Of Language and Other Topics

Synchronicity (n): Coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related, conceived in Jungian theory as an explanatory principle on the same order as causality.


Example of synchronicity.

Tuesday 29th July. Pack up books to take to summer camp. 'If This is a Man/The Truce', 'Down and Out in Paris and London', 'Telling Tales', 'Mario Benedetti: Antologia Poetica' and Mahmoud Darwish's 'The Butterfly's Burden'.

Wednesday 30th July - Wednesday 6th August. Read through Mario Benedetti and Mahmoud Darwish's poems in order to select one that will make it into my wife's birthday card.

Friday 8th August. Write chosen poem in card (it's Darwish's 'Sonnet IV') . Wrap it up and put it away until next day.

Saturday 9th August. Give card to my wife for her birthday. She is deeply touched by the poem.

Sunday 10th August. Change blog's header. Insert quote by Mahmoud Darwish included in his book, 'A State of Siege'.

Monday 11th August. Read Mahmoud Darwish's obituary in the paper.


Sometimes synchronicity can be cruel.

Mahmoud Darwish, poet, born March 15 1941; died August 9 2008

I Come From There

I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.
I come from there.
I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up
To make a single word:
Homeland.....

Copyright 2008