'Acre is the smell of iodine and spices. Haifa is the smell of pine and wrinkled sheets. Moscow is the smell of vodka on ice. Cairo is the smell of mango and ginger. Beirut is the smell of the sun, sea, smoke, and lemons. Paris is the smell of fresh bread, cheese, and derivations of enchantment. Damascus is the smell of jasmine and dried fruit. Tunis is the smell of night musk and salt. Rabat is the smell of henna, incense, and honey. A city that cannot be known by its smell is unreliable.'
Mahmoud Darwish
In the Presence of Absence, 2006
A Smell That Remembers: Memories as Perceived Spaces
Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet. The prose is in the form of 'self-elegy'. This was an established genre in Arabic Poetry with its roots dating back to pre-Islamic times.
Mahmoud Darwish
Source: Step Feed
The prose denoted describe the identities of certain cities. However, through its narrative as an elegy, it could also portray a longing for familiar places... now, a far memory. He termed memories as 'personal museums' - lost realms that one could go back to as and when they pleased. He also mentioned that what is lost, is worshipped.
The cities mentioned were probably places that he identified with. Each of them is distinguishable in their descriptive qualities. One is able to signify meaning to an experience because they have formed a personal association with it. This was written at a time that he was in exile. And this opportunity provided him to revisit his favourite cities, being an incessant traveller and as an eternal exile from his home country, Palestine.
His memories serve as a reminder of places he has been to and those that he perceives as wonderful in his life, still exist. Smells, sights, experiences - The Reminiscence of Places that he carries within him, eternally.
Literature, Cultural Identities & Associations
The poet has captured definitive qualities of each city with visual aspects that activates sensory perceptions of the reader. The reader may now be influenced by this perception followed by a piqued curiosity to explore the defined identities of the cities.
It expresses his inquisitiveness to familiarize himself with each city because of its explicate attributions for each. Human vocabulary falls short of defining intangibles. However, each word provides a contextual perception to the city
The last statement signifies the importance of local traditions being the centre of a city's identity, without which according to Darwish, the city carries no meaning. The olfactory sensory perception of 'smell & memory' and the description has condensed the local context of each city by featuring its location, the in-season local food & food products, local industries, traditions, the climate or even the cliched global perceptions identified with certain cities.
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