During the Nakba in 1948, his village was captured by Israeli forces and the family fled to Lebanon, first to Jezzine and then Damour. His mother was illiterate, but his grandfather taught him to read. Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in al-Birwa in the Western Galilee, the second child of Salim and Houreyyah Darwish. Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian National Poet, Pen and Ink Portrait by Amitabh Mitra Biography He has been described as incarnating and reflecting 'the tradition of the political poet in Islam, the man of action whose action is poetry.' He also served as an editor for several literary magazines in Palestine. Darwish used Palestine as a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile. Mahmoud Darwish ( Arabic: مَحمُود دَرْوِيْش, romanized: Maḥmūd Darwīsh, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.
