Mahmoud Darwish fans remember legendary Palestinian poet on death anniversary

Palestinians commemorated the 14th death anniversary of renowned writer Mahmoud Darwish on Tuesday, whose poems spoke out against the Israeli occupation.

Born in the village of Al-Birwa on 13 March 1941, the award-winning Palestinian poet's work was seen as a form of resistance and often angered Israeli authorities.

He lived part of his life in Lebanon, where his family - like thousands of Palestinians - fled during the 1948 Nakba when the state of Israel was created.

As well as a poet, Darwish was also a political activist and member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Beirut, which was ousted from the Lebanese capital in 1982 following the Israeli invasion.

Living in different cities throughout his life, Darwish passed away in Houston, Texas, on 9 August 2008.

Despite only some critique of Darwish, Twitter users flooded the platform with quotes from his poems to celebrate him.

"You are forgotten as if you never existed, you are forgotten like a bird when it dies, like an abandoned church you are forgotten, a transient love, like a flower in the snow you are forgotten," reads one tweet.

تُنسى
كأنكَ
لم
تَكُن

تُنسى
كمصرعِ
طائرٍ

ككنيسةٍ
مهجورةٍ
تُنسى

كَحُبٍ
عابرٍ

وكوردةٍ
في الثلجِ
تُنسى.
- محمود درويش.

— Heaven Is A Place On Earth With You (@Heavenwithyouuu) August 7, 2022

"Take me back to where I was before I met you, then leave."

عُد بي إلى حيث كُنت قبل أن ألتقيك ، ثم إرحل..

-محمود درويش pic.twitter.com/fXukqcdUhW

— Ahmed Guevara (@Ahmed_Guevara14) July 18, 2022

"When do we meet?
- After a year, and a war
And when does the war end?
- When we meet"

متى نلتقي؟
- بعد عامٍ وحرب
ومتى تنتهي الحرب؟
- حين نلتقي♥️

-محمود درويش

— Ahmed M. Metwalli (@d_ahmed1998) July 30, 2022

Some even used Darwish's poems as a reference to humour.

"I need Mahmoud Darwish to come and teach me how to walk lightly to not break my fragility, and how to walk heavy to not fly," one person wrote.

محتاجة محمود درويش يجي يعلمني ازاي امشي خفيفًا لئلا أكسر هشاشتي وازاي امشي ثقيلًا لئلا أطير عشان الدنيا بايظة خالص

— هاجر (@hagertheperson) August 3, 2022