Beloved Palestinian Poet and Memoirist Mourid Barghouti Dies at 76

February 14, 2021 12:32 PM

Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti, who was unable to return to his home in Palestine after 1967, was a beloved poet, performer, public speaker, and memoirist. He wrote the popular memoir I Saw Ramallah, which chronicled his return to the West Bank in 1997 and was translated by novelist Ahdaf Souief. He also wrote a follow-up memoir I Was Born There, I Was Born Here, which tells his story from 1998 to 2010, translated by Humphrey Davies.

A life in writing: Mourid Barghouti (Guardian interview from 2008)

"Silence said:
truth needs no eloquence.
After the death of the horseman,
the homeward-bound horse
says everything
without saying anything."

• 'Silence' translated by Radwa Ashour from Midnight and Other Poems, published by Arc

Many times I have been asked the question: to whom do you write? Or is there any imagined reader in your mind? I think that a poet goes to the empty page to listen to his inner tune but that tune itself is composed through years and centuries by a universal orchestra. That is why we publish the poem to be read by unknown others. When I started the opening two lines of this very short poem, I realised I was talking to myself, not to my readers, as if to solidify my hatred of rhetoric and eloquence and my love for simplicity and concrete language. As a Palestinian with a negated history and a threatened geography, craving world attention and understanding, I was hesitant to have the poem published. But I decided to publish it because I needed to be its reader. I was trying to convince Mourid Barghouti that pain, even the Palestinian pain, does not mean shouting loudly.

posted by Ahmad Khani (13 comments total)

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posted by lazaruslong at 12:40 PM on February 14, 2021

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 12:55 PM on February 14, 2021

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posted by interogative mood at 1:13 PM on February 14, 2021

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posted by ChuraChura at 1:14 PM on February 14, 2021

Arab poet Mourid Barghouti: Watching the leaves fall: Palestinian writer discusses Goethe, Hafiz Shirazi and the symbolism behind a Japanese gingko leaf (Middle East Eye)

"I gave everything to poetry, which is the centre of my life. All my travels, writings and readings are about poetry," he says.

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posted by Ahmad Khani at 1:17 PM on February 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by chance at 2:34 PM on February 14, 2021

Edward Said wrote this very personal tribute to a memoir by the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti.
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posted by adamvasco at 2:44 PM on February 14, 2021 [3 favorites]

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posted by adekllny at 3:51 PM on February 14, 2021

In honor if the beautiful poem quoted: ْ
posted by Corduroy at 10:24 PM on February 14, 2021

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posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:58 AM on February 15, 2021

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posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs at 6:12 AM on February 15, 2021

I have been reading some poems of his since this post went up. There are so many wonderful ones. This one in particular really struck me.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:47 AM on February 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

Remembering Mourid: 10 in Translation, Online (Arablit)
A selection of works translated into English that are available online.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 6:16 AM on February 16, 2021 [2 favorites]