WRITER

Mahmoud Darwish

1941 - 2008

Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish (Arabic: مَحمُود دَرْوِيْش, romanized: Maḥmūd Darwīsh; 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.In 1988, Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was a declaration for the creation of a State of Palestine. Darwish 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. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Mahmoud Darwish has received more than 1,433,531 page views. His biography is available in 56 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 49 in 2019). Mahmoud Darwish is the 363rd most popular writer (up from 719th in 2019), the 60th most popular biography from Israel (up from 96th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Israeli Writer.

Mahmoud Darwish is a Palestinian poet and author. He is most famous for his poems about the Palestinian people's struggle for independence.

Memorability Metrics

1.4M
Page Views (PV)
68.98
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
56
Languages Editions (L)
5.55
Effective Languages (L*)
3.72
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Memory for Forgetfulness

Poetry

One of the Arab world's greatest living poets uses the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the shelling of Beirut as the setting for this sequence of prose poems. Mahmoud Darwish vividly recreates the sights and sounds of a city under terrible siege. As fighter jets scream overhead, he explores the war-ravaged streets of Beirut on August 6th (Hiroshima Day). Memory for Forgetfulness is an extended reflection on the invasion and its political and historical dimensions. It is also a journey into personal and collective memory. What is the meaning of exile? What is the role of the writer in time of war? What is the relationship of writing (memory) to history (forgetfulness)? In raising these questions, Darwish implicitly connects writing, homeland, meaning, and resistance in an ironic, condensed work that combines wit with rage. Ibrahim Muhawi's translation beautifully renders Darwish's testament to the heroism of a people under siege, and to Palestinian creativity and continuity.

19952 / 5

Falast̤īn, Falast̤īn

1994

Psalms

Poetry

Ben Bennani's translations of Darwish give me a thrill. I am very moved by these poems; they make a beautiful book. -- James Tate. {Darwish} is one of the most widely acclaimed poets writing in Arabic today. -- Nimrod. {His is} the foremost poetic voice of the Palestinian struggle. -- The Harper Collins World Reader.

1994

Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 (Literature of the Middle East)

Poetry

19953 / 5

Now, As You Awaken

Poetry

Poetry. Translated from the Arabic by Omnia Amin and Rick London. NOW, AS YOU AWAKEN contains selected translations from Darwish's most recent book, Don't Apologize for What You've Done, published by El-Rayyes Books, Beirut, 2004. Darwish is the author of more than twenty books of poetry and is the most celebrated Palestinian poet writing today. Born in 1942 in Palestine, he has lived in Beirut, Cairo, Moscow, and Amman, and currently resides in Ramallah. Darwish's THE BUTTERFLY'S BURDEN is also available from SPD.

Unfortunately, It Was Paradise

Poetry

"These translations of Mahmoud Darwish's marvelous poems reveal the lifelong development of a major world poet. The book is a gift to other poets and lovers of poetry. It's also an important contribution to current and future discourse on culture and politics."--Adrienne Rich, author of Fox: Poems, 1996-2000 "At this critical moment in world relations, cultural, creative projects feel more necessary than ever. Celebrate this most comprehensive gathering of Mahmoud Darwish's poetry ever translated into English. Darwish is the premier poetic voice of the Palestinian people, and the collaboration between translators Akash and Forché is a fine mingling of extraordinary talents. The style here is quintessential Darwish--lyrical, imagistic, plaintive, haunting, always passionate, and elegant--and never anything less than free--what he would dream for all his people."--Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Fuel

2003

Page views of Mahmoud Darwishes by language

Over the past year Mahmoud Darwish has had the most page views in the English wikipedia edition with 555,170 views, followed by Arabic (459,451), and Persian (95,197). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Albanian (360.64%), Spanish (174.45%), and Portuguese (169.81%)