Identity Card By Mahmoud Darwish
1 Put it on record --I am an Arab And the number of my card is fifty thousand I have eight children And the ninth is due after summer. What's there to be angry about?
7 Put it on record. --I am an Arab Working with comrades of toil in a quarry. I have eight children For them I wrest the loaf of bread, The clothes and exercise books From the rocks And beg for no alms at your doors, --Lower not myself at your doorstep. --What's there to be angry about?
17 Put it on record. --I am an Arab. I am a name without a tide, Patient in a country where everything Lives in a whirlpool of anger. --My roots --Took hold before the birth of time --Before the burgeoning of the ages, --Before cypress and olive trees, --Before the proliferation of weeds.
27 My father is from the family of the plough --Not from highborn nobles. And my grandfather was a peasant --Without line or genealogy. My house is a watchman's hut --Made of sticks and reeds. Does my status satisfy you? --I am a name without a surname.
35 Put it on Record. --I am an Arab. Color of hair: jet black. Color of eyes: brown. My distinguishing features: --On my head the 'iqal cords over a keffiyeh --Scratching him who touches it. My address: --I'm from a village, remote, forgotten, --Its streets without name --And all its men in the fields and quarry.
46 --What's there to be angry about?
47 Put it on record. --I am an Arab. You stole my forefathers' vineyards --And land I used to till, --I and all my children, --And you left us and all my grandchildren --Nothing but these rocks. --Will your government be taking them too --As is being said?
56 So! --Put it on record at the top of page one: --I don't hate people, --I trespass on no one's property. And yet, if I were to become starved --I shall eat the flesh of my usurper. --Beware, beware of my starvation. --And of my anger! | - “put it on record”- Darwish’s repetition of this phrase begins passively. The first stanza reads as if it is his answer to the customs agent verbatim-- it is conversational and includes the factual information/answers to common questions. However, with time, “put it on record” begins to sound tedious. In the second stanza, he includes “For them I wrest the loaf of bread” (Line 11) when talking about his children and in the third, he seems to ramble and begin to rant.
- “I am an Arab”-The repetition of “I am an Arab” is interesting because (the entire poem is a list of things he identifies with/as) and “I am an Arab” is always his first answer. He is not ashamed of identifying as an Arab and stands strong with a group of people whose land has been stolen by usurpers. Even though he is isolated, he is not alone. In the last stanza, “I am an Arab” is replaced with “I don’t hate people”-- does this mean he has found something beyond being Arabic to identify most strongly with?
- “What’s there to be angry about?”- repeated as a question-- was this one he asked to the customs agent? This is seen in many cases of oppression--what has the victim done to deserve such treatment? **Seen in Kite Runner with Hassan/Assef&people in general. Hassan has never done anything to deserve the discrimination and persecution he faces. Even in death, he did not raise a hand to harm his oppressors.
- Tone shifts between stanzas:
- 1- passive, conversational, confused
- 2- passive, tired, that of someone who just wants to pass by unnoticed
- 3- tired, lost, “my roots// took hold before the birth of time...before the proliferation of weeds” indignant
- 4- “does my status satisfy you?” that of someone wary of fighting
- 5- bland, abrupt. “color of hair: jet black. Color of eyes: brown” Emotionless, as if he’s writing it down rather than saying it out loud
- *between ⅚, “What’s there to be angry about?” hovers. This marks a tone shift in these stanzas. Whereas in 5, he was wary and very tired, in 6 he is reenergized and angry
- 6- angry, accusatory, directly addresses the oppressor for the first time-- “YOU stole my forefathers’ vineyards…..will YOUR government be taking them too…?”
- 7- exasperated, angry, frustrated, but strong. Even though he has been wronged so many times, he will “Eat the flesh of [his] usurper”
- “Beware, beware of my starvation.//And of my anger!”
So! --Put it on record at the top of page one: --I don't hate people, --I trepass on no one's property. And yet, if I were to become starved --I shall eat the flesh of my usurper. --Beware, beware of my starvation. --And of my anger! - In this stanza, he begins differently. Instead of the passive “Put it on record” command he had been giving, Darwish starts with an exclamation, “So!” This shows his frustration and was likely influenced by the actual event in which he was asked to present identification.
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