(One of the Arab world's greatest poets uses the 1982 Isra...)
One of the Arab world's greatest poets uses the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the shelling of Beirut as the setting for this sequence of prose poems.
(Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? is a poetry of myth an...)
Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? is a poetry of myth and history, of exile and suspended time, of an identity bound to his displaced people and to the rich Arabic language.
(This remarkable collection of poems, meditations, fragmen...)
This remarkable collection of poems, meditations, fragments, and journal entries was Mahmoud Darwish's last volume to come out in Arabic. This River is at once lyrical and philosophical, questioning and wise, full of irony, resistance, and play.
Mahmud Darwish was the one of the foremost Palestinian poets of the late 20th century. He is the author of over thirty books of poetry and eight books of prose.
Background
Darwish was born on March 13, 1941, in Al-Birwa, in Galilee, the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. In the 1948 war when he was a boy, Darwish fled with his family and walked across the mountains and forests to southern Lebanon. But when he returned with his family two years later, he found that his village had been completely razed by the Israeli forces and the land ploughed. Darwish's impressions of this period of his life - the military government and the police harassment - remained with him and influenced much of his poetry, which he began to write at a young age.
Education
Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi. He also attended the Lomonosov Moscow State University during one year.
Darwish published his first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, or "Wingless Birds", at the age of 19. He initially published his poems in Al Jadid, the literary periodical of the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor. Later, he was assistant editor of Al Fajr, a literary periodical published by the Israeli Workers Party (Mapam).
In the early sixties he was repeatedly harassed by the Israeli security forces. He was arrested several times, beginning in 1961, and charged for statements he had made or for his writings and political activity. His last imprisonment was in 1969, and he was more than once placed under house arrest.
In 1970 left El-Birwa, travelling to the Soviet Union to complete his education in Moscow. He lived in Cairo, Beirut, London, and Paris, as well as Tunis.
In Beirut, he edited Shu'un Filastiniyya (Palestinian Affairs magazine), a journal focusing on Palestinian affairs and published by the Palestine Research Center. This self-imposed exile was widely credited with broadening his intellectual horizons. This period ushered in a more complex and intricate form of poetry. Darwish, unlike a number of modern poets, showed that he could sustain an emotion for more than a few verses. He showed that he had the capacity to make his symbols undergo a number of transformations and to sustain them in long poems.
Darwish's poetry has been characterized by various transformations both in content and in form, ranging from traditional verse in his early works to prose poetry, especially in his work in the late 1980's. It is easy to see in his earlier poems a poet experimenting in traditional form and a tendency to feel a voice instructing the poem from the outside. There is also a penchant toward oratory in evidence.
In his later poetry, however, he seemed to achieve the dramatic voice that blurs the distinction between the poet and the poem, where the poet's individuality becomes an important function of the poet's power and impact. In 1982 Darwish was forced into a second exile when Israel invaded Lebanon. He was compelled to leave Beirut. In 1990 he lived in Europe and edited the literary periodical al-Karmel.
Mahmoud Darwish returned to Palestine in 1996 and divided his time between Ramallah, where he continued to edit al-Karmel, and Amman, with occasional travel elsewhere. He was given permits by the Israeli authorities to visit his mother and the village where he lived as a child.
Darwish was a member of Rakah, the Israeli communist party, before joining the Palestine Liberation Organization in Beirut. In 1973, he began working as a director in the Palestinian Research Center of the PLO and joined the organisation. In the wake of the Lebanon War, Darwish wrote the political poems Qasidat Bayrut (1982) and Madih al-zill al'ali(1983). Darwish became a member of the PLO Executive Committee in 1987 and wrote the declaration of independence issued by the Palestine National Council in 1988, but he resigned from the PLO in 1993 to protest the signing of the Oslo Accords by PLO chairman Yasīr ʿArafāt.
Views
The author’s poetry, like other resistance poetry, was a strong indictment of Israeli society and its attitude toward Palestinians. It reflected unyielding resistance to their conditions and a refusal to accept the fait accompli. The poetry was often recited in village meetings and in the fields because it served as an effective channel of political communication in a society with few political leaders. Darwish was sentenced to jail many times and his freedom of movement was restricted for several years. Several of his poems were written in prison.
During the early phase of his writing words such as refugees, Red Cross, security, occupation, UNRWA, Arabness, revolution, and love permeate his poetry. A growing shift from sorrow and grief to anger and challenge can also be discerned. Yet Darwish, despite his revolt against the challenge of what he viewed as an oppressive system, continued throughout much of his writings to emphasize the prospect of co-existence and pluralism as alternatives to exclusivism. Despite his criticism of both Israel and the Palestinian leadership, Darwish believed that peace was attainable.
Early on, Darwish complained bitterly about the barriers between Arab and Jewish literature, as was reflected in one of his articles, "The Siege." He often challenged liberal and humanist Israeli writers to interact with their Arab colleagues because of their common concerns in the areas of civil rights and liberties, social change, and opposition to militarism.
In the poetry of Darwish, love of the land, the woman, and the homeland (Palestine) merged together and became symbols of dignity, life, and the future. Merging of the three, as in "Lover from Palestine," comes to symbolize humanity and manhood as well as acts of declared opposition and resistance.
Quotations:
"The accusation is that I hate Jews. It's not comfortable that they show me as a devil and an enemy of Israel. I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews."
"I do not despair, I am patient and am waiting for a profound revolution in the consciousness of the Israelis. The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms – all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace."
Membership
Mahmoud Darwish was president of the Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists.
Personality
Darwish, who spoke Hebrew, English, and French, was one of the most internationally prominent Arab poets and one of the few whose poetry cannot be divorced from his life and his cause, a cause he helped to transform from a national to a universal human cause.
In person, Darwish was friendly, honest, and loving to his friends and people in general. He was very modest, shy, and did not like social gatherings with more than six people for an audience. He was generous and often invited his friends over. He was moderate in his life - in his food, drink, and debates - and he was not an extremist in his opinions. He was very tolerant. He did not have enmity for anyone and he rarely disparaged other poets or their works.
He could not visit neighborhoods or wander in the streets like a common man because he was embarrassed when approached by large numbers of fans. He distributed of a large portion of his personal library to some of his friends, as if he did not want to keep more than a hundred books at a time on hand. He was received by a number of kings and presidents, including the Queen of the Netherlands, the King of Morocco, the Prime Minister of France, the President of Tunisia, and others.
Perhaps the most endearing aspects of Darwish’s personality were his ability to think quickly on his feet, his sense of humor, his utmost politeness in speech, his tact in dealing with others, and his celebration of the experiences of others, especially young poets. He never hesitated to express his admiration for a beautiful text without reservation. He was an attentive listener, following friends with interest and curiosity, not inclined to criticism. He did not like the role of the professor, which was expected of him by some. He listened and conversed well. He read the news, he read the books given to him, and he expressed his opinions.
Physical Characteristics:
Darwish had a history of heart problems and suffered a cardiac arrest in 1984. He underwent two heart operations, in 1984 and 1998.
Interests
Writers
Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, Yehuda Amichai
Connections
Darwish was twice married and divorced. His first wife was the writer Rana Kabbani. After they divorced, in the mid-1980s, he married an Egyptian translator, Hayat Heeni. He had no children.