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''A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare. Poetry is perhaps what teaches us to nurture the charming illusion: how to be reborn out of ourselves over and over again, and use words to construct a better world, a fictitious world that enables us to sign a pact for a permanent and comprehensive peace ... with life.''
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| Iconic Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died in a Houston hospital on 9 August 2008 following heart surgery. He was 67. President Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of national mourning and he will be honoured with a state funeral in Ramallah. Darwish published around 30 collections of poetry and prose, which have been translated into 35 languages. His poetry encapsulated the Palestinian cause. His first, Leaves of Olives, was published 1964 when he was 22. Other works include The Adam of Two Eves, Why Have You Left the Horse Alone and Eleven Planets. The University of California Press published his prose work Memory For Forgetfulness. In 2000 he published Jidariyya (Mural), a book consisting of one poem about his near-death experience following heart surgery in 1997. Jidariyya is being performed by the Palestinian National Theatre at the Edinburgh International Festival this month. As well as being a poet, Darwish was a prominent journalist and edited the literary review Al Karmel. He was Director of the Palestinian Research Centre and was a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO from 1987-1993. |
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