[عبدالله الخطيب]

Mahmmoud Darwish

Told the story of The Occupation and The Resistance
Talked about the love of the land and its people
His poems were sang for The Revolution, The Struggle, and The Sacrifice
He dreamed about The Victory and The Return
His poems were carried from one place to another everywhere Palestinians went

Mahmmoud Darwish was born in Al-Birwah near Akka in 1941. In 1948, the village was attacked by the Zionists and its people left to other places. Darwish ran away at the age of seven to find himself in Lebanon knowing nothing about his family. A year later, he went back to Palestine to find his village totally ruined and an Israeli settlement is in its place
Darwish wrote his first poems when he was in the elementary school in the village of Der Al-Asad. He was detained by the Israelis and was put under house arrest several times

Mahmmoud Darwish died on August 9 2008 at the age of 67, three days after heart surgery in Houston, Texas
Darwish had asked in his will to be buried in Palestine
He was buried next to Ramallah's Palace of culture, at the summit of a hill overlooking Jerusalem

Identity Card, was one of his most famous poems

Identity Card

Mahmmoud Darwish - 1964

Write down
I am an Arab
And my identity card number is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth will come after a summer
?Will you be angry

Write down I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber
?So will you be angry

Write down
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew

My father.. descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather..was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
?Are you satisfied with my status
I have a name without a title
Write down
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks
So will the State take them
?As it has been said
Therefore
Write down on the top of the first page
I do not hate poeple
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper's flesh will be my food
Beware
Beware
Of my hunger
!!!And my anger