4 JULY 2025 • By Nasser Rabah
Here we present two poems, “Distorted Dreams” and “Meditations,” in both their Arabic originals and English, from the new volume published by City Lights, Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, translated by Ammiel Alcalay, Emna Zgal and Khaled Al-Hilli. Like Mandelstam, Akhmatova, and Vallejo, Gazan poet Nasser Rabah embodies the magnificent possibilities of the human spirit and imagination under extreme conditions.
Nasser Rabah
This is Rabah’s first book in English translation. The poems include a selection from three of his published collections, along with new poems written after October 2023, during the full-scale Israeli assault on Gaza.
