The poet is dead. Long live the poet!
–Good-bye, sir.
–Where to?
–Madness.
–Which madness?
–Any madness, for I have turned into words.
[Mahmoud Darwish, in Memory for Forgetfulness, trans. Ibrahim Muhawi (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1995), p. 51]
I have been completely out of touch with Arabic poetry for over a year, but I was quite taken aback and saddened yesterday afternoon to learn through a Facebook friend’s “status message” about the passing of Mahmoud Darwish–unquestionably one of the greatest Arab voices of our time, also hailed as the Palestinian “national poet.”
The poet has left, but has left behind an indelible legacy of words.
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