Mahmoud Darwish

Jeremy Campbell

Considered by many to be the greatest living poet in the Arabic language, Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1942 in the village of Birwa in Galilee. In 1948, the ethnically Palestinian Darwish family left their hometown after the area was declared part of the new state of Israel, and settled in a town called Dayru I-Assad in the Golan Heights. Over the ensuing years, Mahmoud was subject to several house arrests and prison sentences for his nettlesome political activism. His poetry is reflective of the struggles he "and my wayward countrymen" encountered living under occupation during this time. In 1970, Darwish spent one year of study at a university in Moscow, and made the decision to not return to his homeland. He spent the next twenty-six years living a politically and poetically active life in Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Paris; he finally returned to his native land for a visit in 1996. It was then that the poet paid a visit to his hometown, telling reporters that he has forgotten what the long absence did to his soul: "As long as my soul is alive, no one can smother my feeling of nostalgia to a country which I still consider as Palestine."

An opponent of the Oslo peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel, Darwish has repeatedly rejected several posts offered to him by the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Although Darwish has in effect retired from public life, recently his work sent a wave of controversy through the Israeli Knesset, which debated the placement of Darwish on the syllabi of high school literature classes. One Labor Party representative said, "Though I'm sure Darwish's poetry is technically brilliant and aesthetically pleasing, this is a matter of national security." The federal government controls all schooling in the state of Israel, and although curriculum issues are not often raised in parliament, the grave nature of Darwish's art demanded further scrutiny. Darwish has been described as a national hero and as a blatant ant-Semite, enjoying various titles in-between, depending on the speaker. Hardly a reclusive writer, Mahmoud managed to make several enemies as director of The Palestinian Center for Research, editor of Shu'oon Falasteeniyyah (Palestinian Affairs Magazine), head of The General Association of Palestinian Writers and Journalists, editor of Al-Karmil Magazine of the GAPWJ, and a member of The Executive Committee of the PLO (resigning in 1993). The Knesset decided to not allow the teaching of Darwish's works, claiming that "the youth of our nation, due to prevailing attitudes and sensibilities, must be deemed unprepared for the literature of Mr. Darwish."

Darwish's poems are mostly composed of plain words and a simple style. Despite their seeming banality (undoubtedly an artifact of translation), his words are profoundly felt. "I am From There" and "Identity Card," both written in the late 1980s as more violence seemed inevitable, are featured here. Far from Tel-Aviv or the West Bank, we are able to see both sides of the story, to read the words on either side of the sheet.

Darwish currently lives in Ramallah, ten miles north of Jerusalem in Palestinian territory.

Interested in what he has to say? We have two of his poems right here...