Mahmoud Darwish Dalya Cohen-Mor Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish Dalya Cohen-Mor Mahmoud Darwish Palestine’s Poet and the Other as the Beloved Dalya Cohen-Mor Potomac, MD, USA ISBN 978-3-030-24161-2 ISBN 978-3-030-24162-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24162-9 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. 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Cover credit: © Harvey Loake This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland PREFACE This study focuses on the Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008), whose poetry has helped to shape Palestinian identity and foster Palestinian culture through many decades of the Israeli–Palestinian confict. The study explores the poet’s romantic relationship with “Rita,” an Israeli-Jewish woman whom he had met in Haifa in his early twenties and to whom he had dedicated a series of love poems and prose passages, among them the iconic poem “Rita and the Gun.” These love poems and prose passages open a window into an intimate chapter in Darwish’s life that left a lasting mark on his creative work. Interwoven with biographical details and diverse documentary materials, this explora- tion reveals a fascinating facet in the poet’s personality, his self-defnition, and his attitude toward the Israeli other. Comprising a close reading of Darwish’s love poems, coupled with many examples of novels and short stories from both Arabic and Hebrew fction that deal with Arab-Jewish love stories, this study delves into the complexity of Arab-Jewish relations and shows how romance can blossom across ethno-religious lines and how politics all too often destroys it. Chapter 1 The Poet’s Public Persona: A Lover from Palestine introduces Mahmoud Darwish to the reader, presenting the major events of his life and the main stages in his poetic career. I discuss the characteristic fea- tures of Darwish’s political poetry, focusing on his use of the beloved as a metaphor for Palestine or the land, for which he became known as “a lover from Palestine.” This public image led to a tendency among Arab readers and critics alike to construe every love poem that he wrote v vi PREFACE as a poem for the homeland. Given this tendency, as well as the ongo- ing Palestinian struggle for liberation from Israeli occupation, the Rita poems, dedicated to an Israeli-Jewish woman with whom Darwish had a passionate love affair, were largely shrouded in silence and mystery or else interpreted metaphorically. Chapter 2 Dangerous Liaisons: Arab-Jewish Romantic Relationships provides background information on interfaith dating and marriage in Israel to contextualize the complications surrounding Darwish’s love affair with Rita. I look at the prevailing social attitudes toward this issue, the existing laws, and the statistics on both sides of the ethno-religious divide. Regarded as an act of treason by members of both Arab and Jewish societies, interfaith romance and marriage are discouraged and incur great hardships for couples who violate this taboo. The situation on the ground is mirrored in works of fction by both Arab and Jewish authors in Israel, and I present many examples of novels and short stories that depict such relationships, almost all of which end in heartache, breakup, or death. Chapter 3 Self-Defning Memories: When Mahmoud Met “Rita” describes the forbidden love between Darwish and Rita. Drawing on multiple sources, including the recent documentary flm Write Down, I Am an Arab (Sajjil ana ‘Arabi), newspaper articles, and published inter- views, I provide an account of Rita’s identity, background, and career, how she and Darwish met, what brought them together, and what drove them apart. I offer an explanation as to why, following their breakup, Rita became a leitmotif in Darwish’s poetry. I highlight the power of frst love as the main motive for this leitmotif, and also draw on the theory of “self-defning memories” in psychology to elucidate its function. This theory is particularly pertinent here, given that Darwish’s love for Rita was unrequited and ended in heartache. Chapter 4 The Rita Love Poems and Prose Passages offers a close reading of the love poems and prose passages that Darwish dedicated to Rita over a period of twenty-fve years, from 1967 to 1992. I discuss dom- inant themes, images, and messages. I draw a comparison between the impossible love of Darwish and Rita and that of other famous lovers in literature, the Arab Qais and Layla and the European Romeo and Juliet, all of whom belonged to hostile/warring groups. Finally, I offer an explanation as to why Rita ceased to appear in Darwish’s poetry from the end of 1992 until his death in 2008. Preface vii Chapter 5 Unbeliever in the Impossible examines the implications of the most celebrated love story between a Palestinian man and an Israeli- Jewish woman in recent history. What does it reveal about Darwish’s self-defnition and his attitude toward the Israeli other? I argue that although Darwish came to be known as a poet of resistance, he had always advocated dialogue with Israelis and embraced the Israeli com- ponent in his Palestinian identity, as evidenced by the facts that he spoke Hebrew fuently and read and appreciated the poetry of Israel’s national poet Hayim Nahman Bialik and Israel’s greatest modern poet Yehuda Amichai. The personal story of these star-crossed lovers is ulti- mately a metaphor for Arab-Jewish relations. It illustrates the tragedy of two neighboring communities that have the potential to develop close and enriching ties but are instead embroiled in a century-long confict. Darwish’s resonant words, “We are both unbelievers in the impossible,” which he wrote in one of his love poems, offer a message of hope that this seemingly unresolvable confict will someday come to an end. Potomac, MD, USA Dalya Cohen-Mor RITA AND THE GUN Between Rita and my eyes is a gun and whoever knows Rita kneels and prays to some divinity in those hazel eyes. And I kissed Rita when she was young and I remember how she clung to me and how my arm was covered by the loveliest of braids and I remember Rita as a sparrow remembers its stream. Ah, Rita between us are a million sparrows and pictures and countless trysts fred on … by a gun. Rita’s name was a feast in my mouth Rita’s body was a wedding in my blood and I was lost in Rita for two years and for two years she slept on my arm and we made pledges over the most beautiful of cups and we burned in the wine of our lips and we were born again. Ah, Rita what made my eyes turn from yours but a couple of brief naps ix x Rita AND THE GUN and hazel clouds in a time before this gun. Once upon a time … O silence of the evening my moon migrated far in the morning in the hazel eyes and the city swept away all the singers and Rita. Between Rita and my eyes is a gun. From Selected Poems: Mahmoud Darwish. Introduced and translated by Ian Wedde and Fawwaz Tuqan. Cheadle Hulme, UK: Carcanet Press, 1973. Copyright © 1973 by Ian Wedde. Revised by Ian Wedde. Reprinted by permission of Ian Wedde. CONTENTS 1 The Poet’s Public Persona: A Lover from Palestine 1 2 Dangerous Liaisons: Arab-Jewish Romantic Relationships 13 3 Self-Defning Memories: When Mahmoud Met “Rita” 45 4 The Rita Love Poems and Prose Passages 65 5 Unbeliever in the Impossible 83 Bibliography 95 Index 101 xi.

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