Palestinians and Arab World on Sunday mourned the death of Mahmud Darwish, who gave voice to their decades-old struggle and is widely considered one of the Arab world's greatest modern poets. In a televised address after Darwish died on Saturday in a US hospital from complications following open-heart surgery, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas declared three days of official mourning. "How much does it pain my heart and my soul to announce to the Palestinian people, the Arab and Islamic world, and to everyone who loves peace and freedom, the passing of the star of Palestine," Abbas said. "The absence of our great poet Mahmud Darwish, the love of Palestine and the pioneer of the modern Palestinian cultural project... will leave a great void in our cultural, political, and national life," he said. The 67-year-old, who is also known as the “poet of Resistance”, penned over two dozen books of poetry and prose in a career spanning nearly five decades that captured the Palestinian experience of war, exile, and the struggle for national self-determination.
Reuters: Palestinians plan big funeral for poet Darwish. MahmoudDarwish.com: I AM NOT MINE. Mahmoud Darwish reads his own poems. (Loads slowly -you can imagine why.) Democracy Now: Mahmoud Darwish, Poet Laureate of the Palestinians, 1941-2008.
