Mahmoud Darwish died at age 67
"Ummi" ("My Mother")
I long for my mother's bread,
And my mother's coffee,
And her touch.
Childhood memories grow up in me
Day after day.
I must be worthy of my life
At the hour of my death
Worthy of the tears of my mother.
In August 9, 2008 · Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died in Houston after complications from open-heart surgery. He was 67 years old Mahmoud Abbas has declared three days of national mourning declared in Palestin
.
Darwish has been called the heart and tongue of the Palestinians. He wrote this poem while in an Israeli jail more than 40 years ago. It is called "Ummi" ("My Mother"). Lebanese singer Marcel Khalife put the poem to music, and it is now an anthem for many Palestinians.
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I Belong There
I belong there. I have many memories. I was born as everyone is born.
I have a mother, a house with many windows, brothers, friends, and a prison cell
with a chilly window! I have a wave snatched by seagulls, a panorama of my own.
I have a saturated meadow. In the deep horizon of my word, I have a moon,
a bird’s sustenance, and an immortal olive tree.
I have lived on the land long before swords turned man into prey.
I belong there. When heaven mourns for her mother, I return heaven to
her mother.
And I cry so that a returning cloud might carry my tears.
To break the rules, I have learned all the words needed for a trial by blood.
I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a
single word: Home.
[Translated by Carolyn Forché and Munir Akash]