{"id":30497,"date":"2023-10-20T11:59:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=30497"},"modified":"2023-10-20T11:59:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:59:21","slug":"najwan-darwish-on-living-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=30497","title":{"rendered":"Najwan Darwish on living in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"271\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/images\/Screenshot-2023-10-19-at-4.15.23-PM-271x300.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30498\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/images\/Screenshot-2023-10-19-at-4.15.23-PM-271x300.png 271w, https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/images\/Screenshot-2023-10-19-at-4.15.23-PM-624x690.png 624w, https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/images\/Screenshot-2023-10-19-at-4.15.23-PM.png 642w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 271px) 100vw, 271px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, from Najwan Darwish, <em>Exhausted on the Cross<\/em>, NYRB Books 2021.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don&#8217;t know the Arabic word that is the title of this poem. The English word can mean a logical fallacy&#8211;changing the meaning of a term between one part of an argument and another&#8211;or a deliberate trick. Macbeth calls a promise &#8220;that lies like truth&#8221; &#8220;th\u2019Equiuocation of the Fiend.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deceit is a fault, but equivocation can also imply an inability to decide, or even a choice to remain undecided, like Keats&#8217; &#8220;capab[ility] of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts. &#8230;&#8221; One can equivocate because several options seem attractive, or because all seem terrible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I read Darwish as self-critical. He is confessing his equivocation, his failure (sometimes) to take a stand, much as, in &#8220;In Shatila,&#8221; he asks himself how he could have turned smilingly away from an old refugee:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">How could you smile, indifferent\nto the brackish water of the sea\nwhile barbed wire wrapped around your heart?\n\nHow could you,\nyou son of a bitch?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what should be expected of him? At a time when everyone is supposed to take one side, to state one truth&#8211;when we are all our own communications departments, and silence is called complicity&#8211;I resonate with the poet&#8217;s equivocation. His uncertainty becomes a doubt about who he <em>is<\/em>, and that doubt becomes the country he dwells in, wherever he goes. It&#8217;s the only country he has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(By the way, I have no idea whether Darwish feels equivocal today, and I don&#8217;t mean to attribute any stance to him in this moment. The poem is several years old. It does speak to me today.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, from Najwan Darwish, Exhausted on the Cross, NYRB Books 2021.) I don&#8217;t know the Arabic word that is the title of this poem. The English word can mean a logical fallacy&#8211;changing the meaning of a term between one part of an argument and another&#8211;or a deliberate trick. Macbeth calls a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes-on-poems","category-iraq-and-democratic-theory","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30497"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30526,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30497\/revisions\/30526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}