Democratic Palestine : 2 (ص 33)
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- Democratic Palestine : 2 (ص 33)
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Munn Bseiso
Songs of Revolution and Life
The Palestinian cultural movement has lost one of its
great leaders: The poet, Muin Bseiso, passed away on Janu-
ary 24th, after suffering a heart attack while in London, pur-
suing his nationalist duties. Announcement of the death was
made by the General Secretariat of the General Union of
| Palestinian Writers and Journalists, and by the PLO’s De-
partment of Information and Culture.
Bseiso made great contributions to our people’s cause
through his revolutionary nationalist poems. He offered
many sacrifices for the sake of Palestine and other Arab na-
tional causes, always standing firm against the Zionist occup-
iers and their imperialist allies. By his consciousness as a revo-
lutionary writer, he contributed much towards strengthening
the PLO’s ties of friendship and alliance with Arab and inter-
national liberation movements, and with the Soviet Union
and the socialist community. In this respect, his work was
based on awareness that, though our just cause will be victor-
ious, this victory cannot be achieved without strong relations
with all progressive and peace-loving forces in the world.
Muin Bseiso also exerted great efforts towards deepening
relations between progressive writers all over the world.
Muin Bseiso was born in Gaza, Palestine, in 1930. In 1947,
he joined the National Liberation League (the Arab wing of
the Palestine Communist Party). He completed his higher
education in Cairo, where he participated in the 1952 demon-
strations that led to the overthrow of the monarchy. He
worked as a teacher and in the media in Palestine and other
Arab countries. While the Zionists briefly occupied the Gaza
Strip in 1956, he was imprisoned for being involved in the
‘resistance. He was later to be imprisoned in Egypt, charged
with membership in the Egyptian Communist Party. Having
been abroad for a period, Bseiso returned to Beirut at the
start of the 1982 Israeli siege and directed his revolutionary
poems towards the developments of the war.
In 1952, Bseiso published his first collection of poems,
entitled “Al Maaraka” (The Battle), to be followed by many
others, some of which were later translated into English,
German, French and Russian.
Muin Bseiso was also one of the main pioneers in Palesti-
nian theater, and wrote many plays including “The Death of
Che Guevara”, “Samson and Delila” and “The Black Revolu-
tion” He served as assistant editor-in-chief of Lotus maga-
zine, published by the Afro-Asian Writers Union, and was
honored with the Lotus international prize, as well as with the
highest Palestinian medal, the Shield of the Revolution. He
was responsible for cultural affairs in the General Secretariat
of the General Union of Palestinian Writers and Journalists,
and a member of the Palestinian National Council.
Below is a short selection translated from one of Muin
Bseiso’s poems:
Pll resist,
there’s still a white page on this wall
the fingers not yet melted
someone is knocking
a telegram through the wall
now the wires are our veins
veins of these walls
all our blood is shed
it is shedding through these walls
a telegram through the wall
they closed a new cell
they killed a prisoner
they opened a new cell
they brought a new prisoner...
“I do not believe that there is a separation
between politics and poetry. The real poet shapes
from these two streams his political and poetic
existence. He derives themes from his principles
and commitment to the cause he serves. The cause
of the revolution for Palestinian poets is land, as
progressive motifs are for other poets who strug-
gle against military dictatorship to maintain pro-
gressive values.”
— Muin Bseiso, excerpt from a 1983 interview,
Led
reprinted in “Al Fajr’.
33 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 2
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