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Darwish Mahmoud 1941 - 2008 (67)

I see poetry as spiritual medicine.


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Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who is widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary poets in the Arab world. He was born on March 13, 1941, in the village of al-Birwa in the Galilee region of Palestine, which is now part of Israel.

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, his village was occupied by Israeli forces and the family fled to Lebanon. A year later, they returned to the region of Acre, which had become part of Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad. Eventually they moved to Haifa.

Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the Soviet Union, attended Lomonosov Moscow State University for a year, then lived in Egypt and Lebanon He began writing poetry at a young age, and his work often addressed themes of exile, identity, and resistance. He was also an important political figure in the Palestinian liberation movement and was a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Over the course of his career, Darwish published over 30 books of poetry, as well as numerous works of prose and essays. His poetry has been translated into dozens of languages and has been widely read and admired around the world.

Darwish was twice married and divorced. He suffered a heart attack in 1984 and had two heart surgeries, in 1984 and 1998. He passed away on August 9, 2008, at the age of 67, but his legacy as one of the greatest poets in the Arab world and as a voice for Palestinian identity and resistance continues to inspire people today.