Life and Death Dialectic in Mahmoud Darwish’s Poems

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the duality of life and death in Mahmoud Darwish’s poems because it is remarkably a recurrent theme in his literary works. This study shows the most prominent death’s patterns and imagery in Darwish’s poetic speech such as the death of relatives, the death of friends, the death of beloved ones and lovers, and the death of martyrs and heroes. Moreover, the study clarifies that Darwish’s has an insightful vision of death, and he has a futuristic vision that forms things according to their reflections in his mind and heart. Thus, death, for him, means to experience life. This vision is true because there is an act of martyrdom that really exists; this act actually becomes part of the Palestinians daily lives and so they acclimate themselves to it. Therefore, it is death which generates life and achieves victory. So martyrs’ passing away represents two deaths: death for death and death for life. Darwish glorifies death because he considers it the wedding for martyrs and a way to restore the land, expel the enemy, and achieve the Palestinian self at its homeland.