Palestinians pay homage to poet Fadwa Tuqan
Palestinians are commemorating the centenary of their great poet Fadwa Tuqan, a fighter for her country and her rights as a woman.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — For many Palestinians, Fadwa Tuqan is more than a poet: She is the symbol of Palestinian resistance and pride. She is the embodiment of the spiritual strength of Palestine despite the losses they have suffered.
Tuqan, born in 1897 in Nablus, West Bank, lived through the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948, the 1967 war and the first intifada of 1987. Her involvement in the national struggle strengthened her writing, making her one of the most famous female poets in Palestine and the Arab world.
In one of her best-known poems, “Longing,” she expressed her sense of loss and anger in a style that Israeli Gen. Moshe Dayan described as capable of creating 10 resistance fighters with a single poem:
"Time's out and I'm home alone with the shadow I cast/ Gone is the law of the universe, scattered by frivolous fate/ Nothing to hold down my things/ My possessions have flown, they belong to others."
