Another Great Loss...
Mahmoud Darwish, one of my favorite Arab (Palestinian) poets died today. A man whose poetry followed me everywhere...
Another great loss for the Arabs.
And we are left with the junk of American globalization, the unending crimes of a New World order and a continuous hemorrhaging Arab world following a forced biceps delivery...
I leave you with one of his poems...
I come from There,
I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.
I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother,
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood,
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up,
To make a single word: Homeland....
And those who just stood and watched, will face a similar day, when they will say - I came from There, once, a long time ago...
PS: For more from Mahmoud Darwish, click here.
Painting : Iraqi female artist, Widad Al-Orfali.
Another great loss for the Arabs.
And we are left with the junk of American globalization, the unending crimes of a New World order and a continuous hemorrhaging Arab world following a forced biceps delivery...
I leave you with one of his poems...
I come from There,
I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.
I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother,
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood,
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up,
To make a single word: Homeland....
And those who just stood and watched, will face a similar day, when they will say - I came from There, once, a long time ago...
PS: For more from Mahmoud Darwish, click here.
Painting : Iraqi female artist, Widad Al-Orfali.
Comments
It's the masses, the whole Arab body, that should stop standing watching.
It might take a unifying leader, though...
Well am looking forward for more Poets to become as good as him.
Oh my father, I am Yusuf
Oh father, my brothers neither love me nor want me in their midst
They assault me and cast stones and words at me
They want me to die so they can eulogize me
They closed the door of your house and left me outside
They expelled me from the field
Oh my father, they poisoned my grapes
They destroyed my toys
When the gentle wind played with my hair, they were jealous
They flamed up with rage against me and you
What did I deprive them of, Oh my father?
The butterflies stopped on my shoulder
The bird hovered over my hand
What have I done, Oh my father?
Why me?
You named me Yusuf and they threw me into the well
They accused the wolf
The wolf is more merciful than my brothers
Oh, my father
Did I wrong anyone when I said that
I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon
Saw them kneeling before me?
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very astutely observed layla and well linked to the poem in hand
I still can't believe he died.
Well am looking forward for more Poets to become as good as him.
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well u seem to have gotten over your grief pretty quickly....anyway poets like this don't just come n go....it takes 100s of years for a poet of this calibre to come to the fore.....you'll be lucky to get even a poet a tenth as good as him in your lifetime
I want my cat back.
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fuck off
Layla, do you believe we will get to see Baghdad or Al Quds or both liberated in our lifetimes ?
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if u want my opinion, it will be close, i think it will abt 40-60yrs before it is truly liberated so depending how old u r u cud end up missing it
How do you keep up with art, music, poetry, the news? Your English is great. You are something special, aren't you? (I do mean that.)
Where do you get all your art from?
On a serious note, what's the connection between you and a Palestinian poet?
In your earliest posts, you sounded more like a "No Bush, No Saddam" style average garden variety "anti-war" person.
Maybe after all you just respect the way he died but aren't really passionate of the man as people think you are, isn't that so ?
Hi and good to "see" you again.
Great poetry by Darwish, I agree.
How is the music going ?
I agree with you...it does take the masses and a unifying force.
you choose to see it that way. I saw the painting as something different. I saw a bare olive tree with abandoned palm trees in the horizon...
Salam, my condoleances...
A great loss, today is his burial. I doubt that the upcoming Barghouti will ever match him, I doubt anyone will...for a long long time...I do agree with IBM, it takes another 100 years..
GREAT POEM - thank you.
I did not receive any of your mails...re-send please.
Take care JR and don't disappear.
not short of a miracle...
Thank you for the compliment. I am flattered. But no I don't think am anything particularly special...
Art, music, poetry is what polishes the rough edges of our human condition...
Which brings me to my connection to a Palestinian poet - How can you not see the connection ?
your perception is not correct.
I did say in one post that Iraq was too close to my heart for me to write about in the earliest posts. - read the language of open wounds post.
And I never said
" No to Saddam, no to Bush."
These are the anti war clowns and am no clown...History laughs at clowns...
The Iraqi govt should have continued the trial and reviewed more evidence of crimes against the Kurds. But executing Saddam was justice served. Some people think he didn't suffer enough.
"i don't think am anything particularly special"
I do :-)
IBM,
GREAT POEM - thank you.
I did not receive any of your mails...re-send please.
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emails weren't really that important....was just asking where u were
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u 2 layla.....and i won't...just had a lot on my mind
and nice iraqi painintg