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Re-creation of Mahmoud Darwish's' writing-room, Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
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#Israel | Lieberman compara la obra del poeta palestino #Darwish con el #MeinKampf de Hitler: image via EP Internacional Verified account, 21 July 2016
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Reading to #Darwish before bed is a must #my poet: image via MK @Bentkayed, 13 July 2016
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Israeli Leaders Rage over Palestinian Poem #IsraeliRegime #Palestine #Darwish: image via Alwaght @EnglishAlwaght, 21 July 2016
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Re-creation of Mahmoud Darwish's' writing-room, Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah(detail)]: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
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Mahmoud Darwish, 1941-2008. In yet another sign of fascism, Lieberman likens Mahmoud Darwish to . . . Hitler: photo via Mondoweiss, 22 July 2016
Mahmoud Darwish: photo by Dar Al Hayat, n.d.; image edit by AnomalousNYC, 11 August 2008
And the number of my card is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is due after summer.
What's there to be angry about?
Put it on record.I am an Arab
Working with comrades of toil in a quarry.
I have eight children
For them I wrest the loaf of bread,
The clothes and exercise books
From the rocks
And beg for no alms at your door,Lower not myself at your doorstep.
What's there to be angry about?
Put it on record.I am an Arab.
My roots
Took hold before the birth of time
Before the burgeoning of the ages,
Before cypress and olive trees,
Before the proliferation of weeds.
My father is from the family of the plough
Not from highborn nobles.
And my grandfather was a peasantWithout line or genealogy.
My house is a watchman's hut
Made of sticks and reeds.
Does my status satisfy you?I am a name without a surname.
I am an Arab.
Color of hair: jet black.
Color of eyes: brown.
My distinguishing features:
On my head the 'iqal cords over a keffiyeh
Scratching him who touches it.
My address:I'm from a village, remote, forgotten,
Its streets without name
And all its men in the fields and quarry.
What's there to be angry about?
Put it on record.
I am an Arab.
You stole my forefathers' vineyardsAnd land I used to till,
I and all my children,
And you left us and all my grandchildren
Nothing but these rocks.
Will your government be taking them too
As is being said?
Put it on record at the top of page one:
I don't hate people,
I trespass on no one's property.
And yet, if I were to become hungry
I shall eat the flesh of my usurper.
Beware, beware of my hunger
And of my anger!
Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941-9 August 2008): Identity Card, from Leaves of Olives, 1964; English translation by Denys Johnson-Davies
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Israel’s defense minister compares Palestinian’s poetry to Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’: William Booth, Jerusalem bureau chief, The Washington Post, 22 July 2016
Jerusalem this week is debating the lines of a dead Palestinian poet, his words again at the forefront of what is acceptable and not in Israel.
On Thursday, Israel’s new bombastic defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, blasted Army Radio -- a sort of Israeli NPR -- for discussing on its “University on the Air” program the works of poet Mahmoud Darwish, who died in 2008.
Lieberman compared the station’s airing of the poem to the "glorification of the literary marvels of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf.'"
Though he toiled for a time as a bar bouncer in Moldova before immigrating from the Soviet satellite to Israel, Lieberman was a student of Russian literature, the son of a dissident writer, who dreamed as a young man of being a poet himself, according to his biographers.
Israeli media reported that Lieberman brought Army Radio chief Yaron Dekel into a meeting for a dressing-down. Israel’s attorney general told Lieberman to back off.Darwish was regarded as one of Palestinians' national poets. His works are taught in Israeli high school classes.
The new defense minister was especially upset about the last lines of Darwish's 1964 poem, “ID Card”.
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Put it on record.
........I am an Arab
And the number of my card is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is due after summer.
What's there to be angry about?
Put it on record.
Working with comrades of toil in a quarry.
I have eight children
For them I wrest the loaf of bread,
The clothes and exercise books
From the rocks
And beg for no alms at your door,
What's there to be angry about?
Put it on record.
I am a name without a title,
Patient in a country where everything
Lives in a whirlpool of anger.
Patient in a country where everything
Lives in a whirlpool of anger.
Took hold before the birth of time
Before the burgeoning of the ages,
Before cypress and olive trees,
Before the proliferation of weeds.
My father is from the family of the plough
And my grandfather was a peasant
My house is a watchman's hut
Does my status satisfy you?
Put it on record.
Color of hair: jet black.
Color of eyes: brown.
My distinguishing features:
Scratching him who touches it.
My address:
Its streets without name
And all its men in the fields and quarry.
Put it on record.
You stole my forefathers' vineyards
I and all my children,
And you left us and all my grandchildren
Nothing but these rocks.
Will your government be taking them too
As is being said?
So!
I don't hate people,
I trespass on no one's property.
And yet, if I were to become hungry
Beware, beware of my hunger
And of my anger!
Mahmoud Darwish (13 March 1941-9 August 2008): Identity Card, from Leaves of Olives, 1964; English translation by Denys Johnson-Davies
#Israeli Radio Chief Summoned on ‘Controversial’ Programme on #Darwish via @PalestineChron: image via Palestine Chronicle @PalestineChron, 21 July 2016
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman pictured just outside Jerusalem in June: photo by Abir Sultan/AP via The Washington Post, 23 July 2016
Jerusalem this week is debating the lines of a dead Palestinian poet, his words again at the forefront of what is acceptable and not in Israel.
On Thursday, Israel’s new bombastic defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, blasted Army Radio -- a sort of Israeli NPR -- for discussing on its “University on the Air” program the works of poet Mahmoud Darwish, who died in 2008.
Lieberman compared the station’s airing of the poem to the "glorification of the literary marvels of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf.'"
Though he toiled for a time as a bar bouncer in Moldova before immigrating from the Soviet satellite to Israel, Lieberman was a student of Russian literature, the son of a dissident writer, who dreamed as a young man of being a poet himself, according to his biographers.
Israeli media reported that Lieberman brought Army Radio chief Yaron Dekel into a meeting for a dressing-down. Israel’s attorney general told Lieberman to back off.Darwish was regarded as one of Palestinians' national poets. His works are taught in Israeli high school classes.
The new defense minister was especially upset about the last lines of Darwish's 1964 poem, “ID Card”.
The boarding pass for Darwish's last flight to Houston where he would die in hospital, exhibited at Darwish Museum, Ramallah: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
Mahmoud Darwish's passport: photographer unknown, image via Mahmoud Darwish Foundation
Darwish’s writing room, reassembled at Darwish Museum, Ramallah, with his watch, glasses and collection of fountain-pens (Pelikan and Montblanc): photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris, via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
Re-creation of Mahmoud Darwish's' writing-room, Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
#Israel | Lieberman compara la obra del poeta palestino #Darwish con el #MeinKampf de Hitler: image via EP Internacional Verified account, 21 July 2016
Mahmoud Darwish wall graffiti, Ramallah, Palestine: photo by outside the bubble, 1 May 2009
Reading to #Darwish before bed is a must #my poet: image via MK @Bentkayed, 13 July 2016
Israeli Leaders Rage over Palestinian Poem #IsraeliRegime #Palestine #Darwish: image via Alwaght @EnglishAlwaght, 21 July 2016
record #1: wall texture
Darwish’s writing room, reassembled at Darwish Museum, Ramallah, with his watch, glasses and collection of fountain-pens (Pelikan and Montblanc) (detail): photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
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Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
record #2: documentation and shadow
Re-creation of Mahmoud Darwish's' writing-room, Mahmoud Darwish Museum, Ramallah(detail)]: photo by Nicole Peyrefitte and Pierre Joris via Nomadics, 22 April 2015
Mahmoud Darwish, 1941-2008. In yet another sign of fascism, Lieberman likens Mahmoud Darwish to . . . Hitler: photo via Mondoweiss, 22 July 2016