Annie Patton: Background Page
Before crossing into spiritually discovering Mahmoud Darwish, it would behoove us to first define those physical (and most often political) boundaries in which he transcended. Understanding the context and the landscape of his exile will further embolden his work, and for us, embolden respect and humility. Throughout his life, as evident in the reoccurring themes of his poetry, Darwish grappled with his surroundings because he could not control them as much as they defined and confined him. We must note what these places and conflicts are to prepare you for the rest of the project.
Darwish's life is rich in history, as he was born into and lived, as an exiled Palestinian, during the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the 1940s-1980s. This is, even today, a conflict yet unresolved. Rooted in ancient history and religion, the war between the two countries--two religions--comes down to owning holy land. In the last century, several hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed in the first two Israeli occupations of Palestine because of Israel's claim-to-land, and more importantly, Israel's powerful military forces. Al-Birwa was one of these villages and the home of Mahmoud Darwish. Darwish was just 6 years old when he and his family, among several other people in many regions , were first displaced from their home in 1948, the year of the first Israeli Occupation. After this, his family would return to ruins, and Darwish's life would never be the same. Palestinians were stripped of their rights, their homes, and their identities and dressed with the heavy, suffocating cloak of diaspora.
Darwish was banned from his homeland, or what was shortly referred to as Isreali territory, more than once. After joining the Palestinian Liberation Organization in 1973, Darwish worked for and contributed to an executive council that fought for the recognition of Palestinian rights. This led to Israel banning him from his right to return "home" (not that he had the right to begin with, nor did he have a home to actually return to) and ultimately, it led to his second exile ten years later, amidst the Lebanese Civil War.
Darwish passionately survived through a political climate that shaped him, eroded him. He lost family, friends, colleagues, and a country to the prejudices of war. But he never put his pen down--he was survived because he wrote, and his people survived too. Nothing physical could stop him from writing because his spirit could not be contained.