Famous Arab poet with a flair for collage art
Print Edition
Syrian-born Ali Ahmad Said Asbar is widely considered the greatest living modern poet in the Arab world.
A pioneer in modern Arabic poetry, the committed secularist over the years has been called a rebel and iconoclast, often saying that art and literature, including poetry, should not be made to serve a religion or ideology.
He has even referred to himself as a pagan prophet.
Since 1988, Asbar has been regularly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and has won numerous awards, including the Goethe Prize in 2011 and the Bjornson Prize in 2007.
The 83-year-old writer, now a French citizen, uses the pen name Adonis or Adunis. He is also an essayist and translator, writing more than 20 books of poetry in Arabic and translating works from French into Arabic.
Some of his poetry and essays were translated into Chinese and published in 2009 and 2012.
He briefly visited Shanghai last week, where he attended an exhibit of his collage art at the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum. He then visited Hangzhou and the Qinghai Poetry Festival.
Imprisoned
He was imprisoned in Syria for a year from 1955 to 1956 for his political views. When he was released, he moved to Lebanon and then France to study and teach. In 1980 he was a professor of Arabic at the Sorbonne.
Adonis considers that his works in essay and poetry help bridge the gap in understanding between Arabic, Western and now Eastern Worlds.
Speaking in Shanghai, he said with humor, “Collage is very popular among collectors and has contributed the majority of my income these days, much more than from my poetry.”
Asked why he came to China, at such an advanced age, he said simply, “Love.”
The poet’s 106-year-old mother died last month, which made family even more important to him.
He was born into a poor farmer’s family in a mountainous area and from an early age, the boy worked in the fields. Still, his father regularly had him memorize poetry, and he began to compose his own. In 1947 he recited a poem for the Syrian president, which led to schooling, scholarships and a degree in philosophy from the Syrian University in Damascas in 1954.
His poems express both his nationalist outlook and mystical views. He became a leading exponent of the Neo-Sufi trend in the 1970s; it uses Sufi terms with implied rather than explicit meanings.
In Shanghai Adonis talked with media about his poetry and art, an unfinished autobiography, and the relationship between poetry and religion.
Q: What inspires your collage? Is it related with your poetry?
A: It’s a kind of new form seldom seen in Arab countries. It’s a combination of calligraphy, color and different materials. It can express some things I cannot say or write in words.
I feel more freedom when creating works with random swipes of the hand. It comes from “a brain and hands without censorship.” You can create visionary poems in different styles and colors.
It’s funny that collage works have brought me much more income compared with my poetry.
Q: Please tell us about your autobiography.
A: I haven’t finished it because I’m facing technical problems. I often ask myself whether it’s real or 100 percent honest. If the answer is no, then why should I continue?
It’s also difficult for me to write all the things I want to express, such as dreams and unconscious ideas. It will also cover controversial topics about desire and sex.
Q: What’s your impression of your nation? After being gone so many years?
A: I still remember the old house where I was born in Syria. It was made of grass, wood and stones. I returned to see my mother for short periods since I was 26 (in 1956, after he left the country. He stopped visiting two years ago because of the conflict).
There are two waves in Syria and probably in many countries in the Arab world. One is coming back to the old times with deep religion influence and the other is founding a new world with new ideas. I know that I strongly support the latter.
Q: Is religion an important part of poetry in the Arab world?
A: Religion in the Arab world is often a tool of mind control. I strongly fight against religion working for politics and other purposes. There is no serious poet or philosopher in the Arab world who believes in the local religion.
I want to rewrite the culture and philosophy, originally from ancient scholars in the Arab world, like Sufi mystics, without religion influence.
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