Desert Songs: Poetry by Yahia Lababidi

What you hold in your hands is a slender packet of yearning; poems inspired by my desert retreats over the years. I did not, fully, recognize at the time the nascent thirst in these poetic meditations, or how the profound spiritual longing in these reflections was to mystically point for me the way towards a spiritual and religious life—a path I am exploring with wonder, and humbly deepening, nearly two decades later. It means a great deal to me that this poetry collection is bilingual and that my words will return to the part of the world that inspired them in its native language. I'm, especially, grateful that the Arabic is rendered by Osama Esber, a respected Syrian poet, translator and publisher whom I'm fortunate to call a friend and...