Everything about Mahmoud Darwish totally explained
Mahmoud Darwish (; born 1941 in
Al-Birwah,
British Mandate of Palestine) is a contemporary
Palestinian poet and writer of
prose. He has published over thirty volumes of poetry, eight books of prose and has served as the editor of several publications, including:
Al-Jadid,
Al-Fajr,
Shu'un Filistiniyya and
Al-Karmel. He is recognized internationally for his poetry, which focuses on his strong affection for his lost homeland. His work has won numerous awards, and has been published in at least twenty-two languages. The majority of his work hasn't been translated into English.
In the 1960s, Darwish joined the official
Communist Party of Israel, the
Rakah, but he's better known for his active work within the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Once a member of
PLO Executive Committee, he resigned from the Committee and broke with the PLO in 1993 to protest the continuation of the
Oslo Accords.
Early Life and Education
In 1941, Darwish was born in the village of
al-Birwa, in the
Galilee, east of
Acre in
Palestine. He was the second child of a landowning Muslim family of five boys and three girls. After the establishment of Israel, he fled to
Lebanon with his family and stayed there for a year, before returning to the Acre area, which was now in the state of Israel, and settling down in
Deir al-Asad.
Darwish continued his primary education in Deir al-Asad. Later on, he obtained his secondary education in
Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of
Jadeidi. Eventually, Darwish moved to
Haifa. His first book of poetry was published when he was only nineteen (
Asafir bila ajniha,
Wingless birds, 1960). In 1964, he emerged as a major voice of the Palestinian resistance with
Awraq Al-zaytun (
Leaves of olives). His poetry became extremely popular, especially
Identity Card written in 1964 :
"Record!
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?
Record!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged . . ."
Later life
After completing his secondary education, Darwish began publishing poetry and articles for newspapers and magazines such as
Al-Itihad and
Al-Jadid, where he later became the editor. In 1961, he joined secretly the
Communist Party of Israel, the
Maki (later also known as
Raqah), and began working as a co-editor of
Alfajr.
He was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned since for his writing and political activities, and in 1970 he left for
Moscow. Later, he moved to
Cairo in 1971 where he worked for AL-Ahram daily newspaper. In
Beirut, in 1973, he edited the monthly
Shu'un Filistiniyya (
Palestinian Affairs) and worked as a director in the Palestinian Research Center of the
PLO and joined the organisation. In 1981, he founded and became editor of the literary journal
Al-Karmel.
During the summer of 1982,
Beirut was under siege by the Israeli army and was bombed from
13 June to
12 August to drive the
PLO out of the city. Darwish related the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli siege in
Qasidat Bayrut (1982) and
Madih al-zill al'ali(1983), later in the English version in
Memory for Forgetfulness (1995). It led the poet to another exile to
Cairo,
Tunis and
Paris. Darwish was elected to the
PLO Executive Committee in 1987.
In 1988, one of his poems,
Passers Between the Passing Words was discussed in the
Knesset, he was accused of demanding that the
Jews leave
Israel, although he claimed he meant they should leave the
West Bank and
Gaza. The poet wrote :
"So leave our land
Our shore, our sea
Our wheat, our salt, our wound."
In 1993, after the
Oslo accords, Mahmoud Darwish resigned from the
PLO Executive Committee. Darwish has consistently demanded a "tough and fair" stand in negotiations with Israel.
He continued as an editor for the
Al-Karmel magazine, and lived in
Paris before returning to
Palestine in 1995, entering on a visa to see his mother. He had permission to return for the funeral of his friend
Emile Habibi (a writer) and to visit his hometown but for only a few days. While in Palestine, he was issued a permit to stay in the country by the Israeli authorities. He lived in a central West Bank Palestinian town,
Ramallah, where
Yasser Arafat had his headquarters.
Yossi Sarid, who was Israel's education minister, suggested in March 2000 that some of Darwish's poems should be included in the Israeli high school curriculum. But Prime Minister
Ehud Barak declared, "Israel isn't ready."
He currently resides in
Ramallah and in
Amman.
Audio releases
Many of his poems have been set to music by artists such as
Marcel Khalife,
Majida El Roumi, and
Ahmad Qa'abour. In 1996, 1999 and 2003, the well-known musician
Marcel Khalife faced a trial for
blasphemy and
insulting religious values because of the song entitled
I am Yusuf, oh my father which was based on Darwish's poem and cited a verse from the
Qur'an. In this poem, Darwish shared the pain of
Yusuf (
Joseph) who was rejected by his brothers, who fear him because he's too handsome and kind. "Oh my father, I'm Yusuf / Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst". The poem uses the story of Joseph to reference the rejection of the Palestinians.
Films
In 1997 a documentary entitled
Mahmoud Darwish was produced by French TV directed by noted French-Israeli director
Simone Bitton.
In 2004, Mahmoud Darwish asked a delegation of internationally-renowned writers and intellectuals to travel to the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, in part to participate in a cultural event in honour of the poet, but also to see first-hand life under Israeli military occupation. The delegation includes
Russell Banks (
U.S., author of The Sweet Hereafter and Affliction),
Bei Dao (
China, famous exiled poet),
José Saramago (
Portugal, winner of the 1998
Nobel Prize for Literature), and
Wole Soyinka (
Nigeria, winner of the 1986
Nobel Prize for Literature). The documentary is entitled
Writers on the Borders, directed by
Samir Abdallah and
José Reynes, the narration is in many languages, among them : English, French, Italian, Chinese, etc.
Quotations
"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."
"We shouldn't justify suicide bombers. We are against the suicide bombers, but we must understand what drives these young people to such actions. They want to liberate themselves from such a dark life. It isn't ideological, it's despair."
Prizes
Bibliography
Poetry
Asafir bila ajniha (Wingless birds), 1960
Awraq Al-Zaytun (Leaves of olives), 1964
Ashiq min filastin (A Lover from Palestine), 1966
Akhir al-layl (the end of the night), 1967
Yawmiyyat jurh filastini (Diary of a Palestinian wound), 1969
Habibati tanhad min nawmiha (My beloved awakens), 1969
al-Kitabah 'ala dhaw'e al-bonduqiyah (Writing in the light of the gun), 1970
al-'Asafir tamut fi al-jalil (Birds are Dying in Galilee), 1970
Mahmoud Darwish works, 1971. Two volumes
Mattar na'em fi kharif ba'eed (Light rain in a distant autumn) 1971
Uhibbuki aw la uhibbuki (I love you, I love you not), 1972
Jondiyyun yahlum bi-al-zanabiq al-baidaa' (a soldier dreaming of white lilies), 1973
Complete Works, 1973. Printed on a regular basis ever since, with a new introduction, new additions, and sometimes elimination of some parts. Now substituted with al-A'amal al-jadida (2004) and al-A'amal al-oula (2005).
Muhawalah raqm 7 (Attempt number 7), 1974
Tilka suratuha wa-hadha intihar al-ashiq (That's Her Image, And That's The Suicide Of Her Lover), 1975
Ahmad al-za'tar, 1976
A'ras (Weddings), 1977
al-Nasheed al-jasadi (The Music of Human Flesh), 1980. Joint work
Qasidat Bayrut (Ode to Beirut), 1982
Madih al-zill al-'ali (A eulogy for the tall shadow), 1983
Hissar li-mada'eh al-bahr, 1984
Victims of a Map, 1984. Joint work with Samih al-Qasim and Adonis in English.
Sand and Other Poems, 1986
Hiya ughniyah, hiya ughniyah (It's a song, it's a song), 1985
Ward aqal (Fewer roses), 1985
Ma'asat al-narjis, malhat al-fidda (Tragedy of daffodils, comedy of silver), 1989
Ara ma oreed (I see what I want), 1990
Ahad 'asher kaukaban (Eleven planets), 1992
Limaza tarakt al-hissan wahidan (Why did you leave the horse alone?), 1995. English translation 2006 by Jeffrey Sacks (ISBN 0976395010)
Psalms, 1995. A selection from Uhibbuki aw la uhibbuki, translation by Ben Bennani
Sareer El-Ghariba (Bed of a stranger), 1998
Then Palestine, 1999 (with Larry Towell, photographer, and Rene Backmann)
Jidariyya (Mural), 2000
The Adam of Two Edens: Selected Poems, 2001
Halat Hissar (State of siege), 2002
La ta'tazer 'amma fa'alt (Don't apologize for what you did), 2003
Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems, 2003. Translations by Munir Akash, Caroyln Forché and others
al-A'amal al-jadida (The new works), 2004. A selection of Darwish's recent works
al-A'amal al-oula (The early works), 2005. Three volumes, a selection of Darwish's early works
Ka-zahr el-lawz aw ab'ad (Same as almond flowers or farther), 2005
Prose
Shai'on 'an al-wattan (Something about the homeland), 1971
Wada'an ayatuha al-harb, wada'an ayuha al-salaam (Farwell, war, farwell, peace), 1974
Yawmiyyat al-hozn al-'aadi (Diary of the usual sadness), 1973
Dhakirah li-al-nisyan (Memory for Forgetfulness), 1987. English translation 1995 by Ibrahim Muhawi
Fi wasf halatina (Describing our condition), 1987
al-Rasa'il (The Letters), 1990. Joint work with Samih al-Qasim
'Aabiroon fi kalamen 'aaber (Bypassers in bypassing words), 1991
Fi hadrat al-ghiyab (in the presence of absence), 2006Further Information
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