I’ve chosen these pieces for two reasons.  Firstly recent dispatches (MDFF) have mentioned the lost art of the précis, secondly the author’s name is Zaharia, a name not to be trifled with,  Zakaria Mohammed

The Horse: a First Précis

Sunlit, its neck and back –

Birds hid their eyes
–  as though lightning-struck
everyone was transfixed
everyone could see the abyss
except the horse, who galloped headlong.

The Horse: a Second Précis

Everyone could see the pit
except the horse, galloping towards it.

trans Kathleen Jamie

From A Bird Is Not a Stone,  an anthology of contemporary Palestinian poetry, edited by Henry Bell and Sarah Irving.  Freight Books, Glasgow.  2014