Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish at Bethlehem University, (2006).
Native name	محمود درويش
Born	13 March 1941 al-Birwa, British Mandate of Palestine
Died	9 August 2008(2008-08-09) (aged 66) Houston, Texas, United States
Occupation	Poet and writer
Nationality	Palestinian
Ethnicity	Arab
Period	1964–2008
Genre	Poetry

Mahmoud Darwish (Arabic: محمود درويش‎‎, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He won numerous awards for his works. Darwish used Palestine as a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile. He has been described as incarnating and reflecting "the tradition of the political poet in Islam, the man of action whose action is poetry." He also served as an editor for several literary magazines in Israel.

Mahmoud Darwish was born in the village of al-Birwa in the Western Galilee. He was the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. His family were landowners. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read. After Israeli forces assaulted his village of al-Birwa in June 1948, the family fled to Lebanon, first to Jezzin and then Damour. Their home village was razed and destroyed by the Israeli army to prevent its inhabitants from returning to their homes inside the new Jewish state.

A year later, Darwish's family returned to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad. Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi. He eventually moved to Haifa.

He published his first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, or "Wingless Birds", at the age of 19. He initially published his poems in Al Jadid, the literary periodical of the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor. Later, he was assistant editor of Al Fajr, a literary periodical published by the Israeli Workers Party (Mapam).

Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the Soviet Union (USSR). He attended the Lomonosov Moscow State University for one year, before moving to Egypt and Lebanon. When he joined the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in 1973, he was banned from reentering Israel.