Mahmoud Darwish: The Poet's Art and His Nation

”The [poets of the] defeated must, therefore, create their own myth to ‘resist the myths of power and the powerful, and the songs of the victor that erase him from history’. Defeat can be turned into a source of energy, a way of confronting the fact of one’s existence. Such deep awareness can compel one to keep working, striving, and expressing oneself: ‘I renew myself by acknowledging defeat, and I resist through poetry and language because this area is not defeatable’” (140)This biography was a valuable read for me on many levels. I read it during “Operation Protective Edge”, another one of those terrible euphemistic sell-labels that the Israelis and other militaries use for their bloody actions to try to mask mass murder in the name of self-defense. Nearly 2,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli invasion, at least 75% civilians. Over 458 Palestinian children murdered. All the usual lies used to sell the war on the Israeli side, but the asymmetry is clear. 63 Israeli soldiers killed. 3 civilians. All after the invasion of illegally occupied Gaza. And, even during this truce, there still is Israeli shelling, and still, Palestinians are dying. I just finished reading Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, which covered each portion of the European Zionist colonization and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous peoples of Palestine (this is not saying that there were not indigenous Jews in Palestine, there were, but they were only 5% of the population in the late 1800’s, and lived in peace with the Palestinian Christians and Muslims, it was only the secular nationalist movement of Zionism that disturbed that peace), and reading this biography soon after was definitely beneficial, and there was great benefit in the author’s organization of phases in Darwish’s life, as they were largely patterned on phases in Palestinian history and resistance. And even now, as so many die, all of the questions Darwish wrestled with remain painfully relevant. But I feel that, even in defeat, all of us who can raise our voices with the spirits of the murdered, the dispossessed, the exploited, the oppressed, in Palestine and throughout the world, that we must fight still in language and poetry for our voices, and the hearts that give them fire, they are undefeatable.The biography only has excerpts from poems, and though many of them are powerful excerpts, as a reader you invariably long for more. This does not, in my opinion, detract from the book, but it does leave you hungry for more. This is true, especially, for poems like “The Speech of the Red Indian”, which is an extremely powerful poem. The parallels and connections between the treatment of Palestinians and Indians are many, and are based on actual historical precedent, as the "founding fathers" of Israel planned to do to the Palestinians as the white man had done to the Indians in America, and said so explicitly.One ethnic cleansing inspired another.It is a long poem, but worth reading. [...]....One of his early poems on loyal and unconditional love for the land his people were robbed of has these words, and they are beautiful:Your lips are honey, and your handa cup of winefor others…and the silk of your breast, your basil, your deware a comfortable bedfor others.And I am the sleepless one lying by your black walls;I am the sand’s thirst, the shiver of nerves in firesides.Who can shut the door before me?What tyrant, what fiend?I will love your nectareven though it is poured in the cups of others….Mahmoud DarwishThe fact that Darwish was imprisoned or put on house arrest many times for publishing poetry (as other Palestinian writers were for publishing their works) shows the essentially repressive nature of the Zionist vision, which cannot even bear to let the poets' words be free in their occupation. They tried to limit and destroy Arabic literature for decades, especially in the earliest decades following the first great ethic cleansings of Palestine fearing its power.I think, in general, we should ponder this, and when we read, read as freedom fighters. And we should write knowing that words have relevance, even in defeat, our words and hearts can fight on. All of us who have been standing in solidarity with Gaza now, as children are murdered, as innocents are murdered, as humanity is murdered, have been reading voices from Gaza through the Internet, have seen videos and pictures of our brothers and sisters there, and we remember their words and remember their humanity. God willing, the world is waking up.Darwish was always one in solidarity with the oppressed throughout the world, and though he was tied to Palestine and its people, he never gave up this solidarity. And this, I believe, is how we all should be.

Absolutely loved this book. Every Palestinian household should possess this book. It brought Darwish's poetry to life.

Mahmoud Darwish lived much of his life as a Palestinian in Israel, the land where he had been born before it was Israel. He was a poet who tried to live those incompatible realities in and through his poetry. This book examines Darwish's poetry, and ultimately his life, by exploring the different phases of his life in Israel, then as he moved out of Israel and landed in Beirut affiliated with the PLO, then further removed in a later post-PLO phase in Paris, to the final stage in Ramallah. Each stage has distinctive poetry reflecting specific poetic and philosophic aims.This is a book of critical approaches to the poetry (and life and politics) so beware if this is not your cup of tea! My one complaint about this book is the lack of complete poems or the provision of a rationale for why they, or at least longer fragments, are not present. I would have appreciated more of an opportunity to experience Darwish's writing in addition to the poetic and political theory.Naively, I requested this ARC thinking I would receive a "simple" book of poetry. Happily for me, I received a book which explained the purpose behind the poet, the context for it all, without which the poetry would be words on the page. I will provide a selection from an epic from his last phase. The poem is Jidariya (Mural) and, for me, it seems to stand easily on its own.One day I will be what I wish to be,one day I will be an idea, carried by asword to free a wasteland with a book inhand, as if it were rain falling on amountain aching, aching with the grassbursting through its soil, somewherewhere power had not won nor wherejustice had become a fugitive. One day Iwill be what I wish to be...one day I willbe a poet...I am the message and the messenger.I am the tiny addresses and I am the mail.One day I will be what I wish to be.(loc 1694)A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.