Mahmoud Darwish Quotes

“Have I had two roads, I would have chosen their third.”
― Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence

“I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule
I learnt all the words and broke them up
To make a single word:
Homeland..”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“he says I am from there, I am from here, but I am neither there nor here. I have two names which meet and part… I have two languages, but I have long forgotten— which is the language of my dreams”
― Mahmoud Darwish's farwell to Edward Said

“I testify that I am free and alive when I am forgotten”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“Like a small coffeehouse on the street of exiles
That is love, it opens its doors to all.”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“In Damascus:
poems become diaphanous
They’re neither sensual
nor intellectual
they are what echo says
to echo . . .”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“he says I am from there, I am from here, but I am neither there nor here. I have two names which meet and part… I have two languages, but I have long forgotten— which is the language of my dreams”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“In Damascus:
the traveler sings to himself:
I return from Syria
neither alive
nor dead
but as clouds
that ease the butterfly’s burden
from my fugitive soul”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“As you prepare your breakfast, think of others
(do not forget the pigeon’s food).
As you conduct your wars, think of others
(do not forget those who seek peace).
As you pay your water bill, think of others
(those who are nursed by clouds).
As you return home, to your home, think of others
(do not forget the people of the camps).
As you sleep and count the stars, think of others
(those who have nowhere to sleep).
As you liberate yourself in metaphor, think of others
(those who have lost the right to speak).
As you think of others far away, think of yourself
(say: “If only I were a candle in the dark”).”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“A place is not only a geographical area; it's also a state of mind. And trees are not just trees, they are the ribs of childhood.”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“Mahmoud Darwish dice player

Dice player Mahmoud Darwish

Who am I to tell you
What do I tell you?
And I was not a stone polished by water
He became a face
Nor did the wind pierce him
It became Naya ...

I'm a dice player,
We win and lose our time
I am like you
Or slightly less ...
I was born beside the well
And the three single trees as nuns
She was born without a flap and without a midwife
I was called by chance
I belonged to a family
coincidence ,
And inherited its features and qualities
And diseases”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“One day I’ll become what I want
One day I will become a thought”

Excerpt From
Mural”
― Mahmoud Darwish, Mural

“عميقا عميقا
يواصل فعل المضارع
أشعاله اليدوية”
― Mahmoud Darwish

“I went north, east and west
but the south was far and impenetrable to me
because the south is my home
So I became a metaphor of a swallow soaring above my debris”
― Mahmoud Darwish, جدارية

“A poem is not just words placed on a line. It's a cloth. Mahmoud Darwish wanted to build his home, his exile, from all the words in the world. I weave my poems with my veins. I want to build a poem like a solid home, but hopefully not with my bones.”
― Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza