What do you think?
Rate this book
105 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
One day I'll become what I wantDarwish was born in 1941 in al-Birwa in the Western Galilee, the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. His family were landowners. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, his village was captured by Israeli forces and the family fled to Lebanon. Their home village was razed and destroyed by the IDF to prevent its inhabitants from returning to their homes inside the new Jewish state. A year later, Darwish's family returned to the Acre area, which was now part of Israel, and settled in Deir al-Asad. Darwish attended high school in Kafr Yasif, two kilometers north of Jadeidi. He eventually moved to Haifa.
One day I will become a thought
that no sword or book can dispatch to the wasteland
I will dream in the hope that countries expand to make room for me as I amOver his lifetime, Darwish published more than 30 volumes of poetry and eight books of prose. By the age of seventeen, Darwish was writing poetry about the suffering of the refugees in the Nakba and the inevitability of their return, and had begun reciting his poems at poetry festivals.
an orphan cut off from the people of this sea