Free Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone? by Mahmoud Darwish Page A

Arabic with no eye on a non-Arab reader. Once he was asked whether he would like to read his poetry in translation before an audience who didn’t know Arabic. His answer was ‘I only read my own poetry.’ Somehow Mahmoud felt that reciting his poetry in translation himself would be an act of betrayal to the identity of his poetry. In March 2008 Mariam, Edward Said’s widow, came to Amman bearing a message for Mahmoud from the organizing committee of the annual lecture in memory of Said. Mahmoud was happy to accept the invitation (Mahmoud and Edward were good friends) and to read the obituary poem he had written in Arabic (titled ‘Counterpoint’) on that sad occasion in 2003. When Mariam Said suggested to him that he might be asked to recite the poem in English he turned to me and said that it ought to be read by the translator (the poem is included in
Almond Blossoms and Beyond
).
    Ironically Mahmoud had to go to Houston to have his voice silenced instead of going to New York to make his voice heard in recital of ‘Counterpoint’ (the other title of the poem is ‘Contrapuntal’: a term Said favoured). The poem itself with the two versions of the title is ironical. There is consolation, however, in Roland Barthes’s most popular ‘The Death of the Author’ theory with its implication that texts in all languages survive their author.
    No doubt Mahmoud’s poetry will survive the poet’s death and challenge time and place.
    On a visit to his family, Mahmoud was asked by his fellow-Palestinians living in Galilee to recite ‘Identity Card’, a very popular poem he wrote relatively early in his life which has become almost a national anthem not only for Palestinians, but also for Arabs as well. His answer was that the poem was written to address a different audience!
    Yet the other reason for avoiding reciting that poem in public (and I heard him turn down the same offer on various occasions) was his desire to draw the attention of the public to the fact that his poetry developed a great deal after writing that poem. The straightforward impact on his Arab audience in particular made some people identify Mahmoud Darwish with that poem, as if he were to become the poet of ‘The Identity Card’.
    While Mahmoud Darwish had no objection to any translation found reasonably satisfactory, a translation falling short of his expectation would make him outraged. I never wanted to express my views about the translations of his poetry already submitted to him and then passed over to me afterwards, as I believed that any translation, whatever its limitations, is in itself a good gesture and it can probably help in widening the circle of his readership. I kept some of those rejected translations and I still remember how some of them provoked his deep anger.
    The several sessions held together at his flat to discuss my translation of
Almond Blossoms and Beyond
and
Absent Presence
assured me of Mahmoud’s remarkable command of language and his profound sense of literary judgement. In the long discussions we had, Mahmoud demonstrated particular appreciation for the task of translation. He never insisted on advancing what he believed to be a better or best alternative to the translation made available to him. On one occasion I complained to him about a poem included in
Almond Blossoms and Beyond
. Thepoem is ‘Tuesday, A Bright Day’ where I was unable to identify the person affectionately celebrated in the poem. His immediate response was that he should have done something to make it less ambiguous. He even went as far as suggesting adding some clue to the poem to make it more intelligible! The poet in question turned out to be Nizar Qabbani.
    Mahmoud Darwish was seriously engaged in Arabic tradition: classical and modern; from Al-Mutanabbi (his
guru
) to Nizar Qabbani. Besides this, he was well-versed in European modernism and postmodernism; and this perhaps gave his poetry a complex ‘structure of feeling’, which the reader