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'''Mahmoud Darwish''' ([[13 March]] [[1941]] – [[9 August]] [[2008]]) was a respected [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] [[poet]] and writer who won numerous awards for his work.
'''Mahmoud Darwish''' ([[13 March]] [[1941]] – [[9 August]] [[2008]]) was a respected [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output.

==Biography==
==Biography==
Darwish was born in the village of [[al-Birwa]], in the [[Galilee]], east of [[Akko|Acre]]. He was the second child of a landowning Muslim family of five boys and three girls. After the establishment of the [[State of Israel]], he fled to [[Lebanon]] with his family and stayed for a year, before returning to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settling in [[Deir al-Asad]]. Darwish attended high school in [[Kfar Yasif|Kafr Yasif]], two kilometers north of [[Judeide-Makr|Jadeidi]]. Eventually, Darwish moved to [[Haifa]]. His first book of poetry, ''Asafir bila ajniha'', was published when he was nineteen. In 1995, he returned to Israel for the funeral of his colleague, [[Emile Habibi]]. During the visit, he received a permit from the Israeli authorities to remain in the country. He lived in the West Bank city of [[Ramallah]].
Darwish was born in the village of [[al-Birwa]], in the [[Galilee]], east of [[Akko|Acre]]. He was the second child of a landowning Muslim family of five boys and three girls. After the establishment of the [[State of Israel]], he fled to [[Lebanon]] with his family and stayed for a year, before returning to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settling in [[Deir al-Asad]]. Darwish attended high school in [[Kfar Yasif|Kafr Yasif]], two kilometers north of [[Judeide-Makr|Jadeidi]]. Eventually, Darwish moved to [[Haifa]]. His first book of poetry, ''Asafir bila ajniha'', was published when he was nineteen. Darwish left Israel in the early 1970s to study in the USSR. From there he traveled to Egypt and Lebanon. <ref>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008102528_apobitdarwish.html?syndication=rss</ref>In 1995, he returned to Israel for the funeral of his colleague, [[Emile Habibi]]. During the visit, he received a permit from the Israeli authorities to remain in the country. He lived in the West Bank city of [[Ramallah]].


==Literary career==
==Literary career==

Revision as of 09:53, 10 August 2008

Mahmoud Darwish محمود درويش
File:Mahmood darwish.jpg
Born13 March 1941
Al-Birwa
DiedAugust 9, 2008(2008-08-09) (aged 67)
Houston, Texas, United States
Occupation(s)Poet, writer

Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a respected Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output.

Biography

Darwish was born in the village of al-Birwa, in the Galilee, east of Acre. He was the second child of a landowning Muslim family of five boys and three girls. After the establishment of the State of Israel, he fled to Lebanon with his family and stayed for a year, before returning to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settling in Deir al-Asad. Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi. Eventually, Darwish moved to Haifa. His first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, was published when he was nineteen. Darwish left Israel in the early 1970s to study in the USSR. From there he traveled to Egypt and Lebanon. [1]In 1995, he returned to Israel for the funeral of his colleague, Emile Habibi. During the visit, he received a permit from the Israeli authorities to remain in the country. He lived in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Literary career

Darwish published over thirty volumes of poetry and eight books of prose. He was editor of Al-Jadid, Al-Fajr, Shu'un Filistiniyya and Al-Karmel (1981). He was recognized internationally for his poetry, which focuses on his strong affection for Palestine and his disdain for the State of Israel. His work won numerous awards, and has been published in at least 22 languages. The majority of his work has not been translated into English.[2]In 1964, he emerged as a major voice of rejecting Jewish self determination 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 . . ."

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 is not ready."


Political activism

Darwish was a member of Communist Party of Israel, Rakah, before leaving the country for Beirut. There, he joined the Palestine Liberation Organization. [3] In 1988 he wrote a manifesto intended as the Palestinian people's declaration of independence. 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. 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. 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 1993, after the Oslo accords, Darwish resigned from the PLO Executive Committee. Darwish, rejecting Jewish self determination and the State of Israel, has consistently demanded a "tough and fair" stand in negotiations with Israel.[4] 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, a call for ethnic cleansing, 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."


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 is too handsome and kind. "Oh my father, I am 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 French-Israeli director Simone Bitton.

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 should not 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 is not ideological, it is despair."

Prizes

Death

Mahmoud Darwish died on August 9, 2008 at the age of 67 following complications after heart surgery on August 6, 2008 at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. Early reports of his death in the Arabic press indicate that Darwish asked in his will to be buried in Palestine. Three locations have been suggested; his home village of al-Birwa, the neighboring village Jadeida, where some of Darwish's family still resides or in the West Bank city of Ramallah.[5]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning to honor Darwish.[5]

Published work

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
  • 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
  • Fi wasf halatina (Describing our condition), 1987
  • 'Aabiroon fi kalamen 'aaber (Bypassers in bypassing words), 1991
  • Fi hadrat al-ghiyab (in the presence of absence), 2006

References

  1. ^ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008102528_apobitdarwish.html?syndication=rss
  2. ^ fencemag.com/v5n1/text/darwish
  3. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009916.html
  4. ^ kirjasto.sci.fi/darwish
  5. ^ a b Ha'aretz 10 August 2008 Palestinians: Mahmoud Darwish to be laid to rest in Israel By Zvi Bar'el

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mahmoud_Darwish&oldid=230989395"