Bahraini.TV

The 65-year-old, bespectacled poet steps on to the podium. The Bahrain Museum reverberates with cheers. The standing ovation in the great hall, packed to capacity, echoes – again and again.

“I owe the Kingdom of Bahrain an apology for not coming here sooner,” Mahmoud Darwish remarks, unassumingly. And the multitude of fans, poetry lovers and officials give a thunderous applause. The din takes its own time. Every second takes one full second to pass. The Palestinian intellectual waits – and waits – for his turn.

It is the first-ever evening Bahrain has with the Arab poet on its own land. And the first occasion for the Kingdom’s masses – who waited for years – to welcome him.

Darwish’s respect, care and support for women comes to the fore. The world is celebrating women’s day. Wednesday is an opportune moment to increase awareness, to pay tribute.

He reads out a poem. Not just an eulogy. It is Darwish’s conviction in the cause of the Arab woman. He reiterates support. He calls for gender equality. He stresses equal opportunities. He dreams social and marital harmony.

A dream for him, and many of us. “It will be unprecedented when one day a woman heads the security apparatus in the Arab world.”

Security. The old man is highly conscious of the plight of Palestine and the Palestinians. Darwish was born during the 1941 tragedy. The country was under the British Mandate. He spent his childhood in Palestine, amid bloodshed and suffering which influenced and shaped his thoughts. His life. His beliefs. The process continues.

Poem follows poem from the ‘Poet of the Resistance.” The man has been visiting country after country, calling for an end to the occupation of his beloved country. He is heard all over. He wins laurels. He draws hatred.

So there is a tinge of cynicism. In one poem, an Israeli woman soldier asks him: “Didn’t I kill you?” He answers: “Yes, but just like you, I forgot how to die.”

Take another poem, for example. He talks about the enemies of his country. He asks: “How does blood flow in the bodies of ghosts?” In another, he wonders: “How could you kill three doves with one bullet?” The hope for peace – the life of the dove – is elusive, thanks to the killers.

Darwish shares with the audience his pain in his mind and heart. In one poem, he asks the jailor’s son: “Aren’t you the son of the jailer?” The son answers: “Yes.” He asks: “How is your father?” The son says: “My father has died and passed down to me the job to imprison you.” The poet asks: “Would you imprison yourself in me?”

This is one of his most read poems across the world. He is read and re-read in every language in the world.

Silence falls on the audience – government officials, ambassadors, a large number of Bahraini and Arab men, women and children.

Bahraini poet Hassan Kamal inaugurated the evening with Darwish on Wednesday. “Palestine is his love, his obsession, his cause,” Kamal talks of the poet, in a brief introduction.

The event was organised by the Culture and Heritage Affairs at the Ministry of Information as part of the Spring of Culture. The month-long cultural exchange between Arab nations continues until March-end.
Bahrain Tribune :: Nada Al-Abbas :: 10 Mar ’06