The Palestinian Wedding

Poetry has long been Palestine's most vital art form – a space where memory is safeguarded and resistance given voice. Spanning a century of upheaval and endurance, The Palestinian Wedding brings together twenty-one major poets in a powerful bilingual anthology.



From the charged lyricism of Tawfiq Zayyad to the expansive imagery of Walid al-Halis; from the romantic cadences of Salma al-Jayyusi to the profound rootedness of Mahmoud Darwish, these poems chart the emotional and political landscape of modern Palestine. Together, they reveal a tradition in which love of land, grief, defiance and hope are inseparable.



Edited and introduced by the eminent scholar A.M. Elmessiri, the collection is arranged around six central themes – revolution, war, elegy, belonging, resistance and steadfastness – offering readers both an essential literary archive and a vital lens on Palestinian cultural history.



'It is, quite simply, very important to see all these poems together still ... Reading [The Palestinian Wedding] we learn a great deal about Palestine and about ourselves as human beings.'