“Umm Hassan is dead.”
These are Dr. Khaleel Ayyoub’s first words to his only patient, the legendary hero of a dozen failed wars for Palestinian liberation, in Galilee Hospital in Shatila. But this isn’t a real hospital (scarcely any supplies or professional staff), Khaleel is not a real doctor (though he had some rudimentary medical training in China), and Yunis, or Abu Salim, is not a real hero (though famous as “lone wolf” fighter) — and is now probably brain dead.

El cuerpo que habito
lo comparto con otro hombre, soltero como yo.
Cuando nos cruzamos en la escalera
— si yo (por ejemplo) voy camino a la boca y él
(por ejemplo) hacia el corazón o la panza –,
nos saludamos correctamente.
Pero en realidad apenas lo conozco.