 | Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 Subjects: Lebanon -- History -- Israeli intervention 1982–1984 -- Personal narratives Palestinian; Beirut (Lebanon) -- History; Darwish Maḥmῡd; One of the Arab world's greatest poets uses the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the shelling of Beirut as the setting for this sequence of prose poems. Mahmoud Darwish vividly recreates the sights and sounds of a city under terrible siege. As fighter jets scream overhead, he explores the war-ravaged streets of Beirut on August 6th (Hiroshima Day). Memory for Forgetfulness is an extended reflection on the invasion and its political and historical dimensions. It is also a journey into personal and collective memory. What is the meaning of exile? What is the role of the writer in time of war? What is the relationship of writing (memory) to history (forgetfulness)? In raising these questions, Darwish implicitly connects writing, homeland, meaning, and resistance in an ironic, condensed work that combines wit with rage. Ibrahim Muhawi's translation beautifully renders Darwish's testament to the heroism of a people under siege, and to Palestinian creativity and continuity. Sinan Antoon's foreword, written expressly for this edition, sets Darwish's work in the context of changes in the Middle East in the past thirty years. Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish was born on March 15, 1941. He was considered the Palestinian national poet and won numerous awards for his work including the 1969 Lotus Prize, the 1983 Lenin Peace Prize, and the 2001 Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultral Freedom. His best known work was Identity Card (1964). He also edited the journal Al Karmel and wrote the Palestinian declaration of independent statehood. He died from complications of heart surgery on August 9, 2008. (Bowker Author Biography) |
