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Last login: 30 hours agoThamus: Thamus is a 90 year old guy from Ireland.; Likes 5,371 pages, 33 videos, 39 photos • 368 fans • Received 157 reviews; Member since Dec 30, 2005

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if:book: twittering from the past: Aug 11, 12:21pm 0 review literature
http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2008/08/twittering_from_the_past...

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dead at 67 - International Herald Tribune: Aug 9, 1:23pm 1 review literature, poetry, israel, palestine
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/09/africa/ME-Obit-Darwish.php; And death shall have no dominion I have defeated you, death All the beautiful arts have defeated you The songs of Mesopotamia, the obelisks of Egypt, the carved tombs of the pharaohs on the altar have defeated you, and you are vanquished. [Mahmoud Darwish] Mahmoud Darwish, the greatest Palestinian poet who gave a poignant voice to the Palestinian experience of exile, occupation and civl war, has died in Houston, Texas. He was 67. I met and spoke with Mahmoud twice, once in Brussels at a conference, and once in Ramallah for an interview, and wrote several columns about him. I greatly admired his simple, homely poetry. His death is a deep blow and a immense sadness. Many of his poems have been put into music and have become anthems for at least two generations of Arabs. Darwish had an astonishing ability to condense the Palestinian narrative into simple, evocative language, breaking away from the more traditional heavy, emotive, rhythmic verse of Arab poets. Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, read by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat when he unilaterally declared statehood from Algiers. His influence was keenly felt among Palestinians and he was a powerful voice for many of their more pragmatic leaders. "He started out as a poet of resistance and then he became a poet of conscience," said Palestinian parliamentarian Hanan Ashrawi. "He embodied the best in Palestinians, with fame he never lost his sense of humanity. We have lost part of our essence, the essence of the Palestinian being." Eight years ago Yossi Sarid, who was then Israeli education minister (the best person ever to hold this job), proposed teaching Darwish's works in Israel's public school curriculum. The idea was shot down by the country's racist religious right-wing parties who forced a no-confidence vote in the government. Sarid is retired, and Darwish is dead. The regressive retards may celebrate. The rest of us feel we have lost something great.