16 Quotes by Mourid Barghouti

The fish,Even in the fisherman's net,Still carries,The smell of the sea.

هل في هذا العالم كله بلدٌ واحدٌ يحار الناس في تسميته هكذا؟

الحُبُّ ليسَ حلماً و ليسَ نسمةًو ليسَ خاطرة..الحُبُّ جسمٌ صُلبٌلهُ يدان و قدمانلهُ رأسٌ يُفكّر و عيونٌ واسعةلهُ موقفٌ من كلّ شأنٍ كان أمسو من كلّ شأنٍ سيكون غداًو هوَ ككلِّ الأجسام الصُّلبةلا يمُرُّ من بابٍ مُغلق

The fish, Even in the fisherman’s net, Still carries, The smell of the sea.

Behind me the world, ahead of me my world.

As the days passed I began to understand. You do not rejoice immediately when life presses a button that turns the wheel of events in your favor. You do not arrive unchanged at the moment of joy dreamt of for so long across the years. The years are on your shoulders. They do their slow work without ringing any bells for you.

Occupation prevents you from managing your affairs in your own way. It interferes in every aspect of life and death; it interferes with longing and anger and desire and walking in the street. It interferes with going anywhere and coming back, with going to market, the emergency hospital, the beach, the bedroom, or a distant capital.

The stranger is the person who renews his residence permit... He is the one whose relationship with places is distorted, he gets attached to them and repulsed by them at the same time. He is the one who cannot tell his story in a continuous narrative and lives hours in every single moment... He loves the ringing of the phone, yet fears it... He lives essentially in that hidden silent spot with himself.

Palestine at this moment is not the golden map hanging on a golden chain adorning the throats of women exile. I used to wonder – everything I saw that map encircling their – if Canadian women, or Norwegians, or Chinese carried their maps around their necks as our women do.