The Most Beautiful Quotes of Mahmoud Darwish

Who is Mahmoud Darwish?

Mahmoud Darwish is one of the most renowned poets from Palestine. He was born in 1942 in the village of Al-Birwa in Palestine and began writing poetry during his school years. His first poetry collection, titled “Olive Leaves,” was published in 1964. In addition to this collection, he authored various works, including “State of Siege,” and his poems have been translated into multiple languages. Beyond poetry, Darwish also produced notable prose works, such as “Diaries of a Ordinary Sadness” and “Memory for Forgetfulness.” This article presents some of the most beautiful expressions by Mahmoud Darwish on themes such as homeland, love, and loss.

Beautiful Expressions by Mahmoud Darwish about Homeland

In his poetry and writings, Mahmoud Darwish often spoke about his homeland, Palestine, and the longing for it. Here are some of his poignant expressions:

“Oh, my unyielding wound, my homeland is not a suitcase, and I am not a traveler; I am a lover, and the land is my beloved.”
“I am from there and I have memories… I was born like everyone else… I have a mother and a house with many windows… I have brothers, friends, and a prison with a cold window… I have a wave taken by the seagulls… I have my own scene… I have a surplus herb… I have a moon at the edge of words, and the provisions for the birds, and an eternal olive tree.”
“What is the homeland? It is not a question you answer and move on; it is your life and your cause together.”
“The homeland is not land, but both land and right together.”
“What is the homeland? It is the longing for death in order to restore the right and land… The homeland is not just land; it is both land and right together… The right is with you, and the land is with them.”
“Register… I am an Arab, and my ID number is fifty thousand; I have eight children, and the ninth will come after summer… Are you angry?! Register… I am an Arab, and I work with my fellow laborers in a quarry, and I have eight children to whom I provide bread, clothes, and notebooks made from stone, and I do not beg for charity at your door nor do I bow before your thresholds, so are you angry?! “
“While preparing your breakfast, think of others; do not forget the sustenance of the doves. While waging your wars, think of others; do not forget those who seek peace. While settling your water bill, think of others who draw from the clouds. When you return home, to your home, think of others… do not forget the people of the tents. When you sleep and count the stars, think of others… there are those who have no place to sleep. And when you free yourself through metaphors, think of others who have lost their rights.”

Beautiful Expressions by Mahmoud Darwish about Love

Mahmoud Darwish shared many sentiments regarding love in his poetry. Here are some of his notable quotes:

“I loved you, not because you are the most beautiful, but because you are the deepest; for the lover of beauty is usually a fool!”
“There is a love that passes through us, neither it knows nor do we.”
“I do not remember my heart unless love splits it into two or it dries from love’s thirst.”
“I wish we could love less so we would not suffer more.”
“When I was thirsty, I asked my enemy for water, and he did not hear me, so I uttered your name and quenched my thirst.”
“I love talking to you even though I have nothing to say.”
“You and my coffee share the same taste, bitterness, and addiction.”
“I want you to be a fantasy walking on two feet and a stone of truth flying with a wink.”
“I will continue to love you, journeying towards you… whether in water, I do not fear drowning, or on land, I do not fear the swords of the road.”
“I am a woman, no less, no more; be Qays of longing if you wish… As for me, I like to love as I am, not as a colored picture in a newspaper or a melodic idea in a poem among the deer… I hear the distant cry of Layla from the bedroom: do not leave me a prisoner of a rhyme in the nights of the tribes… do not leave me a news item; I am a woman, no less, no more.”

Beautiful Expressions by Mahmoud Darwish about Alienation and Separation

Mahmoud Darwish wrote extensively about alienation and separation and their effects on him. Here are some of his reflections on these themes:

“We have no hand in longing, while in separation we had a thousand hands… Peace be upon you; I miss you so much… And peace be upon me in my longing.”
“Tell the absence that I am incomplete, and I came to complete you.”
“How ecstatic a person feels when they bid farewell to no one and await no one.”
“And every time I searched for them, I found nothing but my own estranged self.”
“My soul is light, and my body is heavy with memories and the place.”

Beautiful Expressions by Mahmoud Darwish about Mother

Mahmoud Darwish composed many poems dedicated to mothers, some of which have even become songs. Here are his heartfelt sayings about mothers:

“Mother… I will not call you a woman; I will call you everything.”
“I long for my mother’s bread, my mother’s coffee, and my mother’s touch. Childhood grows within me day after day, and I love my life; for if I die, I will be ashamed of my mother’s tears.”

Miscellaneous Expressions by Mahmoud Darwish

Here are some of the most beautiful expressions by Mahmoud Darwish:

“Is it within my power to choose my dreams, so I do not dream of things that cannot come true?”
“As for me, I will enter the mulberry tree where the silkworm turns me into a thread of silk, then I will enter the needle of a woman from the tales, and I will fly like a scarf with the wind.”
“History mocks its victims and their heroes; it glances at them and passes by.”
“I came, yet I did not arrive; I came, yet I did not return.”
“I will one day become what I desire… I will one day become a bird, and I will strip my nothingness of existence… The more my wings burn, the closer I get to the truth, and I rise from the ashes… I am the dialogue of dreamers, I withdrew from my body and my soul to complete my first journey to meaning, so he consumed me and vanished… I am the absence… I am the celestial fugitive.”
“In indifference, there is a philosophy; it is a trait of hope.”
“We have our small dreams, as if we wake up from sleep free from disappointment… We did not dream of impossible things… We are alive and remain, and our dream endures.”
“Forgetting is training the imagination to respect reality.”
“By ill fortune, I forgot that the night is long, yet by good fortune, I remembered you until morning.”
“They taught you to beware of joy, for its betrayal is harsh.”
“Modern language has no margin for celebration, for everything that will be has already been.”
“I will praise this new morning… I will forget all the nights, all the nights, and walk to my neighbor’s rose to steal its way of joy.”
“I know that no matter how far I drift with the wind, I will find you again… I know where your distance comes from, so I will go.”
“It is okay for our past to be better than our present… but the complete misery is for our present to be better than our future… oh, our abyss, how vast you are.”
“How beautiful serendipity is… it is free of anticipation.”
“Did we have to fall from a high place and see our blood on our hands to realize we are not angels as we once thought?”
“And we do not repent of our dreams no matter how often they are shattered.”
“With all the joy I have, I hide my tear.”
“And I once asked him in anger how he lives tomorrow… he said: I have nothing to do with my tomorrow; it is an idea that does not occupy me, and I am like this, nothing will change me just as I have changed nothing, so do not hide the sun from me… I replied: You are neither the lofty Alexander nor Diogenes… he said: But in indifference, there is a philosophy; it is a trait of hope.”
“At home, I sit neither happy nor sad, in between… and I do not care if I truly am, or if I am no one.”
“And when you think of other distant ones, think of yourself… say, oh I wish I were a candle in the dark.”
“Between one minute where I acknowledge forgetfulness and another where I attempt to experience it, massacres occur within me and do not cease.”