Chapter 1 If I could choose again from the beginning; Chapter 2 We walk towards a land; Chapter 3 Earth narrows before us; Chapter 4 The flute speaks; Chapter 5 Sand; Chapter 6 Al-Mutanabbi's Voyage into Egypt; Chapter 7 Gypsy song; Chapter 8 Sirhan drinks his coffee in the cafeteria; Chapter 9 The river is the stranger; Chapter 10 Always; Chapter 11 The train at One; Chapter 12 I asked you to take me as autumn and river; Chapter 13 On Fifth Avenue he greeted me; Chapter 14 Words; Chapter 15 I love the seas I love; Chapter 16 Birds die in Galilee; Chapter 17 Woman; Chapter 18 Beirut; Chapter 19 Fog on a mirror; Chapter 20 Last evening in Paris; Chapter 21 Another year only; Chapter 22 Pigeons settle, pigeons fly;
Mahmoud Darwcesh was born in Palestine in 1942. As a child of six, he recalls how his native village of Al-Birwa was destroyed by the Israeli army. A refugee in his own country, he moved to the Galilee where he began writing. He worked as a journalist in Haifa, but as his poetry became more popular, he became a victim of Israeli military harassment. He was jailed many times, and finally put under house arrest.