Basem el-Nabres was born in the Khan Yunis Camp in the Gaza Strip. He could not complete his secondary education and held numerous jobs in his early life, even working as a domestic for former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Since 1990 he has published seven collections of poetry and a book about the last Gaza war entitled Yawmiyyat al-Harb ‘ala Gaza (Diary of the War against Gaza), which was written during the war itself and published in Tunisia by Dar al-Tawbad. Due to his articles against corruption and religious dictatorship his house was attacked, and he currently lives in Barcelona, hosted by PEN International. The poems were translated by John Peate, and are reprinted from Banipal 45 – Writers from Palestine with the permission of Banipal (www.banipal.co.uk), the author and the translator.