Al-Birwa, British Mandate of Palestine (13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) Mahmoud Darwish (Arabic: محمود درويش‎) was a Palestinian poet and author who won numerous awards for his literary output and was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. In his work, Palestine became a metaphor for the loss of Eden, birth and resurrection, and the anguish of dispossession and exile. Darwish was born in the village of al-Birwa in the Western Galilee.