Mahmoud Darwish - Di Cousens
Mahmoud Darwish
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.
Taken from Unfortunately, It Was Paradise by Mahmoud Darwish translated and edited by Munir Akash and Carolyn Forché with Sinan Antoon and Amira El-Zein. Copyright © 2003 by the Regents of the University of California.
Mahmoud Darwish is considered Palestine’s most eminent poet. He was born in Al-Birweh in 1941. He published his first collection of poems Leaves Of Olives in 1964. Other collections include The Adam Of Two Edens, 2001; Stage Of Siege, 2002 and The Butterfly’s Burden 2006. His awards and honors include the Ibn Sina Prize, the Lenin Peace Prize, and France’s Knight of Arts and Belles Lettres medal in 1997. He died in 2008.
Di Cousens has chosen to foreground and respond to 'I belong there' by Mahmoud Darwish.
Di Cousens
Gaza Memories Lost in 2023
Their memories were made of things.
Precious to all was grandmother's embroidered dress
and the heirloom jewellery -
a gold coin headband, bracelets, rings and earrings -
the baby photos, toys, books
degree certificates and graduation photos
the work clothes
a wedding gown
the key from the family home before the Nakba.
Now destroyed by fire.
Squadrons of aircraft
dropped bombs from the sky
and burned these memories
these things
these stories of these people's lives
to ash and dust.
Di Cousens is a Naarm/Melbourne based poet and photographer living on Wurundjeri land.
Her poetry is published in anthologies, magazines and chapbooks, the most recent being
'the days pass without name'. She is one of the producers of community radio 3CR's Spoken Word program and is a member of Melbourne PEN. She has been active in interfaith
dialogue for over 20 years and in 2023 received an Order of Australia Medal for her service
to the Buddhist community.
Olive leaves cast shadows against a pale pink surface
