I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood So that I could break the rule I learnt all the words and broke them up To make a single word: Homeland.
Mahmoud DarwishRead
The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Happiness can be misleading, and when it fades, it leaves pain in its wake.
This quote reflects the complexity of human emotions, suggesting that while happiness is desirable, it can also lead to disappointment and sorrow when it proves to be fleeting or illusory. It teaches us to approach happiness with caution, recognizing that its transient nature can result in deeper hurt when it ultimately eludes us.
Themes
HappinessTrustPainEmotionsDeception
In practice
Example use cases
During a mental health workshop, this quote could be used to explain the nuanced nature of happiness.
More from Mahmoud Darwish
All quotes βFar away, our dreams have nothing to do with what we do. The wind carries the night, and passes on, aimless.
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Some people ask, 'How do you attract the young and so many different people when your poetry is complicated and different?' I say, 'My accomplishment is that my readers trust me and accept my suggestions for change.'
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Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by.
Mahmoud DarwishRead
A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare.
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The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality.
Mahmoud DarwishRead
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I am aware that I am very old now; but I am also aware that I have never been so young as I am now, in spirit, since I was fourteen and entertained Jim Wolf with the wasps. I am only able to perceive that I am old by a mental process; I am altogether unable to feel old in spirit. It is a pity, too, for my lapses from gravity must surely often be a reproach to me. When I am in the company of very young people I always feel that I am one of them, and they probably privately resent it.
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You're mistaken, Father. You were in paradise, but you didn't recognize it. It's the same with most people in this world; they seek suffering in the most joyous of places because they think they are unworthy of happiness.
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The emotion at the point of technical breakthrough is better than wine, women and song put together.
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