With the passing of Mahmoud Darwish, the world has lost a uniquely compelling voice and a passionate advocate against dispossession and the pain it engenders. He was the poet of exile, the refugees' poet whose universal language of dislocation and alienation will be heard in the discourse – political and poetic – for many years to come. We at UNRWA mourn this loss together with all Palestinian people. Indeed, we chose to name our exhibition to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Nakba with the words of one of his most celebrated poems. We recognized, as must all people advocating for refugee populations, the profound truths that lie buried in its subtext: the need to recognize the narrative of the other, the transforming power of simple acknowledgement and the lasting good that flows when two historical currents come together, however painful that confluence might be. We called that exhibition, “I Come From There … and Remember”. It is with the words of that poem that we at UNRWA would like to pay tribute and give thanks for a life that transformed ours. Karen AbuZayd. * * * I Come From There, I come from there and I have memories -Ends- |
Document Sources: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Subject: Education and culture, History
Publication Date: 13/08/2008