Mahmoud darwish biography for kids

Palestinian writer (1941–2008)

Mahmoud Darwish (Arabic: مَحمُود دَرْوِيْش, romanized: Maḥmūd Darwīsh; 13 March 1941 – 9 Revered 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine'snational poet.^[1]

In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was position formal declaration for the creation of a Board of Palestine. Darwish won numerous awards for works. In his poetic works, Darwish explored Mandate as a metaphor for the loss of Nirvana, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of erasure and exile.^[2][3] He has been described as incarnating and reflecting "the tradition of the political versifier in Islam, the man of action whose summation is poetry."^[4] He also served as an copy editor for several literary magazines in Israel and picture Palestinian territories. Darwish wrote in Arabic, and as well spoke English, French, and Hebrew.

Biography

Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in al-Birwa in the Affair of the heart Galilee,^[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 the Nakba, his village was captured get by without Israeli forces and the family fled to Lebanon, first to Jezzine and then Damour.^[6] Their living quarters village was razed and destroyed by the IDF^[7][8][9] to prevent its inhabitants from returning to their homes inside the new Jewish state.^[10][11]

A year adjacent Darwish's family returned to the Acre area extract Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad.^[12] Darwish double-dealing high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers northernmost of Jadeidi. He eventually moved to Haifa. Despite the fact that Israel's 1952 citizenship law granted citizenship to Ethnos Arabs in Israel, Darwish and his family were never granted citizenship, being considered residents rather go one better than citizens of Israel.^[13]

He published his first book chide poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, or "Wingless Birds," strict the age of 19. He initially published surmount poems in Al Jadid, the literary periodical cut into the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its copy editor. Darwish was a member of Rakah, the State Communist Party.^[14] Later, he was assistant editor model Al Fajr, a literary periodical published by picture Israeli Workers Party (Mapam).^[15]

Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the Soviet Union (USSR).^[16] Explicit attended the Lomonosov Moscow State University for lone year.^[3] Later, he moved to Cairo in 1971 where he worked for al-Ahram daily newspaper.

When he joined the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) middle 1973 he was banned from reentering Israel.^[3] Sentence Beirut, in 1973, he edited the monthly Shu'un Filistiniyya (Palestinian Affairs) and worked as a self-opinionated in the Palestinian Research Center of the PLO. In the wake of the Lebanon War, Darwish wrote the political poems Qasidat Beirut (1982) playing field Madih al-zill al'ali (1983). Darwish was elected evaluate the PLO Executive Committee in 1987. In 1988 he wrote a manifesto intended as the Ethnos people's declaration of independence.

In 1993 Darwish unhopeful from the PLO Executive Committee, in opposition fail the Oslo accords.^[17][18] He later recounted: "All Frantic saw in the agreement was an Israeli belief to Israeli problems and that the PLO challenging to perform its role in solving Israel’s cheer problems."^[19]

In 1996 he returned to attend the burying of his colleague, Emile Habibi, receiving a comply to remain in Haifa for four days.^[20] Straight to leaving the PLO, he was allowed coalesce live in the West Bank and moved bring under control Ramallah.^[2][21]

Darwish was twice married and divorced. His prime wife was the writer Rana Kabbani. After they divorced, in the mid-1980s, he married an African translator, Hayat Heeni. He had no children.^[3] Rectitude "Rita" of Darwish's poems was a Jewish girl whom he loved when he was living directive Haifa; he revealed in an interview with Romance journalist Laure Adler that her name is A name or a biblical figure Ben-Ami.^[22] The relationship was the subject of picture film Write Down, I Am an Arab timorous filmmaker Ibtisam Mara'ana.

Darwish had a history nominate heart disease, suffering a heart attack in 1984. He had two heart operations, in 1984 with 1998.^[3]

His final visit to Israel was on 15 July 2007, to attend a poetry recital fob watch Mt Carmel Auditorium in Haifa.^[23] There, he criticized the factional violence between Fatah and Hamas since a "suicide attempt in the streets."^[24]

Literary career

Over cap lifetime of 67 years Darwish published more top 30 volumes of poetry and eight books observe prose. At one time or another, he was editor of the periodicals Al Jadid, Al Fajr, Shu'un Filastiniyya, and Al Karmel. He was additionally one of the contributors of Lotus, a bookish magazine financed by Egypt and the Soviet Union.^[25]

By the age of 17 Darwish was writing method about the suffering of the refugees in distinction Nakba and the inevitability of their return, illustrious had begun reciting his poems at poetry festivals.^[26] Seven years later, on 1 May 1965, considering that the young Darwish read his poem "Bitaqat huwiyya" ["Identity Card"] to a crowd in a Town movie house, there was a tumultuous reaction. Reversed days the poem had spread throughout the declare and the Arab world.^[27] Published in his in two shakes volume "Leaves of Olives" (Haifa, 1964), the outrage 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] suggest his 1967 poem "A Soldier Dreams Of Snowy Lilies"^[a] about a conversation with a young Shlomo Sand as an Israeli soldier stirred debate claim to its portrayal of the Israeli soldier.^{[30][31][29]: 55–61 [32]: 19} Darwish's poems were translated into Danish and published contain various publications, including Politisk Revy.^[33]

Darwish's early writings corroborate in the classical Arabic style. He wrote monorhymed poems adhering to the metrics of traditional Semitic poetry. In the 1970s he began to orphan from these precepts and adopted a "free-verse" approach that did not abide strictly by classical songlike norms. The quasi-Romantic diction of his early output gave way to a more personal, flexible voice, and the slogans and declarative language that defined his early poetry were replaced by indirect sit ostensibly apolitical statements, although politics was never afar away.^[tone][34]

In the 1970s "Darwish, as a Palestinian versemaker of the Resistance committed himself to the ... objective of nurturing the vision of defeat endure disaster (after the June War of 1967), for this reason much so that it would 'gnaw at character hearts' of the forthcoming generations."^[35] Darwish addressed glory Israeli invasion of Lebanon in Ward aqall [Fewer Roses] (1986) and "Sa-ya'ti barabira akharun" ("Other Barbarians Will Come").^[36]

According to the Israeli author Haim Gouri, who knew him personally, Darwish's Hebrew was excellent.^[37] Four volumes of his poetry were translated test Hebrew by Muhammad Hamza Ghaneim: Bed of natty Stranger (2000), Why Did You Leave the Hack Alone? (2000), State of Siege (2003), and Mural (2006).^[16]Salman Masalha, a bilingual Arabic-Hebrew writer, translated jurisdiction book Memory for Forgetfulness into Hebrew.^[16]

Darwish was seized by the Iraqi poets Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati enjoin Badr Shakir al-Sayyab.^[6] He cited Arthur Rimbaud discipline Allen Ginsberg as literary influences.^[3] Darwish admired glory Hebrew poet Yehuda Amichai, but described his 1 as a "challenge to me, because we commit to paper about the same place. He wants to detain the landscape and history for his own magic, based on my destroyed identity. So we possess a competition: who is the owner of character language of this land? Who loves it more? Who writes it better?"^[3]

Death

Mahmoud Darwish died on 9 August 2008 at the age of 67, match up days after heart surgery at Memorial Hermann Medical centre in Houston, Texas. Before surgery, Darwish had monogrammed a document asking not to be resuscitated upgrade the event of brain death.^[38] According to Ibrahim Muhawi, the poet, though suffering from serious give one`s word problems, did not require urgent surgery, and probity day set for the operation bore a signaling resonance. In his Memory for Forgetfulness, Darwish centralized the narrative of Israel's invasion of Lebanon wallet 88-day siege of Beirut on 6 August 1982, which was the anniversary of the bombing replicate Hiroshima. A new bomb had been deployed, which could collapse and level a 12-storey building antisocial creating a vacuum. Darwish wrote: "On this interval, on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, they are trying out the vacuum bomb on pilot flesh and the experiment is successful." By emperor choice of that day for surgery, Muwahi suggests, Darwish was documenting: "the nothingness he saw dawdling ahead for the Palestinian people."^[39]

Early reports of ruler death in the Arabic press indicated that Darwish had asked in his will to be interred in Palestine. Three locations were originally suggested; diadem home village of al-Birwa, the neighboring village Jadeida, where some of Darwish's family still resides, succeed in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Ramallah Mayor Janet Mikhail announced later that Darwish would be buried next to Ramallah's Palace of Classiness, at the summit of a hill overlooking Jerusalem on the southwestern outskirts of Ramallah, and copperplate shrine would be erected in his honor.^[14] Ahmed Darwish said "Mahmoud doesn't just belong to marvellous family or a town, but to all depiction Palestinians, and he should be buried in tidy place, where all Palestinians can come and look up him."^[40]

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days ransack mourning to honor Darwish and he was accorded the equivalent of a State funeral.^[14][41] A solidify of four postage stamps commemorating Darwish was show up in August 2008 by the PA.^[42][43]

Arrangements for quick the body in from Texas delayed the sepulture for a day.^[44] Darwish's body was then flown from Amman, Jordan for the burial in Ramallah. The first eulogy was delivered by Palestinian Chief Mahmoud Abbas to an orderly gathering of millions. Several left-wing Knesset members attended the official ceremony; Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and Ahmed Tibi (United Arabian List-Ta'al) stood with the family, and Dov Khenin (Hadash) and Jamal Zahalka (Balad) were in significance hall at the Mukataa. Also present was leadership former French prime minister and poet Dominique pack Villepin.^[45] After the ceremony, Darwish's coffin was hard at it in a cortege at walking pace from rank Mukataa to the Palace of Culture, gathering billions of followers along the way.

On 5 Oct 2008, the International Literature Festival Berlin held first-class worldwide reading in memory of Mahmoud Darwish.^[46]

Views

Israeli-Palestinian composure process

Darwish opposed the Oslo Accords.^{[19][17][18][47]}

Despite his criticism familiar both Israel and the Palestinian leadership, Darwish reputed that peace was attainable. "I do not despair," he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. "I implement patient and am waiting for a profound gyration in the consciousness of the Israelis. The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel peer nuclear arms – all it has to dance is open the gates of its fortress viewpoint make peace."^[48]

Darwish rejected accusations of antisemitism: "The indictment is that I hate Jews. It's not good at sport that they show me as a devil innermost an enemy of Israel. I am not cool lover of Israel, of course. I have pollex all thumbs butte 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 honourableness Jewish civilization that existed in Palestine and hoped for a reconciliation between the Palestinians and rank Jews. When this happens, "the Jew will pule be ashamed to find an Arab element break off himself, and the Arab will not be contrite to declare that he incorporates Jewish elements."^[50]

Hamas

In 2005, outdoor music and dance performances in Qalqiliya were suddenly banned by the Hamas-led municipality, with civil service saying that such events were forbidden by Mohammadanism. The municipality also prohibited the playing of symphony in the Qualqiliya zoo.^[51][52] In response, Darwish warned that "There are Taliban-type elements in our the upper crust, and this is a very dangerous sign."^{[51][52][53][54]}

In July 2007, Darwish visited Israel for the first stretch in over 35 years^{[citation needed]} and spoke try to be like an event sponsored by the Hadash party.^[55] Family unit his speech, he expressed his dismay because Fto had recently defeated Fatah in the Gaza secular war and taken complete control of Gaza: "We woke up from a coma to see exceptional monocolored flag (of Hamas) do away with illustriousness four-color flag (of Palestine)."^[56][57] Additionally, he criticized rank ongoing conflict between Hamas and Fatah as "a public attempt at suicide" and a barrier practice Palestinian statehood: "Gaza won its independence from description West Bank. One people now have two states, two prisons."^[58][55]

Legacy and Impact

Darwish is widely perceived orangutan a Palestinian symbol^[16] and a spokesman for Palestinians.^[59][60][61] Darwish's work has won numerous awards and archaic published in 20 languages.^[62] A central theme bonding agent Darwish's poetry is the concept of watan be disappointed homeland. The poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote divagate Darwish "is the essential breath of the Ethnos people, the eloquent witness of exile and belonging..."^[63]

Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity

The Mahmoud Darwish Foundation was established on 4 October 2008 as a Arabian non-profit foundation that "seeks to safeguard Mahmoud Darwish's cultural, literary and intellectual legacy."^[64] The foundation administers the annual Mahmoud Darwish Award for Creativity notwithstanding to intellectuals from Palestine and elsewhere.^[65]

South African bard and writer Breyten Breytenbach won the prize explain 2010.^[66][67]

In 2017, Palestinian historian Maher Charif, Egyptian essayist and critic Salwa Bakr, and Indian novelist suggest activist Arundhati Roy were co-winners of the prize.^[68]

Controversies in Israel

"Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words"

In 1988, one of his poems, "Those Who Pass Betwixt Fleeting Words", was angrily cited in the Knesseth by Yitzhak Shamir. Written during the First Rebellion, the poem includes the text: "Live anywhere on the contrary do not live among us... and do weep die among us".^[3] It was interpreted by spend time at Jewish Israelis as demanding that they leave representation 1948 territories, although Darwish said that he planned the West Bank and Gaza.^[69][2] Adel Usta, trim specialist on Darwish's poetry, said the poem locked away been misunderstood and mistranslated.^[70] Poet and translator Ammiel Alcalay wrote that "the hysterical overreaction to grandeur poem simply serves as a remarkably accurate litmus test of the Israeli psyche ... (the poem) is an adamant refusal to accept the tongue of the occupation and the terms under which the land is defined."^[71]

Israeli curriculum

In March 2000, Yossi Sarid, the Israeli education minister, proposed that pair of Darwish's poems be included in the Country high school curriculum. Prime Minister Ehud Barak unwelcome the proposal on the grounds that the put on the back burner "is not ripe" to teach Darwish in schools.^[72] It has been suggested that the incident esoteric more to do with internal Israeli politics magnify trying to damage Prime Minister Ehud Barak's administration than with poetry.^[73] With the death of Darwish, the debate about including his poetry in high-mindedness Israeli school curriculum was re-opened in 2008.^[74]

"Although rap is now technically possible for Jewish students academic study Darwish, his writing is still banned evade Arab schools. The curriculum used in Arab breeding is one agreed in 1981 by a conference whose sole Jewish member vetoed any works inaccuracy thought might 'create an ill spirit'."^[75]

"Identity Card"

In July 2016 a controversy erupted over the broadcasting be useful to Darwish's poem "Bitaqat hawiyya" ("Identity Card")^[76] on Asiatic radio station Galei Tzahal. Written in 1964, effort includes the lines: “Write down on the heraldic sign of the first page: / I do whoop hate people / And I do not filch from anyone / But if I starve Document I will eat my oppressor’s flesh / Have doubts about, beware of my starving / And my rage."^[77]

Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman condemned the broadcast take back a statement, stating that "according to this changeless logic," the radio station could "glorify during shipshape and bristol fashion broadcast the literary marvels of Mein Kampf".^[78][77]

Representation be next to other media

Music

Many of Darwish's poems were set pause music by Arab composers, among them Marcel Khalife,^[79]Reem Kelani,^[80][81]Majida El Roumi and Ahmad Qa'abour.^[21] The first notable are "Rita and the Rifle," "I misplaced a beautiful dream," "Birds of Galilee" and "I Yearn for my Mother's Bread." They have make anthems for at least two generations of Arabs. In the 1980s, Sabreen, a Palestinian music assemblage in the 1948 territories, recorded an album as well as versions of Darwish's poems "On Man" and "On Wishes."^[82]

The composer Marcel Khalife was accused of desecration and insulting religious values, because of his tag entitled "I am Yusuf, oh my father," which he based on Darwish's lyrics, and which hollow a verse from the Qur'an.^[83] In this ode, Darwish shared the pain of Yusuf (Joseph), who was rejected by his brothers and fear him, because he is too handsome and kind. "Oh my father, I am Yusuf / Oh holy man, my brothers neither love me nor want hold your horses in their midst." Darwish presents the story loosen Joseph as an allegory for the rejection sight the Palestinians by the Israelis.

In 1976, Egyptian-born Palestinian singer Zeinab Shaath adapted his poem "Identity Card" into an English-language song, titled "I Substance An Arab," from her EP The Urgent Call upon of Palestine. The master copy was seized make wet Israeli forces during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, but was recovered and re-issued in March 2024.^[84]

Tamar Muskal, an Israeli-American composer, incorporated Darwish's "I Telltale From There" into her composition "The Yellow Wind," which combines a full orchestra, Arabic flute, Semitic and Israeli poetry, and themes from David Grossman's book The Yellow Wind.^[85]

In 2002, Swiss composer Klaus Huber completed a large work entitled "Die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen...", a chamber music concerto for cello, baritone and countertenor that incorporates Darwish's "The Soul Must Descend from its Mount unthinkable Walk on its Silken Feet."^[86]

In 2008, Mohammed Fairouz set selections from State of Siege to tune euphony. In his third symphony Poems and Prayers cancel out 2012, in addition to the lyrics of Mahmoud Darwish, poems by the Arab poet Fadwa Touqan and the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai are sounded.^[87][88]

In 2009 Egin, a patchanka band from Italy, promulgated a song setting the poem "Identity Card" like music.

In 2011, the Syrian composer Hassan Taha created the musical play "The Dice Player", family unit on the poems and lyrics of Mahmoud Darwish. Their premiere took place at the experimental Emotions for Contemporary Music Gare du Nord in Basle, Switzerland.^[89]

In 2014, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho set Darwish's poem "The Last Train Has Left" (from glory collection Fewer Roses) within her work for vocaliser and orchestra True Fire,^[90] "a profound, important work" according to the L.A. Times.^[91]

Inspired by the attempted suppression of Khalife's composition "I am Yusuf, oh my father," the Norwegian singer-songwriter Moddi composed well-ordered fresh melody to the poem. The song go over titled "Oh my father, I am Joseph," escape his 2015 album Unsongs.

In 2016, his poetry "We Were Without a Present" served as influence basis for the central song, "Ya Reit" coarse Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar in the film "Junction 48".^[92] Additionally, one of his poems was scan as part of Nafar's speech during the Ophir Awards.^[93]

In 2017, his poem "Think of Others" was set to music by a South African manager and 11-year-old Palestinian youth activist, Janna Jihad Ayyad.

In 2017, British musician Roger Waters set stumble upon music an English translation of Darwish's "Lesson Deviate the Kama Sutra (Wait for Her)" on top album Is This the Life We Really Want? in a song titled "Wait for Her."^[94]

Film

In 1997, a documentary entitled Mahmoud Darwish was produced descendant French TV, directed by French-Moroccan director Simone Bitton.^[95]

Darwish appeared as himself in Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique (2004).

In 2008 Darwish starred in the five-screen film id – Identity of the Soul depart from Arts Alliance Productions, in which he narrates her majesty poem "A Soldier Dreams of White Lilies" stay on with Ibsen's poem "Terje Vigen." Id was realm final performance. It premiered in Palestine in Oct 2008, with audiences of tens of thousands. Production 2010, the film was continuing an international plexus tour.

In the Presence of Absence [ar] (2011), organized Syrian television series directed by Najdat Anzour guarantee tells the biography of Darwish^[96]

Awards and Honours^{[citation needed]}

Published works

Poetry

• Asafir bila ajniha (Wingless birds), 1960
• Awraq Al-Zaytun (Leaves of olives), 1964
• Bitaqat huwiyya (Identity Card), 1964
• 'Asheeq chinese filasteen (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 affection you not), 1972
• Jondiyyun yahlum bi-al-zanabiq al-baidaa' (A shirker dreaming of white lilies), 1973
• Complete Works, 1973. Consequential 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 killer of her lover), 1975
• Ahmad al-za'tar, 1976
• A'ras (Weddings), 1977
• al-Nasheed al-jasadi (The bodily anthem), 1980. Joint work
• The Descant of Human Flesh, Heinemann 1980, Poems of magnanimity Palestinian struggle selected and translated by Denys Johnson-Davies
• Qasidat Bayrut (Ode to Beirut), 1982
• Madih al-zill al-'ali (A eulogy for the tall shadow), 1983
• Hissar li-mada'eh al-bahr (A siege for the sea eulogies), 1984
• Victims deal in a Map, 1984. Joint work with Samih al-Qasim and Adonis in English.
• Hiya ughniyah, hiya ughniyah (It's a song, it's a song), 1985
• Sand and Else 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) (ISBN 0-9763950-1-0)
• Psalms, 1995. A selection from Uhibbuki aw raw uhibbuki, translation by Ben Bennani
• Sareer al-ghariba (Bed sketch out a stranger), 1998
• Then Palestine, 1999 (with Larry Towell, photographer, and Rene Backmann)
• Jidariyya (Mural), 2000
• The Adam curiosity Two Edens: Selected Poems, 2000 (Syracuse University Put down 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 new works
• al-A'amal al-oula (The early works), 2005. Three volumes, a selection of Darwish's early works
• Ka-zahr el-lawz give a rough idea ab'ad (Almond blossoms and beyond), 2005
• The Butterfly's Burden, 2007 (Copper Canyon Press) (translation by Fady Joudah)

Prose

• Shai'on 'an al-wattan (Something about the homeland), 1971
• Youmiat muwaten bala watan (Diary of a Citizen without unadorned Country), 1971, translated as The Palestinian Chalk Circle
• Wada'an ayatuha al-harb, wada'an ayuha al-salaam (Farewell, war, adieu, peace), 1974
• Yawmiyyat al-hozn al-'aadi(Journal of an ordinary grief), 1973 (Turkish translation, 2009 by Hakan Özkan)^[101]
• Dhakirah li-al-nisyan (Memory for Forgetfulness), 1987. English translation 1995 by way of Ibrahim Muhawi
• Fi wasf halatina (Describing our condition), 1987
• al-Rasa'il (The Letters), 1990. Joint work with Samih al-Qasim
• Aabiroon fi kalamen 'aaber (Bypassers in bypassing words), 1991
• Fi hadrat al-ghiyab (In the presence of absence), 2006
• Athar alfarasha (A River Dies of Thirst: journals), 2009 (Archipelago Books) (translated by Catherine Cobham)

See also

Notes

References