Who and What was the Trojan Poet?

Photo Credit: Poetry Foundation

Mahmoud Darwish  is a Palestinian who was considered by many to be the National Poet of Palestine. He spent  the part of his life in exhile.  He is a poet who had a real read on the pulse of Palestian and made it a point to be a voice for those who had none.  He considered himself a Trojan Poet, in that he was searching for the voices of the defeated. Like the Trojins. 

He had friends and ties to some in Israel. He said of the region of Palestine, it's history includes multiple cultures. Canaanite, Hebraic, Greek, Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Arab, Ottoman,English, and French. Darwish said, "I want to live all of these cultures. It is my right to indentify with all of these voices that have echoed on this land. For I am not an intruder, nor a passer-by."

Darwish maintains it is " the right of poetry to proclaim dispair without triggering all this media outcry. I don't know ny great poetry that is the daughter of victory." He noted that lacking of the Greek heratige of Troy. He says it was said to have been written ontablets that disappeared. He therefore is drawn to speakfor the losers, those deprived of voice. It is not losers that dell the stories of defeat, those stories are all told by the victors. We don't hear form the loser's side.  This I suppose is why he idetified with those without a voice. 

This is just a small introductions who were perhaps not familiar with Darwish.  I will share some of his poetry and interesting quotes in the near future.


#MahmoudDarwish  #PalestinianPoet    #TrojanPoet