Kareem James Abu-Zeid

City Lights and The Center for the Art of Translation celebrate the publication of

No One Will Know You Tomorrow: Selected Poems, 2014-2024

by Najwan Darwish, Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

published by Yale University Press

Part of the Cecile and Theodore Margellos World Republic of Letters series

Kareem James Abu-Zeid reads from and discusses the work of celebrated Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish

No One Will Know You Tomorrow is a selection of the exquisite, passionate verse of the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, superbly translated into English.

“A lush bouquet of essential poems from one of our species’ most urgent living poets. These are poems of testimony, of presence and the persistence of joy.”—Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

Born in Jerusalem in 1978, Najwan Darwish is one of the most important poets of the Arabic-speaking world. This definitive collection, which draws from five volumes published in Arabic as well as new unpublished work, brings to English-language readers a sweeping trove of Darwish’s most powerful and urgent poetry of the last decade.

In spare lyric verse, Darwish testifies to the brutal and intimate traumas of war, the anguished fatigue of waking up each morning in an occupied land, and the immeasurable toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While anchored in the geography of Palestine, his poetry also explores the rich artistic inheritance of the Arabic-speaking world, moving between regions, landscapes, and eras, from the glories of medieval Granada to the rippling shores of contemporary Haifa. In dialogue with poets, philosophers, and seekers from many different traditions, Darwish’s verse pulses with spiritual longing and a sense of battered, disoriented wonder—a witness to both the atrocities we visit upon one another and the miracle that we are here at all.

No One Will Know You Tomorrow is a tribute to the indomitability of the human spirit: its sensitive attunement to beauty and its endurance in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Najwan Darwish is an Award Winning Palestinian poet described by The New York Review of Books as "one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets". In 2009, Darwish was named as one of the Beirut39, a selection of 39 promising Arab writers. In 2014, NPR included his book Nothing More To Lose as one of the best books of the year. Named as "one of Arabic literature’s biggest new stars" Darwish's work has been translated into over 20 languages.

Kareem James Abu-Zeid is an Egyptian-American translator, editor, and writer. He was born in Kuwait and grew up in the Middle East. He studied French and German language and literature at Princeton University, taking translation workshops under poets CK Williams and Paul Muldoon, and graduating summa cum laude in 2003.

The Cecile and Theodore Margellos World Republic of Letters series identifies works of cultural and artistic significance previously overlooked by translators and publishers, as well as important contemporary authors whose work has not yet been translated into English.

The Center for the Art of Translation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, was founded in 2000 by Olivia Sears, an Italian translator and editor who serves as the Center’s board president. In 1993, prior to forming the Center, Sears helped to establish the literary translation journal Two Lines: World Writing in Translation at a time when there were very few venues for translated literature in English, and those handful rarely paid much attention to the translator beyond a brief acknowledgment. Two Lines set out to challenge that trend—to make international literature more accessible to English-speaking audiences, to champion the unsung work of translators, and to create a forum for translators to discuss their craft. In this way, Two Lines serves as the Center’s cornerstone, and the journal’s spirit radiates through all of the Center’s work today.

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation

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