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Biography
Born in Gaza in 1963, Salim Al-Naffar spent several years of his life in Syria and Lebanon before returning to the Gaza Strip in 1994. His writing engages with questions of exile, memory, and homeland, approaching the Palestinian experience through a poetic and human sensitivity in which personal biography intersects with collective transformations. He published several poetry collections, works of prose, and novels, including Guardian of Waiting, A State of Homeland, Lanterns of the Camp, and Nights of Latakia. He worked at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture, served as a member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian Writers and Authors Union, and contributed to founding the Cultural Creativity group in Gaza. He was killed alongside members of his family in December 2023 during the genocide in Gaza, leaving a significant legacy in Palestinian poetry and cultural life.
Trace of The Tide Arch of Triumph There, I used to shelter beneath it, welcoming through the gateway of the sea the evening breezes, laden with alphabets of pride. And if night descended around us, from within the darkness I would see my beloved’s face, washed in the dew of day. Slowly, she would speak to me, her voice carrying the details of love, and the horizon pledged to an hour pregnant with the colours of joy. Do not tear down their arches, you who tamper with them. Gouraud will not return. A thousand Maysaluns, and a thousand more, await you. Do you not see?
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