Ali Ahmad Said
Encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Adonis (disambiguation)Adonis (disambiguation)Adonis is a hero in Greek mythology.Adonis may also refer to:People:* Adonis , modern Syrian poet, also known as Ali Ahmed Said and Adunis* Adonis , house music pioneer* Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, a British politician...
.
Ali Ahmad Said Asbar ' onMouseout='HidePop("70282")' href="/topics/Arabic_transliteration">transliterated
Arabic transliteration
Different approaches and methods for the romanization of Arabic exist. They vary in the way that they address the inherent problems of rendering written and spoken Arabic in the Latin alphabet; they also use different symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English or other European...
: alî ahmadi sa'îdi asbar or Ali Ahmad Sa'id) born 1 January 1930, also known by the pseudonym Adonis or Adunis (Arabic: أدونيس), is a Syrian
Syrian people
The Syrian people are the inhabitants and citizens of Syria. Syrians are tied together by geography, linguistic heritage, religion, and similar Eastern Mediterranean ethnicities...
poet and essayist who has made his career largely in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He has written more than twenty books in Arabic language
Literary Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech....
.
Early life, education, and start of career
Adonis was born in Al QassabinAl Qassabin
Al Qassabin is a small mountain village in western Syria close to the Mediterranean Sea, and near the city of Latakia. The town is notable as the birthplace of the Syrian poet, Ali Ahmed Said, also known as Adonis....
, Latakia
Latakia
Latakia, or Latakiyah , is the principal port city of Syria, as well as the capital of the Latakia Governorate. In addition to serving as a port, the city is a manufacturing center for surrounding agricultural towns and villages...
, in Northern Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, to an Alawite
Alawite
The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...
family. From an early age, he worked in the fields, but his father regularly had him memorize poetry, and he began to compose poems of his own. In 1947, he had the opportunity to recite a poem for Syrian president Shukri al-Kuwatli
Shukri al-Kuwatli
Shukri al-Quwatli was the president of Syria from 1943 to 1949 and from 1955 to 1958.-Political life:He was born in Damascus into a Turkish family, originally from Konya....
; that led to a series of scholarships, first to a school in Latakia
Latakia
Latakia, or Latakiyah , is the principal port city of Syria, as well as the capital of the Latakia Governorate. In addition to serving as a port, the city is a manufacturing center for surrounding agricultural towns and villages...
and then to the Syrian University in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, where he received a degree in Philosophy in 1954.
The name Adonis
Adonis
Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...
was not given to Said by Antun Saadeh
Antun Saadeh
Antun Saadeh was a Lebanese Syrian nationalist philosopher, writer and politician who founded the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.-Life:...
, the leader of the radical pan-Syrian
Syrian nationalism
Syrian nationalism refers to the nationalism of Syria, or the Fertile Crescent as a cultural or political entity. It should not be confused with the Arab nationalism that is the official state doctrine of the Syrian Arab Republic's ruling Baath Party, nor should it be assumed that Syrian...
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
Syrian Social Nationalist Party
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party , is a secular nationalist political party in Lebanon and Syria. It advocates the establishment of a Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Cyprus, Kuwait,...
, as some believe. Rather, he picked it himself after being rejected by a number of magazines under his real name. In 1955, Said was imprisoned for six months for being a member of that party. Following his release from prison in 1956, he settled in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, where in 1957 he and Syro-Lebanese poet Yusuf al-Khal
Yusuf al-Khal
Yusuf al-Khal was a Syrian-born poet. He made his career largely in Lebanon.With Ali Ahmad Said , al-Khal founded the magazine Shi'r in Beirut in 1957. [Irwin, 24] His poetry has also been recognized in Near East poetry collections. - Featured works :* al-Khal, Yusuf. The Flag of Childhood: Poems...
founded the magazine Majallat Shi'r ("Poetry Magazine") that met with strong criticism as they published experimental poetry. Majallat Shi’r ceased publication in 1964, and Adonis did not rejoin the Shi’r editors when they resumed publication in 1967. In Lebanon, his intense nationalistic feelings, reflecting pan-Arabism focused on the Arab peoples as a nation, found their outlet in the Beiruti newspaper Lisan al-Hal and eventually in his founding of another literary periodical in 1968 titled Mawaqif, in which he again published experimental poetry. Adonis's poems continued to express the poet’s nationalistic views combined with his mystical outlook. With his use of Sufi terms (the technical meanings of which were implied rather than explicit), Adonis became a leading exponent of the Neo-Sufi trend in modern Arabic poetry. This trend took hold in the 1970s.
Adonis received a scholarship to study in Paris from 1960-1961. From 1970 to 1985 he was professor of Arabic literature at the Lebanese University. In 1976, he was a visiting professor at the University of Damascus. In 1980, he emigrated to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to escape the Lebanese Civil War
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...
. In 1980-1981, he was professor of Arabic at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
in Paris.
Career
Adonis is a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry. He is often seen as a rebel, an iconoclast who follows his own rules. "Arabic poetry is not the monolith this dominant critical view suggests, but is pluralistic, sometimes to the point of self-contradiction." Adonis's work has been analysed and illuminated by the pre-eminent Arab critic Kamal Abu Deeb, with whom he edited the journal Mawakif in Beirut in the 1970s.After a trip to New York in 1971, Adonis wrote the poem "The Funeral of New York", which opens:
Picture the earth as a pear
or breast.
Between such fruits and death
survives an engineering trick:
New York,
Call it a city on four legs
heading for murder
while the drowned already moan
in the distance.
New York is a woman
holding, according to history,
a rag called liberty with one hand
and strangling the earth with the other.
In 2007
2007 in literature
The year 2007 in literature involves some significant new books.-Events:*November 19 - First Kindle e-book reader released.*December 11 - Terry Pratchett informs fans on-line that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease.-Literature:...
he was awarded the Bjørnson Prize. In 2011 he won the Goethe Prize
Goethe Prize
The Goethe Prize of Frankfurt-am-Main is a German literary award of high prestige named after Johann Wolfgang Goethe. It was initially an annual award, but became triennial...
. He is a perennial favorite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
. After the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer
Tomas Tranströmer
Tomas Gösta Tranströmer is a Swedish writer, poet and translator, whose poetry has been translated into over 60 languages. Tranströmer is acclaimed as one of the most important Scandinavian writers since the Second World War...
instead of Adunis in the year of the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Peter Englund
Peter Englund
Peter Englund is a Swedish author and historian, and the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy since 1 June 2009.-Biography:...
said it was not awarded based on politics, describing such a notion as “literature for dummies”. Adunis has helped to spread Tranströmer's fame in the Arab world, accompanying him on readings.
Poetry
- If Only the Sea Could Sleep (trans from Al-A'mal al Shi'riyya, (The Complete Works, 3 volumes) (2000) ISBN 1-931243-29-8
- The Pages of Day and Night (Marlboro Press, 1994) ISBN 0-910395-96-9 (2000 edition): ISBN 0-8101-6081-1
- The blood of Adonis;: Transpositions of selected poems of Adonis (Ali Ahmed Said) (Pitt poetry series) ISBN 0-8229-3213-X
- Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (1960) poems available online include:
- Take me to God
- Transformations of the Lover. (trans. Samuel HazoSamuel HazoSamuel Robert Hazo is an American composer of primarily music for concert band.-Career:Samuel R. Hazo resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife and children. In 2003, Mr. Hazo became the first composer in history to be awarded the winner of both composition contests sponsored by the...
.) International Poetry Series, Volume 7. Ohio University Press: Athens, Ohio, 1982. - An Introduction to Arab Poetics. (trans. Catherine CobhamCatherine CobhamCatherine Cobham is a scholar and translator of Arabic literature. She obtained a BA from Leeds University and an MA from Manchester University and presently teaches at the University of St Andrews...
.) Saqi BooksSaqi BooksSaqi Books is an independent UK publisher co-founded in 1984 by author and feminist Mai Ghoussoub to "print quality academic and general interest books on the Middle East". It now claims to be "the UK's largest publisher of Middle Eastern and Arabic titles"...
: London, 1990.
_______Banipal
Banipal
Banipal is an independent literary magazine dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Arab literature through translations in English. It was founded in London in 1998 by Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. The magazine is published three times a year...
Interview. No. 2, June, 1998. http://www.jehat.com/en default.asp?action=article&ID=43
_______"Language, Culture, Reality." The View From Within: Writers and Critics on Contemporary Arabic Literature: A Selection from Alif Journal of Contemporary Poetics ed. Ferial J. Ghazoul and Barbara Harlow. The American University in Cairo Press, 1994.
_______Sufism and Surrealism. (trans. Judith Cumberbatch.) Saqi Books: London, 2005.
_______Transformations of the Lover. (trans. Samuel Hazo.) International Poetry Series, Volume 7. Ohio University Press: Athens, Ohio, 1982.
_______Victims of A Map: A Bilingual Anthology of Arabic Poetry.(trans. Abdullah Al-Udhari.) Saqi Books: London, 1984.
A Time Between Ashes and Roses (trans. Sharkat M. Toorawa)
Literary criticism and essays
- An Introduction to Arab Poetics (2000) ISBN 0-86356-301-5
- “The Poet of Secrets and Roots, The Ḥallājian Adūnis” [Arabic]. Al-Ḍaw’ al-Mashriqī: Adūnis ka-mā Yarāhu Mufakkirūn wa-Shu‘arā’ ‘Ālamiyyūn [The Eastern Light: Adūnīs in the Eye of International Intellectuals and Poets] Damascus: Dār al-Ṭalī‘a, 2004: 177-179.
- “‘Poète des secrets et des racines’: L’Adonis hallajien”. Adonis: un poète dans le monde d’aujourd’hui 1950-2000. Paris: Institut du monde arabe, 2000: 171-172.
- Religion, Mysticism and Modern Arabic Literature. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2006.
- “A Study of ‘Elegy for al-Ḥallāj’ by Adūnīs”. Journal of Arabic Literature 25.2, 1994: 245-256.
External links
- Profile at Al-Bab.com
- Profile at Looklex Encyclopaedia
- A life on public view Al Ahram Weekly, 17 January 2001
- Shatz, Adam An Arab Poet Who Dares to Differ, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, 13 January 2002 - Reuters Syrian Poet Adonis Seen as Nobel Contender, Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, 1 October 2003 - Three Poems Translated into English, GuernicaGuernicaGuernica may refer to:* Guernica , Spanish Basque town, historical capital of Biscay* Bombing of Guernica, an attack on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War* Guernica , a 1937 painting by Pablo Picasso...
, 15 December 2007 - Adonis speaks to Forward: The living legend of Arab poetry Forward MagazineForward MagazineForward Magazine is a Syrian English-language newsmagazine published monthly in Damascus. It was the first private English-language periodical to be licensed in Syria, since all private media was nationalized by Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1958, during the short-lived Syrian-Egyptian union...
, November 2010 - Adonis on Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue: Humanity Takes Priority
- Adonis auf culturebse.net
- Griffin Poetry Prize biography of Adonis, including video clip of Khaled Mattawa reading translated Adonis poem Celebrating Childhood
- Interview with Adonis: "I'm One Hundred Percent on the Side of the Syrian Revolution"
