“If I touch the Depth of Your Heart … ” : The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish

Description

“If I touch the Depth of Your Heart … ” : The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish

Journal Editor:
Mohammad H. Tamdgidi, UMass Boston

HUMAN ARCHITECTURE
Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge

Volume VII • Special Issue • 2009

Issue Co-Editors (alphabetical):

• Anna D. Beckwith, UMass Boston
• Elora Chowdhury, UMass Boston
• Leila Farsakh, UMass Boston
• Askold Melnyczuk, UMass Boston
• Erica Mena, UMass Boston and University of Iowa
• Dorothy Shubow Nelson, UMass Boston
• Joyce Peseroff, UMass Boston
• Rajini Srikanth, UMass Boston

Description

This 2009 (VII) special issue of Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge entitled “‘If I touch the depths of your heart’: The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish,” is a commemorative issue on the life and poetry of the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, co-edited by a group of UMass Boston faculty and alumni. Other than keynote opening statements, the special issue is comprised of a selected series of longer and shorter poems by Mahmoud Darwish, followed by commemorative poetry and essays/articles that directly or indirectly engage with Mahmoud Darwish’s work and/or the subject matter of his passion and love, Palestine and human rights and dignity.

Contributions include: Selections from the poetry of the late Mahmoud Darwish in two recently published collections: If I Were Another: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009) translated by Fady Joudah, and another, A River Dies of Thirst: Journals (Archipelago, 2009), translated by Catherine Cobham; keynote contribution by UMass Boston Provost Winston Langley, keynote contribution of a poem by Martha Collins; and commemorative poetry or prose by the Palestinian-American poet, writer, and scholar Lisa Suhair Majaj, Amy Tighe, Dorothy Shubow Nelson, Robert Lipton, Joyce Peseroff, Shaari Neretin, and Jack Hirschman; included are also essays/articles by Leila Farsakh, Rajini Srikanth, Erica Mena, Kyleen Aldrich, Nadia Alahmed, and Patrick Sylvain. Co-editors of the special issue were (alphabetically) Anna D. Beckwith, Elora Chowdhury, Leila Farsakh, Askold Melnyczuk, Erica Mena, Dorothy Shubow Nelson, Joyce Peseroff, Rajini Srikanth, and Mohammad H. Tamdgidi (journal editor-in-chief).

The various editions of “If I touch the Depth of Your Heart … ” : The Human Promise of Poetry in Memories of Mahmoud Darwish are also available for ordering from all major online bookstores worldwide (such as Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and others).

Contents

vii—Editor’s Note: Mahmoud Darwish’s Parting Gift
Mohammad H. Tamdgidi, University of Massachusetts Boston

Keynote Openings

1—The Candle
Winston Langley, University of Massachusetts Boston

3—For Gaza
Martha Collins, Poet, Writer, and Editor

Mahmoud Darwish’s Poetry

5-6—From the New Book: If I Were Another: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009)

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)

KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION

7—Mahmoud Darwish’s Lyric Epic
Fady Joudah, Palestinian-American Poet, Physician, and Translator

Selected Long Poems by Mahmoud Darwish: Translations by Fady Joudah

19—The “Red Indian’s” Penultimate Speech to the White Man

25—Tuesday and the Weather is Clear

33—Hoopoe

41—From the New Book, A River Dies of Thirst: Journals (Archipelago, 2009)

Selected Short Poems by Mahmoud Darwish: Translations by Catherine Cobham

43—A River Dies of Thirst

45—Assassination

47—Nero

49—The Enemy

51—The House as Casualty

53—The Rest of A Life

55—If We Want To

Commemorative Poetry

KEYNOTE POETRY

57—Selected Poems: Country • Practicing Loving Kindness • Peace • No
Night Sky • Living History • Cyclones and Seeds
Lisa Suhair Majaj, Palestinian-American Writer, Scholar and Poet

75—Letter to Mahmoud Darwish
Amy Tighe, UMass and Boston College Alumni and Poet

79—Truth
Dorothy Shubow Nelson, University of Massachusetts Boston

81—Darwish Sits In
Robert Lipton, Poet and Writer

83—American Idols
Joyce Peseroff, University of Massachusetts Boston

85—Wreck
Fady Joudah, Palestinian-American Poet, Physician, and Translator

91—The Lost and Found Warehouse
Shaari Neretin, Social Worker and Activist

99—Mantra for Mahmoud Darwish
Jack Hirschman, Poet

Commemorative Essays

KEYNOTE ESSAY

101—Darwish and the Meaning of Palestine
Leila Farsakh, University of Massachusetts Boston

105—Why the Solidarity?: South Asian Activism for Palestine
Rajini Srikanth, University of Massachusetts Boston

111—The Geography of Poetry: Mahmoud Darwish and Postnational Identity
Erica Mena, University of Iowa

119—The Lost and Forgotten: Exploring the Narratives of Darwish and Silko
Kyleen Aldrich, University of Massachusetts Boston

123—An Anthem for the Dream Land: The Legacy of Poetry for the Palestinian and African-American Nationalism in the 11002s and 1970s
Nadia Alahmed, University of Massachusetts Amherst

137—Darwish’s Essentialist Poetics in a State of Siege
Patrick Sylvain, Brown University, Harvard University, and University of Massachusetts Boston