In Jerusalem
On December 6, 2017, former U.S. President
Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and
announced his plan to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem
(Landler). This controversial move reignited an already tense dispute over the
holy city, and – on May 14, 2018 (the date of the opening of the new embassy) –
was met with protests that resulted in the death of at least 58 Palestinians
and serious injury of 2,700 more (Salman et al.). It was during this time of
turmoil that the Palestinian poem “In Jerusalem” found new resonance as a
message of hope within the hearts of those experiencing the conflict, and was
shared by many throughout the world (Hijazi).
The poem was written by Mahmoud Darwish, who
is regarded as Palestine’s national poet, and was transcribed from its original
Arabic into English by poet and translator Fady Joudah. Joudah writes that Darwish
seems “to always invoke the presence of light in a dark world,” and that his
language is “filled with light, filled with ethereal presence, and yet [is]
incredibly grounded” (Hijazi). Indeed, the poem begins by evoking a sense of grounded timelessness with its words “I walk from one epoch to another without a memory
to guide me” (Darwish). This seems to allude to a state of freedom from past
religious association or memory of conflict – an idea further supported by the
fact that Darwish continues the poem with the statements that the prophets of
Jerusalem are sharing the history of the holy, and that love and peace are
coming to the city. Here, the three Abrahamic religions are seen to share the city’s
history harmoniously, which allows love and peace to take root.
The poem then alludes to the origins of
conflict with questions of how “the narrators disagree over what light said
about a stone,” and whether it is “from a dimly lit stone that wars flare up”
(Darwish). This light is perhaps a symbol of knowledge or of each religion’s
deity, and the disagreement over what light said a representation of contention
about the city’s history as it relates to which religion has the right to it
(or which deity’s word is correct). Wars, then, are shown to arise through a
lack of clarity, guidance, or knowledge, as the dimly lit stone acts as a
symbol of each individual’s interpretation of what they have decided they
should do for their religion, without a true basis for their hatred of the
“other.”
The poem then focuses on individual
experience, transcendence, and transformation. It invokes symbols from all
three of the Abrahamic religions – a message from Isaiah, who appears as a
figure in the Torah; a white biblical rose and doves, images associated with
Christianity; and the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The words “no place and no
time” further Darwish’s previous message of timelessness within the city, and Joudah
states that the Jerusalem that Darwish imagines is “a place out of time” that incorporates imagery from the three Abrahamic religions in order to convey
“feelings of inclusivity” (Hijazi). Yet the Jerusalem that Darwish imagines is
interrupted by conflicts of the present, with the words of a female soldier
who shouts “Didn’t I kill you?” and the narrator’s response that “You killed
me…and I forgot, like you, to die” (Darwish).
As Joudah states, the shout of this soldier
(who, through their gender, is implied to be Israeli) brings Darwish’s imagined
Jerusalem “quickly back to reality” (Hijazi). But this reality is one in which rebirth
is possible – in which death does not destroy, and a feeling akin to comradery,
similarity, or kinship exists between religious groups due to their shared
experience of persisting in wartime through the sheer exertion of a willpower
that allows them to “forget to die.” Additionally, the reality Darwish
describes is one in which individual agency is possible. While Darwish writes that
“I am no I in ascension’s presence,” implying a lack of individuality when
enacting divine will, his subsequent words that “Alone, the prophet Muhammad
spoke” indicate great actions can arise from the individual, and thus that the
individual has the power to enact change. Darwish’s words act not only as a
reminder of the common ground that the people of Jerusalem might find through
shared experience, but invoke imagery of a city not bound by strict lines
between religions. They inspire hope that – like its people have done for
centuries – Jerusalem will survive the ravages of war, and show that the
individual is not powerless to bring about change.
Citations
Darwish, Mahmoud. “In Jerusalem.” The
Butterfly’s Burden, translated by Fady Joudah, Copper Canyon Press, 2008. Poetry
Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52551/in-jerusalem.
Hijazi, Jennifer. “This Palestinian Poem
on Jerusalem is Finding New Life.” PBS News, Dec. 11 2017, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/this-palestinian-poem-on-jerusalem-is-finding-new-life.
Landler, Mark. “Trump Recognizes Jerusalem
as Israel’s Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move.” The New York Times,
Dec. 6 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/ middleeast/trump-jerusalem-israel-capital.html.
Salman, Abeer, Nicole Gaouette, and James
Masters. “US Opens New Embassy in Jerusalem as Dozens are Killed in Gaza.” CNN,
May 14 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/14/politics/ jerusalem-us-embassy-trump-intl/index.html.
https://younewspaper.webflow.io/article/who-is-mahmoud-darwish
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