A new translation that captures the ache of exile
Oct 21st 2010
Journal of an Ordinary Grief. By Mahmoud Darwish. Archipelago Books;
MAHMOUD DARWISH is the Palestinian poet laureate. His verses chronicle the Palestinians’ anguish at the loss of their land. His rhythms tattoo their angry heartache. After his death in 2008, he was buried in Ramallah, a final return to the land that was his life, his cause and his identity.
He wrote “Journal of an Ordinary Grief” in 1973 but this is its first translation into English. The first of three semi-autobiographical prose works (the second, “Memory for Forgetfulness”, was published in English in 1995; the third, “In the Presence of Absence”, will come out next year), it recounts the poet’s house arrest, his run-ins with Israeli interrogators and various spells in jail. Darwish’s voice, drifting between his own and that of his people, searches endlessly for what it cannot find.
Ibrahim Muhawi’s limpid translation captures the longing, the ache of exile. When Darwish and his family left their village in 1948, they expected to return soon. The painful realisation of their loss comes gradually. The trees that are the “ribs of childhood” have been left behind. Palestine has become a homeland defined by those who occupy it, a place that is “a dream in its actuality, and an actuality in its dream”. Occupied though it may be, it is a paradise that is “subject to being regained”. Despite everything, it is attainable.
Some question the Palestinians’ all-consuming attachment to their land. Darwish answers them simply: “‘Can the land be so holy?’ For the Palestinians, the answer is yes.” He regrets that they have produced no Jeremiah, no one who can “walk around in our streets and in our failings, one who can scourge us and lament us”. Perhaps it was hard for him to see how well he did that himself.
*zafrir wrote: Oct 22nd 2010
Just to put things right:
After his parents fled Israel following their rejection of the 47 UN partition decision and a failed attempt to kill the Jews, Israel accepted Darwish back to Israel as a citizen. He Joined the Communist party and was a party member until he Joined a terrorist organization in Beirut in 1971 and gave up on his Israeli citizenship.
It is not difficult to distort history. The truth is that for Darwish missing the homeland was not inability to to live in Israel but sharing it with Jews.
**exioce wrote: Oct 22nd 2010
Here's some more history as laid out in Jewish texts:
Jews did not originate in the land of Palestine. Under leaders such as Joshua, they invaded that land butchering, enslaving, and raping the existing inhabitants and stealing their land.
History repeated itself several thousand years later.
***nad10 wrote: Oct 23rd 2010
Here is what Darwish says:
Why are we always told that we cannot solve our problem without solving the existential anxiety of the Israelis and their supporters who have ignored our very existence for decades in our own homeland?
We have triumphed over the plan to expel us from history.
"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."
"We should not justify suicide bombers. We are against the suicide bombers, but we must understand what drives these young people to such actions. They want to liberate themselves from such a dark life. It is not ideological, it is despair."
"We have to understand - not justify - what gives rise to this tragedy. It's not because they're looking for beautiful virgins in heaven, as Orientalists portray it. Palestinian people are in love with life. If we give them hope - a political solution - they'll stop killing themselves."
“Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile. The sarcasm is not only related to today’s reality but also to history. History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.”
"I will continue to humanise even the enemy... The first teacher who taught me Hebrew was a Jew. The first love affair in my life was with a Jewish girl. The first judge who sent me to prison was a Jewish woman. So from the beginning, I didn't see Jews as devils or angels but as human beings." Several poems are to Jewish lovers. "These poems take the side of love not war."
Oct 21st 2010
Journal of an Ordinary Grief. By Mahmoud Darwish. Archipelago Books;
MAHMOUD DARWISH is the Palestinian poet laureate. His verses chronicle the Palestinians’ anguish at the loss of their land. His rhythms tattoo their angry heartache. After his death in 2008, he was buried in Ramallah, a final return to the land that was his life, his cause and his identity.
He wrote “Journal of an Ordinary Grief” in 1973 but this is its first translation into English. The first of three semi-autobiographical prose works (the second, “Memory for Forgetfulness”, was published in English in 1995; the third, “In the Presence of Absence”, will come out next year), it recounts the poet’s house arrest, his run-ins with Israeli interrogators and various spells in jail. Darwish’s voice, drifting between his own and that of his people, searches endlessly for what it cannot find.
Ibrahim Muhawi’s limpid translation captures the longing, the ache of exile. When Darwish and his family left their village in 1948, they expected to return soon. The painful realisation of their loss comes gradually. The trees that are the “ribs of childhood” have been left behind. Palestine has become a homeland defined by those who occupy it, a place that is “a dream in its actuality, and an actuality in its dream”. Occupied though it may be, it is a paradise that is “subject to being regained”. Despite everything, it is attainable.
Some question the Palestinians’ all-consuming attachment to their land. Darwish answers them simply: “‘Can the land be so holy?’ For the Palestinians, the answer is yes.” He regrets that they have produced no Jeremiah, no one who can “walk around in our streets and in our failings, one who can scourge us and lament us”. Perhaps it was hard for him to see how well he did that himself.
*zafrir wrote: Oct 22nd 2010
Just to put things right:
After his parents fled Israel following their rejection of the 47 UN partition decision and a failed attempt to kill the Jews, Israel accepted Darwish back to Israel as a citizen. He Joined the Communist party and was a party member until he Joined a terrorist organization in Beirut in 1971 and gave up on his Israeli citizenship.
It is not difficult to distort history. The truth is that for Darwish missing the homeland was not inability to to live in Israel but sharing it with Jews.
**exioce wrote: Oct 22nd 2010
Here's some more history as laid out in Jewish texts:
Jews did not originate in the land of Palestine. Under leaders such as Joshua, they invaded that land butchering, enslaving, and raping the existing inhabitants and stealing their land.
History repeated itself several thousand years later.
***nad10 wrote: Oct 23rd 2010
Here is what Darwish says:
Why are we always told that we cannot solve our problem without solving the existential anxiety of the Israelis and their supporters who have ignored our very existence for decades in our own homeland?
We have triumphed over the plan to expel us from history.
"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."
"We should not justify suicide bombers. We are against the suicide bombers, but we must understand what drives these young people to such actions. They want to liberate themselves from such a dark life. It is not ideological, it is despair."
"We have to understand - not justify - what gives rise to this tragedy. It's not because they're looking for beautiful virgins in heaven, as Orientalists portray it. Palestinian people are in love with life. If we give them hope - a political solution - they'll stop killing themselves."
“Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile. The sarcasm is not only related to today’s reality but also to history. History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.”
"I will continue to humanise even the enemy... The first teacher who taught me Hebrew was a Jew. The first love affair in my life was with a Jewish girl. The first judge who sent me to prison was a Jewish woman. So from the beginning, I didn't see Jews as devils or angels but as human beings." Several poems are to Jewish lovers. "These poems take the side of love not war."
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق