Edward said
writes on Mourid Barghouti
This compact, intensely
lyrical narrative of a return from
protracted exile abroad to Ramallah on the West Bank in the summer of 1996 is one of the
finest existential accounts of Palestinian displacement that we
now have. It is by Mourid Barghouti, a well-known poet who is
married to Radwa Ashour, the distinguished Egyptian academic and
novelist; the two were students of English literature together
at Cairo university in the 1960s, and for a period of 17 years
during their marriage lived apart from each other, he as PLO
representative in Budapest, she and their son Tamim in Cairo,
where she is professor of English at Ain Shams university. The
political reasons for the separation are alluded to in I Saw
Ramallah, as are the circumstances of his exile from the West
Bank as well, of course, as his return 30 years later.
continue ...
From the
first
chapter
It is very hot on the
bridge. A drop of sweat slides from my forehead down to the
frame of my spectacles, then the lens. A mist envelops what I
see, what I expect, what I remember. The view here shimmers with
scenes that span a lifetime; a lifetime spent trying to get
here. Here I am, crossing the Jordan River. I hear the creak of
the wood under my feet. On my left shoulder a small bag. I walk
westward in a normal manner—or rather, a manner that appears
normal. Behind me the world, ahead of me my world. The last
thing I remember of this bridge is that I crossed it on my way
from Ramallah to Amman thirty years ago. From Amman I went to
Cairo and back to college. I was in my fourth and final year at
Cairo University...
continue...
editions of
I Saw
Ramallah
 
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