Funeral Planned for Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish, whose poetry encapsulated the Palestinian cause, will be buried in the West Bank on Wednesday, a day later than planned, Palestinian officials said.

The funeral had initially been scheduled for Tuesday.

The 67-year-old writer died on Saturday from complications following heart surgery in a U.S. hospital in Houston, Texas.

Officials in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office said the funeral had been put back one day because of a delay in releasing Darwish's body in the United States.

The funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah will be the first sponsored by the Palestinian Authority since leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004.

The poet, born in territory now Israel, had made his home in Ramallah since returning in the 1990s from a long exile during which he rose to prominence in Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The Jordanian blogosphere has been mourning the great Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, who passed away from complications due to open-heart surgery at the age of 67 this week. For Jordanians, Darwish was more than just a master of words. He is perceived as an ambassador and champion of the Palestinian cause; articulating the sentiment on the street in the most poetic renderings.

Blogger Ammar Sajdi described Darwish as “A poet who leaves an eternal legacy of legendary master pieces that simply pierced through ears, the minds and the hearts of the masses”

Amjad described the unfortunate event as a “A true sad day for the whole nation”, while Mais wonders “who will continue to document the bleeding Palestinian wound?” (Arabic)

Tololy posts “State of Siege”, a classic Darwish poem, declaring: “How do you mourn a poet?
You don’t. You mourn the world without him.”

Most Jordanian bloggers have chosen to mourn Darwish by posting various pieces of his poetry in both Arabic and English, for all to read, eulogizing the famous poet with his very own words.