Poem Analysis - Be a String, Water, to my Guitar

In the modern day, Andalusia is an autonomous community in

southern Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially
recognised as a "historical nationality".

Andalusia is located at the tip of the Iberian Peninsula, where the

strait of Gibraltar separates it from Morocco and the African
continent. In 711 AD, Hispania, and Andalusia were conquered by an
Umayyad general from North Africa. Under the Umayyad Rule, Islam
flourished in Andalusia and an Islamic community, consisting of a
large number of Moroccans, emerged.
After the rule of the Islamic Caliphate disintegrated, Islamic control
and influence in Spain gradually lessened due to the Christian
reconquest of Spain that started in 1085.The Treaty of Granada
allowed the Muslims the use of their own language, schools and
customs and showed the tolerant views of the first Archbishop.
However, in 1492, the monarchy started a reversal of its tolerant
policy through the Alhambra Decree, which ordered the eviction of
Muslims and Jews from parts of Spain , creating hundreds of
thousands of refugees. This intolerance towards Muslims and Jews
increased when the new Archbishop ordered mass conversions to
Christianity and the destruction of Arabic books and manuscripts.
In the poem, Mahmoud Darwish references Andalusia to compare
and liken it to Palestine and the situation of Palestinians. The poem is
set against the background of the Palestinian war from 1947-49 and
the United Nations vote on the partition of Palestine. The Palestinian
war had resulted in a victory for Israel and a defeat for the Palestine
Arabs. After the end of the War, Israel kept parts of Palestine under
the UN resolution and an Arab state was proposed. However, Israel
captured half of the area of the proposed state with Jordan capturing
the rest. This resulted in the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs
from the area that became Israel. The Palestinians were forced into
refugee camps in neighbouring countries, having nowhere else to go.
Thus, the situation of the Palestinians is compared to the eviction of
Muslims from Spain in 1492. The concept of Andalusia represents the
past homeland of refugees who have been left homeless and forced
to abandon their properties due to geo-political wars These people
have nowhere to go since they do not have a nationality and their
homes have been taken away. They are forced to live in temporary
refugee camps with terrible conditions and lacking basic necessities
like food and clothing. Andalusia also represents a place that has
been passed on from one ruler to another each wanting to
incorporate it as part of their kingdom and enforce their ideology on
the people
In the lines:
“It’s getting hard to remember my face in the mirrors
Be memory for me
So, I can see what I’ve lost
Who am I after these paths of exodus?”
Darwish references the immense loss of property during the
Palestinian War and the events after that. Many refugees lost their
possessions and their holy books and religious items were destroyed.
Darwish has lost so much that he can’t even remember the extent
and details of his loss. The ‘loss’ also means the loss of family and
friends, who had died in the War or had been scattered across
different refugee camps. The last line of the excerpt is a metaphor
for the loss of identity and nationality experienced by Palestinians
like Darwish after the disintegration of Palestine. The exodus
referred to is the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
In the lines:
“Be a String, Water, to my Guitar
Conquerors come, Conquerors go…
Heading South as Nations Decompose
On the compost of change”
Darwish writes about how Palestine has simply become a land to be
conquered by nations with Israel becoming the latest one (he does
not mention Israel explicitly but references it). Palestine has a history
of being invaded. Each time it is captured, different ideologies and
changes are forced upon it, diluting the original Palestinian cultural
ideas. This is the ‘compost of change’ referred to by Darwish.

In the lines:
“I know who I was yesterday
But who I be tomorrow?
Under the Atlantic flags of Columbus”
Darwish references the expedition of Christopher Columbus, in 1492,
across the Atlantic Ocean which resulted in the Europeans learning
of the existence of the Americas. Many Andalusians, including
Muslims participated in the expedition. Darwish wonders about
these Muslims and what happens to their identity when they come
back to Andalusia after the expedition and realize that they have
been expelled from what was previously their home. Are they
supposed to convert so they can live in their own home? Should they
flee to a neighbouring country? These are all questions that Darwish
seeks answers to.
In the line:
No hawk on the flag of my people
Darwish makes a reference to the Hawk of Quraish, which was a
symbol of member states of the Arab League. Since the state of
Palestine had disintegrated and no longer exists, there is no hawk on
the flag of his people, the Palestinians. The Palestinian people are
scattered across different nations and hence do not even have their
own flag, and are not recognized by the Arab League.
In the poem as a whole, Darwish creates a relationship between the
events at Andalusia and the situation of the Palestinians. By creating
this relationship between the two events, Darwish is able to appeal
to a broader Arab group that has shared similar sentiments about
loss of the Andalusian paradise. Darwish embodies the spirit of the
Palestinian people and acts as their voice. He attracts the attention
of the aforementioned Arab group to look closely at the Israeli-
Palestinian War and the events leading to it and its impact on the
people of Palestine.