In 1988 Darwish wrote thePalestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declaration for the creation of a State of Palestine. Darwish won numerous awards for his works. In his poetic works, Darwish exploredPalestine as a metaphor for the loss ofEden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile.[2][3] He has been described as incarnating and reflecting "the tradition of the political poet inIslam, the man of action whose action is poetry."[4] He also served as an editor for several literary magazines in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Darwish wrote in Arabic, and also spoke English, French, andHebrew.
Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian National Poet, Pen and Ink Portrait byAmitabh Mitra
Biography
Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in al-Birwa in the WesternGalilee,[5] the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. His family were landowners. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read.[3] During theNakba, his village was captured by Israeli forces and the family fled toLebanon, first toJezzine and thenDamour.[6] Their home village was razed and destroyed by theIDF[7][8][9] to prevent its inhabitants from returning to their homes inside the new Jewish state.[10][11]
A year later Darwish's family returned to theAcre area in Israel, and settled inDeir al-Asad.[12] Darwish attended high school inKafr Yasif, two kilometers north ofJadeidi. He eventually moved toHaifa. ThoughIsrael's 1952 citizenship law granted citizenship to Palestinian Arabs in Israel, Darwish and his family were never granted citizenship, being considered residents rather than citizens of Israel.[13]
He published his first book of poetry,Asafir bila ajniha, or "Wingless Birds," at the age of 19. He initially published his poems inAl Jadid, the literary periodical of theIsraeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor. Darwish was a member ofRakah, theIsraeli Communist Party.[14] Later, he was assistant editor ofAl Fajr, a literary periodical published by the Israeli Workers Party (Mapam).[15]
When he joined thePLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in 1973 he was banned from reentering Israel.[3] InBeirut, in 1973, he edited the monthlyShu'un Filistiniyya (Palestinian Affairs) and worked as a director in the Palestinian Research Center of the PLO. In the wake of the Lebanon War, Darwish wrote the political poemsQasidat Beirut (1982) andMadih al-zill al'ali (1983). Darwish was elected to thePLO Executive Committee in 1987. In 1988 he wrote a manifesto intended as thePalestinian people's declaration of independence.
In 1993 Darwish resigned from thePLO Executive Committee, in opposition to theOslo accords.[17][18] He later recounted: "All I saw in the agreement was an Israeli solution to Israeli problems and that the PLO had to perform its role in solving Israel’s security problems."[19]
In 1996 he returned to attend the funeral of his colleague,Emile Habibi, receiving a permit to remain in Haifa for four days.[20] Due to leaving the PLO, he was allowed to live in the West Bank and moved toRamallah.[2][21]
Darwish was twice married and divorced. His first wife was the writerRana Kabbani. After they divorced, in the mid-1980s, he married an Egyptian translator, Hayat Heeni. He had no children.[3] The "Rita" of Darwish's poems was a Jewish woman whom he loved when he was living in Haifa; he revealed in an interview with French journalistLaure Adler that her name isTamar Ben-Ami.[22] The relationship was the subject of the filmWrite Down, I Am an Arab by filmmakerIbtisam Mara'ana.
Darwish had a history of heart disease, suffering a heart attack in 1984. He had two heart operations, in 1984 and 1998.[3]
His final visit to Israel was on 15 July 2007, to attend a poetry recital at Mt Carmel Auditorium in Haifa.[23] There, he criticized the factional violence betweenFatah andHamas as a "suicide attempt in the streets."[24]
Literary career
Over his lifetime of 67 years Darwish published more than 30 volumes of poetry and eight books of prose. At one time or another, he was editor of the periodicalsAl Jadid,Al Fajr,Shu'un Filastiniyya, andAl Karmel. He was also one of the contributors ofLotus, a literary magazine financed by Egypt and the Soviet Union.[25]
By the age of 17 Darwish was writing poetry about the suffering of the refugees in theNakba and the inevitability of their return, and had begun reciting his poems at poetry festivals.[26] Seven years later, on 1 May 1965, when the young Darwish read his poem "Bitaqat huwiyya" ["Identity Card"] to a crowd in a Nazareth movie house, there was a tumultuous reaction. Within days the poem had spread throughout the country and the Arab world.[27] Published in his second volume "Leaves of Olives" (Haifa, 1964), the six stanzas of the poem repeat the cry "Write down: I am an Arab."[28] His 1966 "To My Mother" became an unofficial Palestinian anthem,[29] and his 1967 poem "A Soldier Dreams Of White Lilies"[a] about a conversation with a youngShlomo Sand as anIsraeli soldier stirred debate due to its portrayal of the Israeli soldier.[30][31][29]: 55–61 [32]: 19 Darwish's poems were translated into Danish and published in various publications, includingPolitisk Revy.[33]
Darwish's early writings are in the classical Arabic style. He wrotemonorhymed poems adhering to the metrics of traditionalArabic poetry. In the 1970s he began to stray from these precepts and adopted a "free-verse" technique that did not abide strictly by classical poetic norms. The quasi-Romantic diction of his early works gave way to a more personal, flexible language, and the slogans and declarative language that characterized his early poetry were replaced by indirect and ostensibly apolitical statements, although politics was never far away.[tone][34]
In the 1970s "Darwish, as a Palestinian poet of the Resistance committed himself to the ... objective of nurturing the vision of defeat and disaster (after the June War of 1967), so much so that it would 'gnaw at the hearts' of the forthcoming generations."[35] Darwish addressed theIsraeli invasion of Lebanon inWard aqall [Fewer Roses] (1986) and"Sa-ya'ti barabira akharun" ("Other Barbarians Will Come").[36]
According to the Israeli authorHaim Gouri, who knew him personally, Darwish's Hebrew was excellent.[37] Four volumes of his poetry were translated into Hebrew by Muhammad Hamza Ghaneim:Bed of a Stranger (2000),Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? (2000),State of Siege (2003), andMural (2006).[16]Salman Masalha, a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew writer, translated his bookMemory for Forgetfulness into Hebrew.[16]
Darwish was impressed by the Iraqi poetsAbd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati andBadr Shakir al-Sayyab.[6] He citedArthur Rimbaud andAllen Ginsberg as literary influences.[3] Darwish admired the Hebrew poetYehuda Amichai, but described his poetry as a "challenge to me, because we write about the same place. He wants to use the landscape and history for his own benefit, based on my destroyed identity. So we have a competition: who is the owner of the language of this land? Who loves it more? Who writes it better?"[3]
Mahmoud Darwish died on 9 August 2008 at the age of 67, three days after heart surgery atMemorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. Before surgery, Darwish had signed a document asking not to be resuscitated in the event of brain death.[38] According toIbrahim Muhawi, the poet, though suffering from serious heart problems, did not require urgent surgery, and the day set for the operation bore a symbolic resonance. In hisMemory for Forgetfulness, Darwish centered the narrative ofIsrael's invasion of Lebanon and88-day siege of Beirut on 6 August 1982, which was the anniversary of thebombing of Hiroshima. A new bomb had been deployed, which could collapse and level a 12-storey building by creating a vacuum. Darwish wrote: "On this day, on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, they are trying out the vacuum bomb on our flesh and the experiment is successful." By his choice of that day for surgery, Muwahi suggests, Darwish was documenting: "the nothingness he saw lying ahead for the Palestinian people."[39]
Early reports of his death in the Arabic press indicated that Darwish had asked in his will to be buried in Palestine. Three locations were originally suggested; his home village of al-Birwa, the neighboring villageJadeida, where some of Darwish's family still resides, or in the West Bank city ofRamallah.Ramallah MayorJanet Mikhail announced later that Darwish would be buried next to Ramallah's Palace of Culture, at the summit of a hill overlookingJerusalem on the southwestern outskirts of Ramallah, and a shrine would be erected in his honor.[14] Ahmed Darwish said "Mahmoud doesn't just belong to a family or a town, but to all the Palestinians, and he should be buried in a place, where all Palestinians can come and visit him."[40]
Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning to honor Darwish and he was accorded the equivalent of a State funeral.[14][41] A set of four postage stamps commemorating Darwish was issued in August 2008 by the PA.[42][43]
Arrangements for flying the body in from Texas delayed the funeral for a day.[44] Darwish's body was then flown fromAmman,Jordan for the burial in Ramallah. The first eulogy was delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to an orderly gathering of thousands. Several left-wing Knesset members attended the official ceremony;Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) andAhmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) stood with the family, andDov Khenin (Hadash) andJamal Zahalka (Balad) were in the hall at theMukataa. Also present was the former French prime minister and poetDominique de Villepin.[45] After the ceremony, Darwish's coffin was taken in a cortege at walking pace from the Mukataa to the Palace of Culture, gathering thousands of followers along the way.
Despite his criticism of both Israel and the Palestinian leadership, Darwish believed that peace was attainable. "I do not despair," he told the Israeli newspaperHaaretz. "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."[48]
Darwish rejected accusations ofantisemitism: "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."[49] Darwish described Hebrew as a "language of love."[4] He considered himself to be part of the Jewish civilization that existed in Palestine and hoped for a reconciliation between the Palestinians and the Jews. When this happens, "the Jew will not be ashamed to find an Arab element in himself, and the Arab will not be ashamed to declare that he incorporates Jewish elements."[50]
Hamas
In 2005, outdoor music and dance performances inQalqiliya were suddenly banned by theHamas-led municipality, with authorities saying that such events wereforbidden by Islam. The municipality also prohibited the playing of music in the Qualqiliya zoo.[51][52] In response, Darwish warned that"There areTaliban-type elements in our society, and this is a very dangerous sign."[51][52][53][54]
In July 2007, Darwish visited Israel for the first time in over 35 years[citation needed] and spoke at an event sponsored by theHadash party.[55] In his speech, he expressed his dismay because Hamas had recently defeatedFatah in theGaza civil war and taken complete control of Gaza: "We woke up from a coma to see a monocoloredflag (of Hamas) do away with the four-colorflag (of Palestine)."[56][57] Additionally, he criticized the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Fatah as "a public attempt at suicide" and a barrier to Palestinian statehood: "Gaza won its independence from the West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons."[58][55]
Legacy and impact
Darwish is widely perceived as a Palestinian symbol[16] and a spokesman for Palestinians.[59][60][61] Darwish's work has won numerous awards and been published in 20 languages.[62] A central theme in Darwish's poetry is the concept ofwatan orhomeland. The poetNaomi Shihab Nye wrote that Darwish "is the essential breath of the Palestinian people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging..."[63] He has inspired the work of Libyan textile artistNour Jaouda.[64]
Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity
The Mahmoud Darwish Foundation was established on 4 October 2008 as a Palestinian non-profit foundation that "seeks to safeguard Mahmoud Darwish's cultural, literary and intellectual legacy."[65] The foundation administers the annual Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity granted to intellectuals from Palestine and elsewhere.[66]
In 2017, Palestinian historianMaher Charif, Egyptian novelist and criticSalwa Bakr, and Indian novelist and activistArundhati Roy were co-winners of the prize.[69]
Controversies in Israel
"Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words"
In 1988, one of his poems, "Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words", was angrily cited in theKnesset byYitzhak Shamir. Written during theFirst Intifada, the poem includes the text: "Live anywhere but do not live among us... and do not die among us".[3] It was interpreted by many Jewish Israelis as demanding that they leave the 1948 territories, although Darwish said that he meant theWest Bank andGaza.[70][2] Adel Usta, a specialist on Darwish's poetry, said the poem had been misunderstood and mistranslated.[71] Poet and translatorAmmiel Alcalay wrote that "the hysterical overreaction to the poem simply serves as a remarkably accurate litmus test of the Israeli psyche ... (the poem) is an adamant refusal to accept the language of the occupation and the terms under which the land is defined."[72]
Israeli curriculum
In March 2000,Yossi Sarid, the Israeli education minister, proposed that two of Darwish's poems be included in the Israeli high school curriculum. Prime MinisterEhud Barak rejected the proposal on the grounds that the time "is not ripe" to teach Darwish in schools.[73] It has been suggested that the incident had more to do with internal Israeli politics in trying to damage Prime MinisterEhud Barak's government than with poetry.[74] With the death of Darwish, the debate about including his poetry in the Israeli school curriculum was re-opened in 2008.[75]
"Although it is now technically possible for Jewish students to study Darwish, his writing is still banned from Arab schools. The curriculum used in Arab education is one agreed in 1981 by a committee whose sole Jewish member vetoed any works he thought might 'create an ill spirit'."[76]
"Identity Card"
In July 2016 a controversy erupted over the broadcasting of Darwish's poem "Bitaqat hawiyya" ("Identity Card")[77] on Israeli radio stationGalei Tzahal. Written in 1964, it includes the lines: “Write down on the top of the first page: / I do not hate people / And I do not steal from anyone / But if I starve / I will eat my oppressor’s flesh / Beware, beware of my starving / And my rage."[78]
Israeli defence ministerAvigdor Lieberman condemned the broadcast in a statement, stating that "according to this same logic," the radio station could "glorify during a broadcast the literary marvels ofMein Kampf".[79][78]
Representation in other media
Mahmoud Darwish Portrait.
Music
Many of Darwish's poems were set to music byArab composers, among themMarcel Khalife,[80]Reem Kelani,[81][82]Majida El Roumi andAhmad Qa'abour.[21] The most notable are "Rita and the Rifle," "I lost a beautiful dream," "Birds of Galilee" and "I Yearn for my Mother's Bread." They have become anthems for at least two generations of Arabs. In the 1980s,Sabreen, aPalestinian music group in the 1948 territories, recorded an album including versions of Darwish's poems "On Man" and "On Wishes."[83]
The composer Marcel Khalife was accused of blasphemy and insulting religious values, because of his song entitled "I am Yusuf, oh my father," which he based on Darwish's lyrics, and which cited a verse from theQur'an.[84] In this poem, Darwish shared the pain ofYusuf (Joseph), who was rejected by his brothers and 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." Darwish presents the story of Joseph as an allegory for the rejection of the Palestinians by the Israelis.
In 1976, Egyptian-born Palestinian singerZeinab Shaath adapted his poem "Identity Card" into an English-language song, titled "I Am An Arab," from her EPThe Urgent Call of Palestine. The master copy was seized by Israeli forces duringthe 1982 invasion of Lebanon, but was recovered and re-issued in March 2024.[85]
Israeli-American composerTamar Muskal incorporated Darwish's "I Am From There" into her composition "The Yellow Wind," which combines a full orchestra, Arabic flute, Arabic and Israeli poetry, and themes fromDavid Grossman's bookThe Yellow Wind.[86]
In 2002, Swiss composerKlaus Huber completed a large work entitled "Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen...", achamber music concerto for cello, baritone and countertenor that incorporates Darwish's "TheSoul Must Descend from its Mount and Walk on its Silken Feet."[87]
In 2009 Egin, a patchanka band from Italy, published a song setting the poem "Identity Card" to music.
In 2011, the Syrian composerHassan Taha created the musical play "The Dice Player", based on the poems and lyrics of Mahmoud Darwish. Their premiere took place at the experimental Center for Contemporary Music Gare du Nord in Basel, Switzerland.[90]
In 2014, Finnish composerKaija Saariaho set Darwish's poem "The Last Train Has Left" (from the collectionFewer Roses) within her work for baritone and orchestraTrue Fire,[91] "a profound, important work" according to theL.A. Times.[92]
Inspired by the attempted suppression ofKhalife's composition "I am Yusuf, oh my father," the Norwegian singer-songwriterModdi composed a fresh melody to the poem. The song is titled "Oh my father, I am Joseph," from his 2015 albumUnsongs.
In 2016, his poem "We Were Without a Present" served as the basis for the central song, "Ya Reit" by Palestinian rapperTamer Nafar in the film "Junction 48".[93] Additionally, one of his poems was read as part of Nafar's speech during theOphir Awards.[94]
In 2017, his poem "Think of Others" was set to music by a South African artist and 11-year-old Palestinian youth activist,Janna Jihad Ayyad.
In 2008 Darwish starred in the five-screen filmid – Identity of the Soul from Arts Alliance Productions, in which he narrates his poem "A Soldier Dreams of White Lilies" along withIbsen's poem "Terje Vigen."Id was his final performance. It premiered in Palestine in October 2008, with audiences of tens of thousands. In 2010, the film was continuing an international screening tour.
Hiya ughniyah, hiya ughniyah (It's a song, it's a song), 1985
Sand and Other Poems, 1986
Ward aqall (Fewer roses), 1986
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
Limadha tarakt al-hissan wahidan (Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?), 1995. English translation 2006 by Jeffrey Sacks (Archipelago Books) (ISBN0-9763950-1-0)
Psalms, 1995. A selection fromUhibbuki aw la uhibbuki, translation by Ben Bennani
Sareer al-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, 2000 (Syracuse University Press and Jusoor) (edited by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forche)
Halat Hissar (State of siege), 2002
Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems, 2003. Translations by Munir Akash, Caroyln Forché and others
La ta'tazer 'amma fa'alta (Don't apologize for what you did), 2004
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 (Almond blossoms and beyond), 2005
^Azar, George Baramki (1991).Palestine: A photographic journey. University of California Press. p. 125.ISBN978-0-520-07544-3.He was born in al-Birwa, a village east of Acre, in 1941. In 1948 his family fled to Lebanon to escape the fighting between the Arab and Israeli armies. When they returned to their village, they found it had been razed by Israeli troops.
^Mattar, Philip (2005).Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Facts on File. p. 115.ISBN0-8160-5764-8.al-Birwa...had been razed by the Israeli army
^Taha, Ibrahim (2002).The Palestinian Novel: a communication study. Routledge. p. 6.ISBN978-0-7007-1271-7.al-Birwa (the village where the well-known Mahmud Darwish was born), which was destroyed by the Israeli army in 1948.
^Cook, Jonathan (21 August 2008)."A poet for the people".New Statesman.Archived from the original on 25 August 2008. Retrieved20 August 2012.
^Wedde, Ian and Tuqan, Fawwaz (introduction and translation),Selected Poems: Mahmoud Darwish. Cheshire: Carcanet Press, 1973, p. 24.
^abMattawa, Khaled (2014).Mahmoud Darwish: the poet's art and his nation (1st ed.). Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.ISBN978-0-8156-5273-1.OCLC881430503.
^Butt, Aviva (2012). "Mahmud Darwish, Mysticism and Qasidat al-Raml [The Poem of the Sand]".Poets from a War Torn World. Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. pp. 8–15.
^Mattawa, Khaled (2014).Mahmoud Darwish: the poet's art and his nation. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. pp. 3, 5, 10, 35.ISBN978-0-8156-3361-7.
^"Three winners of Mahmoud Darwish prize announced". 13 March 2017....the winners who included Maher Sharif, a leftist Palestinian historian, Salwa Baker, an Egyptian novelist and critic, and Suzanna Arundhati Roy, an Indian writer and activist.
"Marcel Khalife.com". Retrieved10 August 2008.{{cite web}}:|archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) Oh My Father, I am Yusif
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