Mahmoud Darwich quotes

Mahmoud Darwich was a renowned Palestinian poet and one of the most influential voices in modern Arabic literature. His work deeply explored themes of exile, identity, and resistance amid the Palestinian struggle. He became a cultural icon and a symbol of hope for his people. Here are 33 of his quotes:

I am from there. I am from here.
I am not there and I am not here.
I have two names, which meet and part,
and I have two languages.
I forget which of them I dream in. (Mahmoud Darwich)

A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare.

Mahmoud Darwich

Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by.

Mahmoud Darwich

Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile.

Mahmoud Darwich

I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light.

Mahmoud Darwich

Where can I free myself of the homeland in my body?

Mahmoud Darwich

If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears.

Mahmoud Darwich

Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third.

Mahmoud Darwich

My love, I fear the silence of your hands.

Mahmoud Darwich

The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives.

Mahmoud Darwich

We are captives, even if our wheat grows over the fences/ and swallows rise from our broken chains./ We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are. (Mahmoud Darwich)

Far away, our dreams have nothing to do with what we do. The wind carries the night, and passes on, aimless.

Mahmoud Darwich

Exile is more than a geographical concept. You can be an exile in your homeland, in your own house, in a room.

Mahmoud Darwich

Without hope we are lost.

Mahmoud Darwich

Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down.

Mahmoud Darwich

The Arabs are ready to accept a strong Israel with nuclear arms - all it has to do is open the gates of its fortress and make peace.

Mahmoud Darwich

The stars had only one task: they taught me how to read. They taught me I had a language in heaven and another language on earth.

Mahmoud Darwich

I don't decide to represent anything except myself. But that self is full of collective memory.

Mahmoud Darwich

History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.

Mahmoud Darwich

The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality.

Mahmoud Darwich

I see poetry as spiritual medicine. (Mahmoud Darwich)

Nothing, nothing justifies terrorism.

Mahmoud Darwich

I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews.

Mahmoud Darwich

The Palestinians are the only nation in the world that feels with certainty that today is better than what the days ahead will hold. Tomorrow always heralds a worse situation.

Mahmoud Darwich

Palestinian people are in love with life.

Mahmoud Darwich

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Mahmoud Darwich

Mahmoud Darwich - Image

Occupation: Palestinian Poet
Born: March 13, 1941
Died: August 9, 2008
Quotes count: 33

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