We are All in Exile

People are not turtles. We don't carry our homes on our backs. The Palestinian  poet Mahmoud Darwish has written extensively of exile and absence. They carry through his poetry and other written work like an artery pulsating with the very essence of these themes. 

Exile is a subject that has spoken to me for several years now. I feel a great kinship wit exile.  Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that I am in exile in the severe context of a person banished from his or her homeland and unable to return, but I have learned that we can truly feel separated from things, places, people, etc. in ways that create profound sadness, anxiety, longing, etc. 

Maybe it is a childhood home, maybe an old neighborhood, a dear friend, a way of life, A favorite home as an adult. These things can all impact us in profound ways that create a longing. 

There is a little known Welsh word that has no literal English word.  "Hiraeth" in a broad context refers to some blend of the emotions longing, homesickness, nostalgia.  It could include the missing of a time, and era, a person, and it is layered with many feelings.  Often it is related to something you can never go back to.  As such, the emotional tug strings to the word run deep. 

I believe that most people have some connection to the feeling of exile at some time in their life.  In my personal experience it has been a dominant feeling that I have had for quite some time. 

​In his book, "In the Presence of Absence" Darwish  speaks to my heart in so many ways. "I only hate hatred, because  it poisons one's capacity to love simple things."  "You said to me: If i die before you do, protect me from canned words that have exceeded their expiration date from the moment the speaker stood at a podium."

"You said: "I used to invent love when it was necessary. When I walked alone on  the riverbank. Or whenever the level of salt would rise in my body, I would invent the river."

Darwish seems to rely on his inventiveness, his creative mind to propel himself through these emotional struggles that come with absence and feeling of loneliness. 

"You ask: What is the meaning of refugee?  They will say one who is uprooted from his homeland."

"You will ask: What is the meaning of homeland?  They will say, The house, the mulberry tree, the chicken coop, the beehive, the smell of bread and the first sky".

"You ask: Can a word of eight letters be big enough for all these, yet too small for us?"

"You have a splendid dream that precedes poetry
and a sea call that precedes rhythm
As if tonight were the private rendezvous
between creator and created:
Be the master of your attributes now
My son, you have a dream
Follow it with the. night given to you!
And be one of the dream's attributes
Dream and you will find paradise in place."


MAHMOUD DARWISH (1941-2008) was born in Galilee, Palestine and became a refugee at age 7

He worked as a journalist and editor for Haifa.  Left for Moscow to study in 1970. His exile journey took him to Beirut, Tunis, Cairo, Paris, Amman, and Ramallah. 

Darwish's works include 30 books, and his poetry has been translated into 35 languages.


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