury, 2004.Description: xi, 184 p. ; 20 cmISBN:- 0747569274 (hbk.)
- Raʼaytu Rām Allāh. English
- Barghūthī, Murīd -- Journeys -- West Bank
- Barghūthī, Murīd -- Political and social views
- Barghouthi, Mourid -- Journeys -- West Bank
- Barghūthī, Murīd -- Travel -- West Bank
- Barghūthī, Murīd -- Exile
- Political crimes and offenses -- West Bank
- Terrorism -- Israel
- Wrecking -- Political aspects -- West Bank
- West Bank -- Description and travel
- 892.7/8603 21
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Non-Fiction | 892.7 BAR | Available | 070446 |
This translation originally published: Cairo; New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2000.
Barred from his homeland after 1967's Six-Day War, the poet Mourid Barghouti spent thirty years in exile, shuttling among the world's cities, yet secure in none of them; separated from his family for years at a time; never certain whether he was a visitor, a refugee, a citizen, or a guest. As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth. Sifting through memories of the old Palestine as they come up against what he now encounters in this mere "idea of Palestine", he discovers what it means to be deprived not only of a homeland but of "the habitual place and status of a person." A tour de force of memory and reflection, lamentation and resilience, I saw Ramallah is a deeply humane book, essential to any balanced understanding of today's Middle East.
Translated from the Arabic.
