The two poems I chose were "Mural" and "Without exile, who am I?" One of the similarities I saw was how he put himself in a different place and describes it in full detail while at the same time getting what he want to say across and putting himself in the poem. I also noticed he used repetition and vague language a lot in these poems. The major difference i saw was that in "Mural" he put himself in an imaginary place and describes who he wants to be someday while in "Without exile, who am I?" he describes his actual experience of exile and who he was at that moment. Also "Mural" is really lengthy and doesn't use as mush descriptive details compared to "Without exile, who am I?" where he uses minimal words and lots of descriptive images.
Although these poems are kinda vague, I believe "Mural" was about his view on heaven and what he wanted to be in his lifetime. He used repetition, sensory details, and metaphors and contrast to strengthen his poem. My reaction to this poem was more towards fantasy and inspiration towards his use of metaphors to describe who he wants to be. In "Without exile, who am I?" he talks about what it is like being exiled and what his reaction to it. He also used repetition and sensory details in this poem to strengthen it. My reaction was more affirmative in the way I think about myself ans he is firm in the way he thinks about himself. Overall, my main reaction to these poems are confusion because I'm constantly trying to figure out what he is trying to say.
I agree that some of Darwish's poetry is hard to understand. I think sometimes he is trying to evoke certain emotions in the reader by using images and metaphors that either beautiful, surreal, sad, etc. depending on the subject of the poem, but don't necessarily make sense. also, i feel like because we are reading the poems in translation, there might be a lot that we don't understand about the poem culturally and linguistically, and that might detract from our appreciation of the poem.
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