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Mahmoud Darwish Quotes

1941–2008 Palestine

Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was widely regarded as Palestine's national poet.

Palestine
Poets

Random Mahmoud Darwish quote

14 quotes

If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oils would become tears.

The sea is the obsession of the poet, because the first poetic rhythm, or the first sense of poetic rhythm, was born of the motion of the waves.

And when you think of others, far away, think of yourself
And say: I am a candle in the darkness.

And when you return home – to your house – think upon others
Such as those who live in tents.

When you fall asleep counting planets, think upon others
Who cannot find a place to sleep.

When you engage in your wars, think upon others
Do not forget those who demand peace.

I have the wisdom of one condemned to death:
I own nothing for anything to own me

English translation from Fady Joudah's The Butterfly's Burden (2007)

Only culture is a guarantee of true peace.

I am a son of all the cultures that have passed through the land—the Greek, the Roman, the Persian, the Jewish, the Ottoman. A presence that exists at the very core of my language.

I don't know what I want. Exile is so strong within me I may bring it to the land.

I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet.

What is a homeland? It is a place that enables people to blossom, and not a place in which people serve the flag. In my poem, Cease-fire with the Mongolians, I say that I am going to make socks out of the flag. My life's work is not on behalf of a flag.

This wording found in Mahmoud Darwish: Literature and the Politics of Palestinian Identity (2016)

In my last book I said: “I have one dream: to find a dream.” A dream is a piece of the sky found in everyone. We can’t be boundlessly realistic or pragmatic. We are in need of the sky.

I encouraged the leadership in its time of weakness. Now that they are strong, I'm allowed not to applaud. If a Palestinian state is established, I will be in the opposition. That's my natural place.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Mahmoud Darwish (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.