Mural

This is a really beautiful collection of two of Darwish's larger poems, "Mural" and "The Dice Player."

"Mural" is very much about using poetry, literature, and the written word more broadly to escape the confines of everyday life. This is especially resonant to Darwish as a Palestinian, which is a national identity that faces a permanent sense of exile--whether internal (as in the case of 48 Palestinians), external (as those in the diaspora), or somewhere in-between (as in the case of those in Gaza and the West Bank).

Darwish is grappling with what home means, and he writes

"My nurse says: you were shivering violently and screaming: "I don't want to return to anyone "I don't want to return to any land "After this long absence "I want only to return to my language deep in the cooing of a dove "My nurse says you kept shrieking and asking me: "Is death what you're doing with me right now? "Or is this how language dies?"

Since I've moved to Tunisia, I've reflected a lot on the way that my sense of "home" comes from the use of language--both the linguistic system and the way that language is used. This feels vindicated by Darwish's writing throughout the poem.

Another interesting thing to me, as a non-Arab, are the commonalities (and limits) of cultural reference points. So many of Darwish's reference points are profoundly Christian; he heavily references Christ, as well as Solomon. This is worth grappling with, as Darwish is from the region around Galilee: the same place that Christ called home. He also references Homer and Gilgamesh, both considered parts of the "Western tradition" (and I'd go so far to put most Arab cultural and literary output in the category of the "Western tradition").

But, there are also limits: Leila and Majnun are important to the text, and I never learned their story until I lived for longer in North Africa. According to the story, Arab poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah fell in love with Leila, but they were kept apart for some reason or another. Qays went mad with his love for her, and produced poem after poem about his love. The story became, on some level, reified by Nizami Ganjavi, and the narrative became as important to the Persianate tradition as the Arab one, and the Persianate tradition seems to have much less cross-over with the Western one.

Anyways, I loved "Mural." Darwish's love for literature as an escape, as a source of freedom, and as the bedrock of all meaning resonates heavily with me.

The second poem here, "The Dice Player," doesn't hit quite as hard, but does really important work. Darwish suggests that we have little choice in who we are or who we become--chance plays a major role in our lives, and we would do well to accept ourselves fully regardless of not choosing who or what we are. I wouldn't go so far as to call the poem existential, but it does resonate with Nietzsche's writings about eternal recurrence and acceptance of all that there is. It's really an empowering piece that allows us to look at ourselves charitably, even the parts we may not like so much.

From this short book, it's obvious why Darwish is viewed as such a major player in contemporary Arabic poetry. Even in English translation, which has likely lost a lot, there is much beauty in the writing, and an incredible amount to grapple with.