Mourid Barghouti

Mourid Barghouti
مريد البرغوثي
Personal details
Born(1944-07-08)8 July 1944
Deir Ghassana, Mandatory Palestine[1]
Died14 February 2021(2021-02-14) (aged 76)
Amman, Jordan
ChildrenTamim al-Barghouti

Mourid Barghouti (Arabic: مريد البرغوثي, Murīd al-Barghūthī; 8 July 1944 – 14 February 2021) was a Palestinian poet and writer.

Biography

Barghouti was born in Deir Ghassana, near Ramallah, on the West Bank, in 8 July 1944.[2] He studied English literature at Cairo University, graduating in 1967,[3] though he was exiled from Egypt in 1977.[4][5]

The Oslo Accords finally allowed Barghouti to return to the West Bank, and in 1996 he was able to return to Ramallah after 30 years of exile.[2][6] This event inspired his autobiographical novel Ra'aytu Ram Allah (I Saw Ramallah), published by Dar Al Hilal (Cairo, 1997), which won him the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature in the same year.[7] A follow-up, I Was Born There, I Was Born Here was written when he and his son, Tamim, made a visit to the city.[8] Mourid is also widely respected and known for his beautiful poetry, such as his long poem in Midnight and Other Poems, and has among other awards received the Palestine Award for Poetry, in 2020.[9]

In an interview with Maya Jaggi in The Guardian, Barghouti was quoted as saying: "I learn from trees. Just as many fruits drop before they're ripe, when I write a poem I treat it with healthy cruelty, deleting images to take care of the right ones."[5] In an interview with Tahrir Hamdi, Barghouti was quoted again on poetry saying "Love and poetry are made of the highest degree of attention. If you love someone (...) you have to notice. The highest degree of noticing, this is life and this is poetry.[10]

In terms of his political outlook, Barghouti was a vocal critic of the 1993 Oslo Accords and its negotiators, viewing the treaty as an attempt to eradicate any means of Palestinian self-determination and statehood. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the corruption of the late PLO's leadership.[11] He commented disparagingly about the increase in Israeli settlements within the West Bank and its ability to pursue such policies in defiance of international law, whereas Palestinians are deprived of the right to resist such actions, further compounded by the ineptness of the Palestinian Authority to act. He cites these developments as the being the demise of the two-state solution.[12]

Barghouti was married to the novelist Radwa Ashour since 1970, whom he met while studying at Cairo University.[13] The couple had a son, the poet Tamim Barghouti.[2] Barghouti died in Amman on 14 February 2021, aged 76.[14]

Bibliography

English translations:

  • Midnight and Other Poems, translated by Radwa Ashour, ARC Publications, UK, October 2008, ISBN 1-904614-68-X, ISBN 978-1-904614-68-5
  • I Was Born There, I Was Born Here, Bloomsbury, 2011
  • I Saw Ramallah Random House, Anchor Books, 2003-05-13 ISBN 1-4000-3266-0 and Bloomsbury, UK, ISBN 0-7475-7470-7 and the American University in Cairo Press (January 2003), ISBN 978-977-424-755-2
  • A Small Sun, Poems translated by Radwa Ashour and W. S. Merwin, Aldeburgh Poetry Trust, 2003 paperback, Suffolk, UK, ISBN 0-9535422-2-X
  • Contributor to A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West. ISBN 9781909942288

Spanish translations:

  • Medianoche (poetry), translated by Luis Miguel Canada, published by Fundacion Antonio Perez. UCLM, Cuenca, Spain, 2006, ISBN 84-8427-494-2 and ISBN 978-84-8427-494-0
  • He visto Ramala, translated by Iñaki Gutierrez de Teran, published by Ediciones del oriente y del mediterraneo, Guadarrama, Spain, 2002, ISBN 84-87198-83-X and ISBN 978-84-87198-83-0

References

  1. ↑ Tonkin, Boyd (23 January 2009). "Midnight, By Mourid Barghouti, trans Radwa Ashour". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti dies at 76". Al Jazeera. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  3. ↑ Salamar, Samir (15 February 2021). "Iconic Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti dies aged 76". Gulf News. Retrieved 15 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ↑ Shannon Jenkins, Kate (22 September 2017). ""Sometimes People Write Poetry with Their Feet": A Conversation with Tamim Al-Barghouti". The New Yorker. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. 1 2 Jaggi, Maya (12 December 2008). "A life in writing: Mourid Barghouti". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  6. ↑ Datta, Sudipta (27 March 2021). "'I Saw Ramallah' by Mourid Barghouti". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature". AUCPress. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
  8. ↑ Thomas, Ros. Was it something I said? : Misadventures in suburbia. ISBN 9781742586311. OCLC 882933271.
  9. ↑ Salam Mir, Null (1 December 2015). "Mourid Barghouti: The Blessings of Exile". Arab Studies Quarterly. 37: 311–333. doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.37.4.0311. ISSN 0271-3519.
  10. ↑ Tahrir Hamdi, Null (1 October 2016). "The Power of Poetry to Travel: An Interview with Mourid Barghouti". Arab Studies Quarterly. 38: 656–675. doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.38.4.0656. ISSN 0271-3519.
  11. ↑ Today, Politics (16 February 2021). "Seeing Ramallah from above: In Memory of Mourid Barghouti, Legendary Palestinian Poet and Novelist". Politics Today. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  12. ↑ Murphy, Maureen Clare (15 June 2007). "Forty years of displacement: Interview with Mourid Barghouti". The Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  13. ↑ mlynxqualey (2 December 2014). "Poet Mourid Barghouti on His Wife, Novelist Radwa Ashour (1946-2014)". ArabLit & ArabLit Quarterly. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  14. ↑ "Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti dies at the age of 76". Ahram Online. 14 February 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
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