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.
What is the most famous quote by Mahmoud Darwish ?
If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.
— Mahmoud Darwish
What can you learn from Mahmoud Darwish (Life Lessons)
- Through his work, Mahmoud Darwish taught us to never forget our roots and to remain resilient in the face of adversity.
- He also showed us the power of words to express our feelings and to bring people together in solidarity.
- Finally, he demonstrated that art is a powerful tool to challenge injustice and to fight for freedom and justice.
The most risky Mahmoud Darwish quotes you will be delighted to read
Following is a list of the best Mahmoud Darwish quotes, including various Mahmoud Darwish inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Mahmoud Darwish.
We suffer from an incurable malady: Hope.
If you live, live free or die like the trees, standing up.
And you became like coffee, in the deliciousness, and the bitterness, and the addiction.
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.
My homeland is not a suitcase, and I am no traveller
Without hope we are lost.
Far away, our dreams have nothing to do with what we do.
The wind carries the night, and passes on, aimless.
I don't decide to represent anything except myself. But that self is full of collective memory.
Lyrical quotes by Mahmoud Darwish
Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third.
To be under occupation, to be under siege, is not a good inspiration for poetry.
History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.
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.
Where can I free myself of the homeland in my body?
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.
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.
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!
Quotations by Mahmoud Darwish that are emotive and poignant
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.
... For me it is essential, essential for the poet to have a new toast, new songs.
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.
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.
The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality.
For the Arabs in Israel there is always a tension between nationality and identity.
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.
I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light.
When a writer declares that his first book is his best, that is bad. I progress successively from book to book.
On this earth there is that which deserves life.
The poem is in my hands, and can run stories through her hands.
Palestinian people are in love with life.
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.
I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews.
May poetry and God's name have mercy on us!
When I passed the age of 50, I learned how to control my emotions.
I never wanted children, maybe I'm afraid of responsibility.
I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home.
I wish I were a candle in the darkness.
She does not love you. Your metaphors thrill her you are her poet. But that's all there's to it.
And I tell myself, a moon will rise from my darkness.
The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives.
We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are.
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.
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.
One day, I will be a poet. Water will depend on my visions.
Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be.
Nothing, nothing justifies terrorism.
Life defined only as the opposite of death is not life.
I see poetry as spiritual medicine.
Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance.
Nothing is harder on the soul, than the smell of dreams, while they're evaporating.
The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.