37 Facts About Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.

In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declaration for the creation of a State of Palestine.

Mahmoud Darwish wrote in Arabic, and spoke English, French, and Hebrew.

Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in al-Birwa in the Western Galilee, the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish.

Mahmoud Darwish's mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read.

Mahmoud Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi.

Mahmoud Darwish published his first book of poetry, Asafir bila ajniha, or "Wingless Birds," at the age of 19.

Mahmoud Darwish initially published his poems in Al Jadid, the literary periodical of the Israeli Communist Party, eventually becoming its editor.

Mahmoud Darwish was a member of Rakah, the Israeli Communist Party.

Mahmoud Darwish left Israel in 1970 to study in the Soviet Union.

Mahmoud Darwish attended the Lomonosov Moscow State University for one year.

Mahmoud Darwish was elected to the PLO Executive Committee in 1987.

In 1993 Mahmoud Darwish resigned from the PLO Executive Committee, in opposition to the Oslo accords.

Mahmoud Darwish had a history of heart disease, suffering a heart attack in 1984.

Mahmoud Darwish had two heart operations, in 1984 and 1998.

Mahmoud Darwish's final visit to Israel was on 15 July 2007, to attend a poetry recital at Mt Carmel Auditorium in Haifa.

Over his lifetime of 67 years Mahmoud Darwish published more than 30 volumes of poetry and eight books of prose.

Mahmoud Darwish was one of the contributors of Lotus, a literary magazine financed by Egypt and the Soviet Union.

Seven years later, on 1 May 1965, when the young Mahmoud Darwish read his poem "Bitaqat huwiyya" ["Identity Card"] to a crowd in a Nazareth movie house, there was a tumultuous reaction.

Mahmoud Darwish's poems were translated into Danish and published in various publications, including Politisk Revy.

Mahmoud Darwish wrote monorhymed poems adhering to the metrics of traditional Arabic poetry.

Mahmoud Darwish was impressed by the Iraqi poets Abd al-Wahhab Al-Bayati and Badr Shakir al-Sayyab.

Mahmoud Darwish cited Arthur Rimbaud and Allen Ginsberg as literary influences.

Mahmoud Darwish wants to use the landscape and history for his own benefit, based on my destroyed identity.

Mahmoud Darwish died on 9 August 2008 at the age of 67, three days after heart surgery at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Early reports of his death in the Arabic press indicated that Mahmoud Darwish had asked in his will to be buried in Palestine.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning to honor Darwish and he was accorded the equivalent of a State funeral.

Mahmoud Darwish's body was then flown from Amman, Jordan for the burial in Ramallah.

In July 2007, Mahmoud Darwish visited Israel for the first time in over 35 years and spoke at an event sponsored by the Hadash party.

Mahmoud Darwish is widely perceived as a Palestinian symbol and a spokesman for Palestinians.

Mahmoud Darwish's work has won numerous awards and been published in 20 languages.

The poetic work of Mahmoud Darwish has been the subject of extensive studies and analyses in several universities worldwide.

Adel Usta, a specialist on Mahmoud Darwish's poetry, said the poem had been misunderstood and mistranslated.

In March 2000, Yossi Sarid, the Israeli education minister, proposed that two of Mahmoud Darwish's poems be included in the Israeli high school curriculum.

Many of Mahmoud Darwish's poems were set to music by Arab composers, among them Marcel Khalife, Reem Kelani, Majida El Roumi and Ahmad Qa'abour.

In 1997, a documentary entitled Mahmoud Darwish was produced by French TV, directed by French-Moroccan director Simone Bitton.

Mahmoud Darwish appeared as himself in Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique.