The life of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish

2002: Mahmoud Darwish visiting London Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

Early 1970s: Mahmoud Darwish in Beirut, Lebanon Photograph: Guardian

1989: Mahmoud Darwish, (L), then PLO Executive Committee member, sits alongside PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, (C), at a Cairo press conference with Egypt's Osama al-Baz, (R) Photograph: Barry Iverson/Getty

1999: Mahmoud Darwish (L) talks with the Lebanese composer Marcel Khalife at the conclusion of the Jerusalem Today conference at the UNESCO palace in Beirut Photograph: Jamal Saidi/Reuters

2002: Mahmoud Darwish (L) in the office of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah with a group of international intellectuals on a fact-finding mission (from L to R): US writer Russell Banks, US director Oliver Stone and Nobel literature laureate Nigerian dissident Wole Soyinka Photograph: Awad Awad/AFP

2007: Mahmoud Darwish at the Arab book fair in Beirut Photograph: Haitham Mussawi/AFP

2007: Mahmoud Darwish reads in Haifa, where he made his first appearance in Israel since 1971 Photograph: POOL/AFP

2008: Palestinians hold a candle-light vigil in Ramallah, to mourn the death of Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish Photograph: Abbas Momani/AFP