Book excerpt: Mahmoud Darwish is one of the greatest poets of our time. In his poetry Palestine becomes the map of the human soul. — Elias Khoury The book tugs at the reader’s heart page after page, poem after poem, line after line, you cannot remain apathetic for a moment… —Haaretz At once an intimate autobiography and a collective memory of the Palestinian people, Darwish’s intertwined poems are collective cries, songs, and glimpses of the human condition. Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? is a poetry of myth and history, of exile and suspended time, of an identity bound to his displaced people and to the rich Arabic language. Darwish’s poems – specific and symbolic, simple and profound – are historical glimpses, existential queries, chants of pain and injustice of a people separated from their land.