Najwan Darwish - Tumblr Posts

secretsofthemourning

1 year ago

Najwan Darwish, “Sleeping in Gaza” from his eponymous poetry collection Sleeping in Gaza, available for download here

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palestine poetry najwan darwish translated poetry translated works translated literature free palestine free gaza west bank poetry from 2009 fate sleeping in gaza

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momosane

5 months ago

It’s true. There are also other, secondary things we are losing as well. We didn’t just lose Alareer, but we lost his poetry; it’s all underneath the rubble, all the future poetry he would have written. And all these artists
who have been killed … what’s happened to their art? We talk about numbers of people dead, and we can’t even begin to comprehend this other loss.

Q: You’ve talked about the role of the poet as a historian in past interviews. Can you tell me what that means?

A: I think of writing as a testimony for history. If one day in the future someone reads my poetry, I think, or I hope, they will be able to tell who is the colonizer, and who are the people of the land. Literature can sometimes reflect this better than any political speech.

It’s difficult for me to talk about the role of artists, or writers, in a genocide. Maybe you are relatively safe for a moment, but you are not. No one is safe.

When you are an audience to a genocide and you can’t even contribute something - I feel that it is worse in some ways. People have different reactions. Some stop watching the news. Some stop feeling anything about it and do nothing about it. For me, this doesn’t work. Of course, as a writer, if you do not really care about the fate of other humans or the injustices of the world, I question what kind of writer you really are.

Q: Your poems often take up heavy subjects, like colonialism and the horrors of war. But you also write about the beautiful, even mundane parts of life. How do you not get lost in the bleakness of it all?

A: Despite everything, I should say that I see a lot of beauty. I am not a person who likes to praise their homeland. But Palestine contains a lot of beauty, in its nature, culture, people. I also read a lot; reading is a sort of cure. It connect you with other humans and their past. The library is the archive of the human soul. Art is a big part of this too; it frees you from the limitations and cruelties of the moment.

Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish: ‘We can’t begin to comprehend the loss of art’

“Poetry has been the colossal record of violence and. . . the colossal record of compassion,” the Chilean poet Raúl Zurita wrote in the foreword to Exhausted on the Cross [Najwan Darwish’s latest collection], and it’s a duty that the poet takes seriously.

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najwan darwish refaat alareer free palestine

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brotherdearest

6 months ago

Najwan Darwish, tr. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, from Exhausted on the Cross; “Our Defeated Banner”

[Text ID: “If I could come back, / I wouldn’t come under any other banner. / I’d still embrace you / with two severed hands. / I don’t want wings in paradise, / I just want your graves by the river. / I want eternity at the breakfast table / with the bread and oil. / I want you— / earth, / my defeated banner.”]

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