In Memory of Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)
The Los Angeles Review of Books marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Mahmoud Darwish, one of the great poets of Palestine, with "Canvas on the Wall,” originally published in 1969 when Darwish was 28 years old.
By Fady JoudahAugust 7, 2013
Mahmoud Darwish died on August 9th, Nagasaki Day. He had undergone cardiovascular surgery on August 6th. Hiroshima Day had also been significant for Darwish during the terrifying Israeli destruction of Beirut, Lebanon in 1982 — a Memory of Forgetfulness he achingly documented in prose. “Canvas on the Wall,” originally published in 1969, when Darwish was 28 years old, is just one fitting tribute to this great poet on the fifth anniversary of his death.
– Fady Joudah
Canvas on the Wall
…and we keep saying things
about the sunset on the little land, while on the wall
Hiroshima weeps, another night
passes, as all we take from our world
is the form of death
at high noon
Your eyes belong to another age
my body owns another story
and in dream we desire jasmine
Years ago, when the world
dispensed with us and the walls
were difficult to comprehend, aspirin
could return olives, dreams
and windows to their owners
and longing was a game
to distract us from the years
But now we say many things
about wilting wheat in the little land
and on the wall Hiroshima weeps,
a glistening truth-dagger, what we take
from our world, the color of death
at high noon
In the burning of a first kiss
sorrow melts, death sings, I lose
my sadness and croon:
Is there a body that can’t become a voice?
What sorrow
doesn’t embrace the globe
to the singer’s chest?
We keep saying things
about the agony of grass in the little land
while on the wall Hiroshima weeps
a forgotten kiss, what we take
from our world is just the taste of death
at high noon
A thousand rivers jog while the strong
throw dice in a café and the flesh
of martyrs disappears, sometimes in clay
and other times it amuses the poets
And at night, my love, I sip
vanity’s milk from your silence
We say many things
about the loss of color in the little land
and on the wall Hiroshima weeps
a girl that has died
As all we take from our world
is the sound of death
at high noon
LARB Contributor
Fady Joudah's most recent poetry collections are Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance and Tethered to Stars, both from Milkweed Editions. He is also the author of the poetry collections Alight and Textu, both released by Copper Canyon Press. He is the recipient of the Griffin International Poetry Prize in 2013 and is a Guggenheim fellow in poetry.
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