Mahmoud Darwish

A devotion to his forebears’ homeland in Palestine has long animated the verse and lyrics composed by Mahmoud Darwish, who was born in Galilee. Resolute in his rejection of the Oslo accords signed by Palestine and Israel, the poet has channeled that fury into his artistic output. Among the most celebrated authors in the Arab world, he has issued more than thirty volumes of poetry and prose, works rendered into over thirty-five tongues. Speaking with interviewers in 1996, mere months after ending twenty-six years of voluntary exile by returning to Galilee, Darwish declared, "As long as my sould is alive, no one can smother my feeling of nostalgia to a country which I still consider as Palestine."

His political convictions took shape early. The village of Barwesh where he entered the world was leveled by Israeli forces in 1948. With each passing year his dissent grew more audible, and in the early 1970s his activism brought house arrest and imprisonment. He departed Israel in 1971. Today he divides his residence among France, Jordan, and Palestine while serving as editor-in-chief of the literary journal Al Karmel. In 1998 he released the volume of love poems titled Sareer El Gharuba.