We did not understand Lebanon. We never understood Lebanon. We will not understand Lebanon. We will never understand Lebanon.
We saw in Lebanon only our image in the polished stone– an imagination that re-creates the world in its shape, not because it is deluded, but because it needs a foothold for the vision. Something like making a video: we write the script and the dialogue; we design the scenario; we pick the actors, the cameraman, the director, and the producer; and we distribute the roles without realizing we are the ones being cast in them. When we see our faces and our blood on the screen, we applaud the image, forgetting it’s of our own making. And by the time production goes into postproduction, we are only too ready to believe it is the Other who is pointing at us.
- Mahmoud Darwish, Memory for Forgetfulness
August, Beirut, 1982
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