{"title":"Mahmoud Darwish","description":"Mahmoud Darwish, the great Palestinian poet, passed away on Saturday 9 August 2008, following complications after major heart surgery in Houston, Texas. He was just 67. He never stopped writing and performing his poetry, which has inspired thousands upon thousands of people of all ages and nationalities, and will surely continue to inspire them. He is one of the most renowned, respected and loved poets of today's world, a poetic giant who became the voice of Palestine, of Palestinian loss and exile, and in later years its voice of conscience.\n\nIt is very difficult to write the words that he is no more, this beautiful human being who gave of his craft, his imagination, his lyricism, his understanding, his tolerance and his courage to all who listened to him. \n\nMahmoud Darwish commanded audiences of thousands, thirsty for the sounds he uttered, wherever he went in the Arab world. In July 2008 he gave a massively attended reading in Haifa, back there for the first time since the early 1970s, and later another packed performance in Ramallah to mark the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. Myself, I have vivid memories of listening to him in Friends Meeting House, London, in 1982. It was an electric and highly emotive atmosphere with the audience packed to the walls – the only reading that I am aware he ever made in London.\n\nMahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in al-Barweh, Palestine, and had to flee with his family in 1948, only returning later. He grew up under Israeli occupation to become the world’s best-known Palestinian poet. He published his first collection of poetry in 1960. Jailed several times, he left to go to Moscow in 1971, afterwards living in Cairo, Beirut, Tunis and Paris, before settling in Ramallah in the early 1990s. He published over 30 collections of poetry and of prose, with some of these works being translated into 35 languages. In 1981, he started the literary quarterly Al-Karmel, which he later edited from Ramallah.\n\nIn 1995, his book Memory for Forgetfulness (trans. Ibrahim Muhawi) was published in English. A French anthology of his work Poesie: La Terre nous est étroite was published in March 2000 by Gallimard. Several collections of his work in English translation have been published, notably Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?, Archpelago Books, 2006, Unfortunately, It Was Paradise (California University Press, 2003), and The Adam of Two Edens (Syracuse University Press \u0026amp; Jusoor, 2000, reviewed in Banipal No 12, Autumn 2001). In 2001 he received the Lannan Foundation’s Award for Cultural Freedom and in 2004 the Prince Claus Fund Award.\n\nThe latest translation of his poetry is the bilingual volume The Butterfly’s Burden, translated by Palestinian American doctor Fady Joudah, which brings together three of Mahmoud Darwish’s collections. On 29 September 2008 Fady Joudah will be awarded the 2008 Saif Ghobash – Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for this work, by unanimous decision of the judges. In the press release, the judges remark on “the translator’s sensitivity to the nuances and music of the original texts”.\n\nMahmoud Darwish was thrilled to learn that Fady Joudah’s translation has won the prize. But today it seems inexplicable that his life has come to such a sudden and tragic end and that the Palestinian people are starting three days of national mourning declared by President Mahmoud Abbas, who said: \"Words cannot describe the depth of sadness in our hearts.\" \n\nAl Jazeera's tribute portrait of Mahmoud Darwish, by Jacky Rowland:\n\n[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7behEhDSsFU[\/youtube]\n\nMahmoud Darwish reading to a typically huge audience in Jordan:\n\n[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aFYOtTVxicQ[\/youtube]\n","products":[{"product_id":"banipal-magazine-issue-33","title":"Banipal Magazine - Issue 33","description":"Banipal 33\u003cbr\u003eAutumn\/Winter 2008 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Let us go, you and I, on two paths: You, to a second life, promised to you by language in a reader who might survive the fall of a comet on earth. I, to a rendezvous I postponed more than once, with a death I promised a glass of red wine in a poem.”\u003c\/i\u003e — Mahmoud Darwish \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe issue opens with a major 70-page feature on the life and legacy of \u003cb\u003eMahmoud Darwish\u003c\/b\u003e. It includes articles, tributes, poems and many photographs of the great Palestinian and world poet, who passed away on Saturday 9 August following complications after major heart surgery in Houston, Texas, at the age of 67. “Darwish left behind,” writes Sinan Antoon, “an entire continent of poems whispering and singing inside Arabic and calling on us to reacquaint ourselves with its topography.” There are poems from Mahmoud Darwish’s last collection, translated by Catherine Cobham, to be published by Saqi Books next year as \u003ci\u003eIf I Were a Stone\u003c\/i\u003e, and a long poem, written earlier this year \u003ci\u003eAt the Station of a Train which Fell Off the Map\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by Sinan Antoon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFellow poets, and writers from around the world contribute their feelings on his passing, including Saadi Yousef, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Denys Johnson Davies, Wole Soyinka, Mark Strand, Abdo Wazen, Kadhim Jihad Hassan, Alberto Manguel, Amjad Nasser, Marie-Thérèse Abdel-Messih, Giuseppe Goffredo, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Judith Kazantzis, Thomas Høegh, Peter Clark, Clara Janès, Gaber Asfour, Bernard Noël, Mohammed Bennis, Naomi Shihab Nye, Stephen Watts, Qassim Haddad, Saif al-Rahbi, Issa J Boullata, Taha Adnan, and Mahmoud Shukair. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe feature includes rare photographs of Mahmoud Darwish taken in the last months of his life as he worked with Arts Alliance Productions on their film project \u003ci\u003eIdentity of the Soul\u003c\/i\u003e which screened open-air shows to packed audiences in Palestine in October.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart 3 of our series on \u003cb\u003eContemporary Syrian Literature\u003c\/b\u003e opens with poems by Adonis, selected from \u003ci\u003eMihyar of Damascus: His Songs\u003c\/i\u003e, a new volume in translation from BOA Editions. There is also fiction from Fawwaz Haddad, who is long-listed for the 2008-09 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, from Khalil al-Neimi’s  intriguing novel, \u003ci\u003eIn Praise of Deserting\u003c\/i\u003e, with short stories from Ibrahim Samuel and Gladys Matar, and poems from Hussein Bin Hamza.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBanipal 33\u003c\/i\u003e includes many book reviews to whet readers’ appetites. They include \u003ci\u003eThe Butterfly’s Burden,\u003c\/i\u003e by Mahmoud Darwish, which won the 2008 Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for its translator Fady Joudah, as well as a review of his own award-winning poetry collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Earth in the Attic\u003c\/i\u003e. A sheaf of novels in translation is reviewed, including \u003ci\u003eThe Year of the Revolutionary Bread-Making Machine\u003c\/i\u003e by Hassan Daoud, \u003ci\u003eWild Mulberries\u003c\/i\u003e by Iman Humaydan Younes, \u003ci\u003eNuit de l’étranger\u003c\/i\u003e by Habib Selmi, \u003ci\u003eHakawati\u003c\/i\u003e by Rabih Almeddine, \u003ci\u003eThe Collar and the Bracelet\u003c\/i\u003e by Yahya Taher Abdullah, \u003ci\u003eGold Dust\u003c\/i\u003e by Ibrahim al-Koni, and \u003ci\u003eThe Journals of Sarab Affan\u003c\/i\u003e by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, as well as \u003ci\u003eThe Road from Damascus\u003c\/i\u003e by Robin Yassin-Kassab, \u003ci\u003eContemporary Iraqi Fiction, An Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e by Shakir Mustafa, and Denys Johnson Davies reviews David Tresilian’s \u003ci\u003eA Brief Introduction to Modern Arabic Literature\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040827164,"sku":"1981014615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_6e26b916-b87c-4fd1-9ac1-f38fdca2278c.jpeg?v=1752237897"},{"product_id":"banipal-magazine-issue-8","title":"Banipal Magazine - Issue 8","description":"22-page feature on Moroccan novelist, poet and essayist Tahar Ben Jelloun. Feature on works by Ten Iraqi Poets.  PLUS works by 6 other poets and 10 fiction-writers including appreciations. Article by Mahmoud Darwish on Translating Poetry. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEDITORIAL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFeature on TAHAR BEN JELLOUN\u003cbr\u003epoet, novelist and essayist\u003cbr\u003ewith drawings by Azzawi\u003cbr\u003eJ M G Le Clézio: Tahar the wise\u003cbr\u003eStefan Weidner: Homage to the Unknown Dead\u003cbr\u003eExcerpts from the poems The Raising of the Ashes and Ephemeral Childhood\u003cbr\u003eMaati Kabbal: The Polyphonies of Ben Jelloun\u003cbr\u003eJames Kirkup: Ben Jelloun’s Italian journeys\u003cbr\u003eExcerpt from the novel Labyrinthe des sentiments\u003cbr\u003ewith illustrations of Ernest Pignon-Ernest\u003cbr\u003eTahar Ben Jelloun talks to Pierrre Maury\u003cbr\u003eExcerpt from poem Le Discours du Chameau\u003cbr\u003ewith an appreciation by translator Margaret Furniss\u003cbr\u003eMai Ghoussoub reviews Harrouda\u003cbr\u003eMona Zaki reviews Corruption\u003cbr\u003eMargaret Obank reviews Ben Jelloun’s trilogy The Sand Child,\u003cbr\u003eThe Sacred Night and The Wrong Night\u003cbr\u003eand French Hospitality\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMahmoud Darwish: On translating poetry The Place of the Universal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHaidar Haidar: Excerpt from the novel The Desolate Time\u003cbr\u003eBassam K. Frangieh: Essay Haidar Haidar – novelist of social change\u003cbr\u003eEtel Adnan: Three poems\u003cbr\u003eAbdallah Zreka: Excerpts from “Black candle drops”\u003cbr\u003eAhmed Barakat: Three poems\u003cbr\u003eSabri Moussa: Three short stories\u003cbr\u003eRafik Schami: Three short stories\u003cbr\u003eUlla Kasten: Rafik Schami – Damascene storyteller\u003cbr\u003eYahya al-Qaissi: Short story Shattered desires\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTEN IRAQI POETS\u003cbr\u003eSelected poems of:\u003cbr\u003eSalah Niazi\u003cbr\u003eSargon Boulus\u003cbr\u003eSadiq al-Sayegh\u003cbr\u003eA K EL Janabi\u003cbr\u003eHashim Shafiq\u003cbr\u003eAmal AL-Jabouri\u003cbr\u003eMuniam Alfaker\u003cbr\u003eAdnan Mohsen\u003cbr\u003eFadhil Sultani\u003cbr\u003eDalia Riadh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIssa J. Boullata: Short story Bar-room confessions\u003cbr\u003eSaleh al-Azzaz: Short story Chirping\u003cbr\u003eMay Tilmissany: Excerpt from the novel Dunyazad\u003cbr\u003eRoger Allen: Essay Possibilities of meaning and delicious ambiguities\u003cbr\u003eMuhsin al-Ramly: Short story Boredom\u003cbr\u003eFaraj Bou al-Isha: Six poems\u003cbr\u003eSabah Zwein: Selected poems\u003cbr\u003eLeila Marouane: Excerpt from the novel The Abductor\u003cbr\u003eHoda Ablan: Twelve poems\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBOOK REVIEWS\u003cbr\u003eSamir el-Youssef: Out of Place by Edward Said\u003cbr\u003eSusannah Tarbush: The Honey by Zeina B. Ghandour\u003cbr\u003eSusannah Tarbush: Tony Hanania’s islands of desire\u003cbr\u003ePeter Clark: Eros Island by Tony Hanania\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040830992,"sku":"1795414615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_60ad4c71-510a-4a46-9603-fdc002b39637.jpeg?v=1752237893"},{"product_id":"banipal-magazine-issue-23","title":"Banipal Magazine - Issue 23","description":"The Summer issue of \u003cem\u003eBanipal\u003c\/em\u003e offers readers a kaleidoscope of works that once dipped into will be hard to put down, presenting authors from Palestine, Iraq, Oman, Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, the Emirates and Yemen, plus cover artist \u003cstrong\u003eDima Hajjar\u003c\/strong\u003e from Lebanon.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCover artist: Dima Hajjar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAla’ Hlehel A short story My Husband is a Bus Driver\u003cbr\u003eMahmoud Darwish A Poem\u003cbr\u003eNot Like a Foreign Tourist Would\u003cbr\u003eDuna Ghali A short story Sip\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFEATURE ON Omani poet Saif al-Rahbi\u003cbr\u003ewith poems translated by Anton Shammas,\u003cbr\u003eintroduction by Fadhil al-Azzawi,\u003cbr\u003einterview by Abdulla al-Harrasi and profiles by\u003cbr\u003eFakhri Saleh, Eskandar Habache and Khalid al-Maaly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbdellatif Laâbi Excerpt from Le Fond de la Jarre\u003cbr\u003eAbdelwahab Meddeb Five Poems\u003cbr\u003eJoumana Haddad Article The Forty Thieves of Fire and Me\u003cbr\u003eHamid al-Iqabi A short story The Banjo Player\u003cbr\u003eMowaffk al-Sawad Three Poems\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFEATURE ON Syrian poet Saniya Salih (1939-1995)\u003cbr\u003ewith poems translated by Issa J Boullata,\u003cbr\u003ean introduction by Abed Ismael\u003cbr\u003eand profile by Abdo Wazen\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLITERARY INFLUENCES\u003cbr\u003eFadhil al-Azzawi I Lived a Magical Feast\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThani al-Suweidi Six Poems\u003cbr\u003eJad el-Hage A chapter from the novel The Myrtle Bush\u003cbr\u003eSuleman Taufiq Fourteen Poems\u003cbr\u003eAbu-Youssef Taha A short story Black Lilies\u003cbr\u003eAbed Ismael Three Poems\u003cbr\u003eNadiah Alkokabany A short story Fireworks to Celebrate a Deflowering\u003cbr\u003eHaggag Hassan Oddoul A short story Nights of Musk\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINTERVIEW WITH AN EDITOR\u003cbr\u003ePeter Ripken, of Literatur Nachrichten\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA TRAVELLING TALE\u003cbr\u003eSamuel Shimon Steppenwolf Goes to San Francisco\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTRIBUTE\u003cbr\u003eHisham Sharabi (1927–2005)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBOOK REVIEWS\u003cbr\u003ePeter Clark Modern Arabic Literature in Translation by Salih Altoma and Lexicon Arabischer Autoren by al-Maaly \u0026amp; Nagger\u003cbr\u003eMargaret Obank Anubis by Ibrahim al-Kony\u003cbr\u003eEleanor Kilroy Tomorrow is Another Day by Khalid Kishtainy","brand":"Banipal Magazine","offers":[{"title":"Book","offer_id":1040834528,"sku":"1614014615363","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/2_2_073b932b-147c-46cc-8027-c890342811cb.jpeg?v=1752237884"}],"url":"https:\/\/inpressbooks.co.uk\/collections\/mahmoud-darwish\/deema-shehabi.oembed","provider":"Inpress Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}