Mourid Barghouti ( ar, مريد البرغوثي, ; 8 July 1944 – 14 February 2021) was a
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...
.
Biography
Barghouti was born in
Deir Ghassana, near Ramallah, on the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, in 8 July 1944. He studied English literature at
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
, graduating in 1967,
though he was exiled from Egypt in 1977.
The
Oslo Accords finally allowed Barghouti to return to the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, and in 1996 he returned to
Ramallah after 30 years of exile. This event inspired his autobiographical novel ''Ra'aytu Ram Allah'' (''
I Saw Ramallah''), published by Dar Al Hilal (Cairo, 1997), which won him the
in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 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."
Barghouti was married to the novelist
Radwa Ashour, with whom he had a son, the poet
Tamim Barghouti.
He died in Amman on 14 February 2021, aged 76.
Bibliography
English translations:
* ''Midnight and Other Poems,'' translated by Radwa Ashour, ARC Publications, UK, October 2008, ,
* ''I Was Born There, I Was Born Here'', Bloomsbury, 2011
* ''
I Saw Ramallah'' Random House, Anchor Books, 2003-05-13 and Bloomsbury, UK, and the American University in Cairo Press (January 2003),
* ''A Small Sun,'' Poems translated by Radwa Ashour and W. S. Merwin, Aldeburgh Poetry Trust, 2003 paperback, Suffolk, UK,
*Contributor to ''A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue Between East and West''.
Spanish translations:
* ''Medianoche'' (poetry), translated by Luis Miguel Canada, published by Fundacion Antonio Perez. UCLM, Cuenca, Spain, 2006, and
* ''He visto Ramala'', translated by Iñaki Gutierrez de Teran, published by Ediciones del oriente y del mediterraneo, Guadarrama, Spain, 2002, and
References
External links
Mourid Barghouti Official WebsiteMourid Barghouti Bio, excerpts, interviews and articles in the archives of the
Prague Writers' Festival
The Prague Writers' Festival (PWF) is an annual literary festival in Prague, Czech Republic, taking place every spring since 1991. In 2005 the festival was also held in Vienna. Many of the events are broadcast via the internet. International lite ...
* Mourid Barghouti
"Viewpoint: I'm Palestinian - but where am I from?"BBC, 12 November 2011.
I Was Born There, I Was Born Here Review of Mourid Barghouti's book.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barghouti, Mourid
1944 births
2021 deaths
20th-century Palestinian poets
Palestinian memoirists
Recipients of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
21st-century Palestinian poets
Palestinian male poets
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
People from Bani Zeid al-Gharbia