Identity Card

Write down!
I am an Arab
And my identity card number is fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth will come after a summer
Will you be angry?

Write down!
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks..
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber
s o will you be angry?

Write down!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew

My father descends from the family of the plough
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title!

Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks..
So will the State take them
a s it has been said?!

Therefore!
Write down on the top of the first page:
I do not hate p eo ple
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper's flesh will be my food
Beware …
Beware …
Of my hunger
And my anger!

© Mahmoud Darwish

Translation: Bashar Barghouti

 

Mahmud Darwish was born in Al-Birwah near Akka in 1941. In 1948, the village was attacked by the Zionist. Darwish ran away at the age of seven to Lebanon knowing nothing about his family. A year later, he returned to Palestine and fund his village totally ruined, replaced by an Israeli settlement.
Darwish wrote his first poems when he was in the elementary school in the village of Der Al-Asad. He was detained by the Israelis and put under house arrest several times. He went to Cairo in 1971 and was the head of The Palestinian Center for Research , editor of Shu'oon Falasteeniyyah (Palestinian Affairs Magazine), head of The General Association of Palestinian Writers and Journalists , editor of Al-Karmil Magazine of the GAPWJ, and lately member of The Executive Committee of the PLO . He resigned from this position in 1993. He lived in exile between Beirut and Paris until his return in 1996 to Ramallah, Palestine.

His poetry has gained great sophistication over the years, and has enjoyed international fame for a long time. He has published about 30 poetry and prose collections, which have been translated into 35 languages. He is the editor in chief and founder of the prestigious literary review Al Karmel, which has resumed publication in January 1997 out of the Sakakini Centre offices. He published in 1998 the poetry collection: Sareer el Ghariba (Bed of the Stranger), his first collection of love poems. In 2000 he published Jidariyya (Mural) a book consisting of one poem about his near death experience in 1997. He published his book of poetry "Stage of Siege" in 2002. He is a commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters. Mahmound Darwish is an honorary member of the Sakakini Centre. He was honoured with the Erich-Maria Remarque-Friedenspreis in 2003 .