Mourid Barghouti is a Palestinian poet and writer. His new book, I Was Born Here, I was Born There traces his early life in Palestine, expulsion from Cairo, exile to Budapest, marriage to one of Egypt’s leading writers, and the birth of their poet son Tamim Al Barghouti.
In this week’s New Statesman, the writer talks to Jonathan Derbyshire about how it felt to be exiled and what returning to Palestine meant to him. He reveals, “As an exile, you have so many lives in the same day: the realistic one in exile and the remembered one of your childhood.”
In this clip, Barghouti reads his poetry. Of the new volume of poetry that he is currently writing, Barghouti tells Derbyshire: “Whenever I start a new poem I do so as a beginner.”
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