Adonis

Adonis (1930 Qassabin) Syria

Adonis is a poet, philosopher and artist, he studied first at the University of Damascus and then at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. In 1957, he published the first collection of poetry which was well received and earned him the esteem of the Lebanese poet Yūsuf al-Khāl who invited him to contribute to the birth of the review Shiʿr. Adonis was very active in political-cultural, aesthetic and philosophical debate. Together with the Iraqi poet Badr Shākir al-Sayyāb and the Palestinian Jabrā Ibrāhīm Jabrā, he is one of the founders of the Tammuzi group, named after the Babylonian deity, precisely to symbolize the desire for an Arab cultural renaissance, reinterpreting its heritage in a non-nationalist or religious key, but open to modernity. The anthology of classical Arabic poetry edited by Adonis himself also fits into this context, due to its innovative approach. The sixties were also those of important poetic works - including Canti di Mihyār il damasceno (1961), written after a long stay in Paris and Il teatro e gli specchi (1968) - and the foundation of new journals such as Afāq (Orizzonti ) in 1964 and Mawāqif (Positions) in 1968 where poetic experiments, poems in dialectal Arabic, translations of great contemporary poetic experiences (Rilke, Rimbaud, Eliot) and prose poems are presented. Adonis' work has been translated into many languages. Among the most significant poetic collections are: Qālat al-Arḍ (1952; Disse la terra), Aghānī Mihyār al-Dīmashqī, (1961; The songs of Mihyār al-Dimashqī), Qabr min ajal New York (1971; A tomb for New York), Kitāb al-Ḥisār (1986; The Book of the Siege), Introduction to Arabic Poetics (1992), Poems (1993), Sijjīl (2000), Mūsīqā al-ḥūt al-azraq (2005; The Music of the blue whale), al-Muḥīt al-aswad (2006, The Black Ocean).

Main thanks:

In 1995, he won the Prix Méditerranée for Suns seconds.

In 1995, he received the Nazim Hikmet International Prize for Poetry.

In 1997, he won the gold crown.

In 1999 he was awarded the Nonino Poetry Prize.

In 2000, he received the LericiPea prize for poetic work.

In 2003, he won the Mondello International Literary Prize.

In 2008, he received a career prize from the Vercelli International Civil Poetry Festival.

In 2011, he won the Goethe Prize.

In 2013 he received the Capri award.

In 2013 he received the Golden Tibetan Antelope Poetry Prize.

In 2013 he was awarded the Petrarch Prize.

In 2014, he won the Janus Pannonius Prize.

In 2015, he received the Kumaran Asan World Prize.

In 2016 he received the literary prize.

In 2016 he received the Dagerman Prize.

In 2016, he received the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize.

In 2017, he received the PEN America Lifetime Achievement Award.

He has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature.