DISP: Rethinking Development's Archives

Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems

Translated from Arabic, the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish[1] beautifully depicts his own relationship and understanding of Palestine and what it means to be Palestinian. Darwish uses bountiful imagery tied to the land of Palestine from its figs, olives, and apricots to its birds, meadows, and roses. Each poem is rich with emotion and sheds new light into what human dignity can mean when your land has been taken from you. They are unfailingly raw and honest. In “I Belong There”, Darwish writes: “I have lived on the land long before swords turned man into prey. I belong there… I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: home.” His poetry shows how dignity encompasses many things - love, resistance, pride, and dreams.

Darwish, Mahmoud, Munir Akash, Carolyn Forché, Sinan Antoon, Amira El-Zein, and Fady Joudah. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems. University of California Press, 2013.

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