56+ Mahmoud Darwish Quotes On War, Beauty And Missing Someone

Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He wrote over 30 books of poetry and 8 books of prose, and was a leading voice in Palestinian literature. He was also a political activist, and his works often reflected his views on the struggle for Palestinian independence. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Mahmoud Darwish on love, war, beauty.

Top 10 Mahmoud Darwish Quotes

1. If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.
2. We suffer from an incurable malady: Hope.
3. If you live, live free or die like the trees, standing up.
4. And you became like coffee, in the deliciousness, and the bitterness, and the addiction.
5. I am from there. I am from here. I am not there and I am not here. I have two names, which meet and part, and I have two languages. I forget which of them I dream in.
6. My homeland is not a suitcase, and I am no traveller
7. Without hope we are lost.
8. Far away, our dreams have nothing to do with what we do. The wind carries the night, and passes on, aimless.
9. I don't decide to represent anything except myself. But that self is full of collective memory.
10. Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third.

Mahmoud Darwish Short Quotes

• To be under occupation, to be under siege, is not a good inspiration for poetry.
• History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.
• ... For me it is essential, essential for the poet to have a new toast, new songs.
• The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.
• I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews.
• For the Arabs in Israel there is always a tension between nationality and identity.
• I never wanted children, maybe I'm afraid of responsibility.
• Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance.
• One day, I will be a poet. Water will depend on my visions.
• And I tell myself, a moon will rise from my darkness.

Mahmoud Darwish Quotes About Love

Palestinian people are in love with life. — Mahmoud Darwish

We have to understand - not justify - what gives rise to this tragedy. It's not because they're looking for beautiful virgins in heaven, as Orientalists portray it. Palestinian people are in love with life. If we give them hope - a political solution - they'll stop killing themselves. — Mahmoud Darwish

We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are. — Mahmoud Darwish

I love women whose hidden desires make horses put an end to their lives at the threshold — Mahmoud Darwish

She does not love you. Your metaphors thrill her you are her poet. But that's all there's to it. — Mahmoud Darwish

We are captives, even if our wheat grows over the fences/ and swallows rise from our broken chains./ We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are. — Mahmoud Darwish

My love, I fear the silence of your hands. — Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish Quotes About Life

Poetry is perhaps what teaches us to nurture the charming illusion: how to be reborn out of ourselves over and over again, and use words to construct a better world, a fictitious world that enables us to sign a pact for a permanent and comprehensive peace ... with life. — Mahmoud Darwish

On this earth there is that which deserves life. — Mahmoud Darwish

Life defined only as the opposite of death is not life. — Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish Quotes About Homeland

Where can I free myself of the homeland in my body? — Mahmoud Darwish

I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood So that I could break the rule I learnt all the words and broke them up To make a single word: Homeland. — Mahmoud Darwish

The poem is neither here nor there, and with a girl's breast it can illuminate the nights. With the glow of an apple it fills two bodies with light and with a gardenia's breath it can revive a homeland! — Mahmoud Darwish

I've built my homeland, I've even founded my state - in my language. — Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish Famous Quotes And Sayings

Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by. — Mahmoud Darwish

I want to find a language that transforms language itself into steel for the spirit--a language to use against these sparkling insects, these jets. — Mahmoud Darwish

I am patient and am waiting for a profound revolution in the consciousness of the Israelis. The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms - all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace. — Mahmoud Darwish

Sometimes I feel as if I am read before I write. When I write a poem about my mother, Palestinians think my mother is a symbol for Palestine. But I write as a poet, and my mother is my mother. She's not a symbol. — Mahmoud Darwish

The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality. — Mahmoud Darwish

I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light. — Mahmoud Darwish

The Palestinians are the only nation in the world that feels with certainty that today is better than what the days ahead will hold. Tomorrow always heralds a worse situation. — Mahmoud Darwish

When a writer declares that his first book is his best, that is bad. I progress successively from book to book. — Mahmoud Darwish

The poem is in my hands, and can run stories through her hands. — Mahmoud Darwish

May poetry and God's name have mercy on us! — Mahmoud Darwish

When I passed the age of 50, I learned how to control my emotions. — Mahmoud Darwish

I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home. — Mahmoud Darwish

I wish I were a candle in the darkness. — Mahmoud Darwish

The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives. — Mahmoud Darwish

The stars had only one task: they taught me how to read. They taught me I had a language in heaven and another language on earth. — Mahmoud Darwish

Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be. — Mahmoud Darwish

Nothing, nothing justifies terrorism. — Mahmoud Darwish

I see poetry as spiritual medicine. — Mahmoud Darwish

Nothing is harder on the soul, than the smell of dreams, while they're evaporating. — Mahmoud Darwish

And what I don't understand I grasp it only when it's too late. — Mahmoud Darwish

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. — Mahmoud Darwish

I see what I want of Love... I see horses making the meadow dance, fifty guitars sighing, and a swarm of bees suckling the wild berries, and I close my eyes until I see our shadow behind this dispossessed place... I see what I want of people: their desire to long for anything, their lateness in getting to work and their hurry to return to their folk... and their need to say: Good Morning. — Mahmoud Darwish

Life Lessons by Mahmoud Darwish

1. Through his work, Mahmoud Darwish taught us to never forget our roots and to remain resilient in the face of adversity.
2. He also showed us the power of words to express our feelings and to bring people together in solidarity.
3. Finally, he demonstrated that art is a powerful tool to challenge injustice and to fight for freedom and justice.