Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish (Arabic: محمود درويش‎‎, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He won numerous awards for his works. Darwish used Palestine as a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile. He has been described as incarnating and reflecting "the tradition of the political poet in Islam, the man of action whose action is poetry." He also served as an editor for several literary magazines in Israel. 2Life and career Mahmoud Darwish was born in the village of al-Birwa in the Western Galilee. He was the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. His family were landowners. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read. After Israeli forces assaulted his village of al-Birwa in June 1948, the family fled to Lebanon, first to Jezzin and then Damour. Their home village was razed and destroyed by the Israeli army to prevent its inhabitants from returning to their homes inside the new Jewish stat