✨ One Traveler Said to Another: We Won't Return As... [excerpt]

absence said to me...

One Traveler Said to Another: We Won't Return As...
[excerpt]

In the desert, absence said to me:
Write!
I said: There is another writing on the mirage
It said: Write and the mirage will become green
I said: I lack absence
I said: I still haven’t learned the words
It said to me: Write and you’ll know them
and know where you were, and where you are
and how you came, and who you will be tomorrow…

—Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Jeffrey Sacks

Excerpted from “One Traveler Said to Another: We Won't Return As...” in Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?, Archipelago Books, © Copyright 2006. Fair use. Photo by Raychan, Creative Commons, via Unsplash.