In September 2006, Mahmoud Darwish bids Edward Said farewell in Al-Ahram:
……
I say: The life which cannot be defined
except by death is not a life.
***
He says: We shall live.
So let us be masters of words which
make their readers immortal — as your friend
Ritsos said.
***
He also said: If I die before you,
my will is the impossible.
I asked: Is the impossible far off?
He said: A generation away.
I asked: And if I die before you?
He said: I shall pay my condolences to Mount Galilee,
and write, “The aesthetic is to reach
poise.” And now, don’t forget:
If I die before you, my will is the impossible.
***
When I last visited him in New Sodom,
in the year Two Thousand and Two, he was battling off
the war of Sodom on the people of Babel…
and cancer. He was like the last epic hero
defending the right of Troy
to share the narrative.
…….
More here.