Mahmoud Darwish: Writing as an Artistic Sanctuary

Darwish’s poetry transcends the national boundary to highlight universal values of life and love through mirroring the Palestinian tragedy. This is well reflected in Memory and “The Hoopoe.” By discussing the stylistic and thematic aspects of the prose poetry and the poem, I highlight Darwish’s steadfast commitment to truth and beauty. My discussion aims at demarcating the transition taking place in Darwish’s poetic universe toward a more metaphysically poised aesthetics. At the same time, I show how his aesthetics did not allow him to abandon his hope for a better future in his conflict-stricken land. In the end, his language gives him the guarantee of a metaphorical abode in the absence of a physical one, since his poetry upholds the humanist values he stands for.