Mahmoud Darwich 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. View quote
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. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Where can I free myself of the homeland in my body? View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
My love, I fear the silence of your hands. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives. View quote
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. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Exile is more than a geographical concept. You can be an exile in your homeland, in your own house, in a room. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Without hope we are lost. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down. View quote
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. View quote
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. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
I don't decide to represent anything except myself. But that self is full of collective memory. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
I see poetry as spiritual medicine. (Mahmoud Darwich)
Nothing, nothing justifies terrorism. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
I am not a lover of Israel, of course. I have no reason to be. But I don't hate Jews. View quote
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. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich
Palestinian people are in love with life. View quote
Mahmoud Darwich