The Dispatch · Columbus, Ohio · 10 August 2008

CP-2008-010

Palestinian poet Darwish dead at 67

The Associated Press, Gaza City

Transcribed from the clipping

“GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud Darwish, whose prose gave voice to the Palestinian experience of exile, occupation and infighting, died on Saturday in Houston. He was 67. The predominant Palestinian poet, whose work has been translated into more than 20 languages and won numerous international awards, died following open heart surgery at a Houston hospital, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Born to a large Muslim family in historical Palestine — now modern-day Israel — he emerged as a Palestinian cultural icon eloquently describing his people’s struggle for independence while also criticizing both the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian leadership. He gave voice to the Palestinian dreams of statehood, crafted their declaration of independence and helped forge a Palestinian national identity.… ‘He felt the pulse of Palestinians in beautiful poetry. He was a mirror of the Palestinian society,’ said Ali Qleibo… Many of his poems have been put into music — most notably ‘Rita,’ ‘Birds of Galilee’ and ‘I yearn for my mother’s bread’ — and have become anthems for at least two generations of Arabs… Darwish was born in the Palestinian village of Birweh near Haifa, which was destroyed in the 1948 Mideast war that led to Israel’s independence.… ‘He started out as a poet of resistance and then he became a poet of conscience,’ said Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi… Last year, Darwish recited a poem damning the deadly infighting between rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah, describing it as ‘a public attempt at suicide in the streets’… ‘He created a national Palestinian identity that no other poet could achieve,’ Usta said. Darwish married and divorced twice. He does not have any children.”

Photograph caption

“Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in an undated file photo. A Palestinian presidential aide said Saturday that the renowned poet has died at a hospital in Houston following complications from an open heart surgery.” · Associated Press

Context added by this archive

The fifth American printing of this obituary held here, and the fifth headline. Every one of the five calls him a poet. The archive also holds six printings of the killing of Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian novelist, in July 1972; one of those six headlines called him an artist. Both men belonged to Palestinian political organisations and one of them was assassinated, so the two sets are not a controlled comparison. The counts are given because they are counts.

Cite this item

"Palestinian poet Darwish dead at 67," The Dispatch, 10 August 2008. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2008-010. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2008-010

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