Legendary Darwish has the last word

Oh death wait for me outside the earth
Wait for me in your country until I finish
A casual conversation with what is left of my life
Near your tent...

This time around, on Saturday, August 10, Mahmoud Darwish could not have a conversation with death as he did in his Jidariyya poem, which he penned down in 1998 after coming through the state of being 'clinically dead'. Neither could he claim a victory similar in meaning and scope as he had then.

Could Darwish have feared or suspected that this time around, death would have a conversation with him and not the other way around? Could he have been restless about the thought that he would not be able to say, like before: "I have defeated you death of all the arts"?

This time around, death could not wait any longer.

There is no question that Darwish, regardless of all his shortcomings and the criticisms he had received for various reasons, departs being by far the modern Arab poet most renowned. No other Arab poet in modern times has been able to gather as much acclaim.

No Arab poet has been able to sustain being in the limelight of the public's attention and admiration as Darwish has been. And no other Arab poet has generated controversy over his writings and positions on issues as he had.

Most recent of all, Darwish handed down harsh criticism of the Palestinian infighting. "This is a tragic situation. An atmosphere of a civil war. What happened between individuals from Fatah and individuals from Hamas in Gaza is an expression of a dead-ended horizon. There is no Palestinian state - and no Palestinian authority. And each is fighting the other over illusions," he commented then.

But this blank criticism brought Darwish accusations that as a poet he should have preserved his neutrality beyond factionalism of any kind.

Ironically, the idea as much as the reality of being in a state of constant exile - of the soul and that of being away from the homeland - would be his last written essay. "Exile within one's homeland is harsher and more sadistic."

And in his latest poem, he reveals a glimpse of his helplessness about this state Palestinians have reached. In A Ready Scenario, Darwish takes us back and forth in a conversation between himself and the enemy who both happened to fall together in a hole.

Questioning what would happen between the victim - Palestinians - and their tormentors - Israel - he leaves the ending to be decided by others and not him.

Right here a killer and killed sleeping in a single hole
...And it is up to another poet to continue this scenario
Until its end!

In addition, his views of some Arab intellectuals lined him up with a few more enemies, especially during a decade that witnessed significant changes in the Arab world.

"There are some Arab intellectuals who boast the reception of democracy that is coming on the back of an American tank," he said in the era of post-Iraq invasion.

Criticism

But Darwish also admitted that some of his "harshest" and strongest criticism came from Palestinians - and not as much from Arab poets. "Unfortunately, our cultural life, especially in the poetry field, is not clear in the ethical meaning of the term".

And perhaps, it is his views on poetry as a human endeavour and its role for humanity that also compounded further criticism.

Darwish strongly championed - especially later on during his creative modes of writing - the role poetry plays in bringing out the daily, regular and mundane aspects of life and not just focus on the political.

Such an opinion is ironic for a poet whose beginnings bloomed on mainly political poems that spoke of heroism, the dreamed homeland, the adored and sacred hope for its reclamation. "The time of poetic cavalierly and aggrandising heroism with all its meaning has ended."

For this reason, the worst treatment for his poetry would be is to confine and capsule it to what it means in political terms and nothing else.

All that he wrote could not be always deciphered as political insinuations, and "that's the worse of it" he would say - that the beauty of the poetry is overridden by what it may mean politically.

Perhaps, Darwish is right in claiming that it is that 'awe' for life and everything living that enables poetry to be born and blossom. And it is that 'awe' that made him fall in love with the world of words as much as made his readers fall in love with his world.

And although, it is true that "the dead never attend their funeral congregation" as he said about a year ago, the words he masterly wielded would ensure his promise - "I am still alive in some place". And that would be Darwish's greatest legacy.