The poems in this powerful bilingual collection range from the rhetorical lyricism of Tawfiq Zayyad to the complex, cosmic imagery of Walid al-Halis, from the romantic idiom of Salma al-Jayyusi to the edgy, convoluted style of Tawfiq Sayigh, all evoking Palestine, the never-forgotten homeland.

The rich variety of the work is explored in Abdelwahab Elmessiri's extensive introduction and further reflected in the Arabic-language versions that accompany each selection. Opening with Mahmud Darwish's "The Roses and the Dictionary" and Samih al-Qasim's "To Najib Mahfuz," the...