darwish

I poured my morning coffee and sat down to start reading Darwish.  I ended up spending my entire morning with him and reading his book cover to cover.  Darwish was a pacifist, an ambassador speaking out from the violence riddled cradle of humanity.  In "A metaphor" on page 54, he captured the delicate balance of the universe, the cosmos, the necessity of coexistence, and the necessity, difficulty, and precariousness with which man must maintain his place within.  "We will become a people when..." he promises his reader on page 54, when we learn to undo centuries of inclination and view our fellow humans as something other than enemies.

He is attractive, sexually even, because of his contemplative sensuality.  Life, to him, is an illusion, a perception at best.  But humans share, across space and time, experiences and consequent desires and philosophies.  This is where I find Darwish most appealing.  There is something universal about Darwish, something that simultaneously evokes and satisfies the primal.  His writing is woven with props, if you will, from his own world that remind the West that if we were to live slower that life might be richer.   Amidst the clutter of conflict is where the beauty of simplicity shines most brightly.

Darwish makes me lament the East and the past.  My only regret is that I cannot understand Arabic, because I'm sure that much is lost in translation.