M. ADONIS

Born in Qassabine, a village in the mountains of northern Syria in 1930, Adonis, whose real name is Ali Ahmad Sa’id, was trained from a very early age in poetry by his father, a literate peasant. He published his first poems at the age of seventeen in a Latakia newspaper, already using the pen-name Adonis. Thereafter, he fully commits himself to a free and universal poetry, freed from any obstacle, from any linguistic, ideological or cultural limits. After studying philosophy at the University of Damascus, Adonis chose Beirut to found, in 1957, with his friend, the poet Yûsuf al-Khâl, the group Chi’r (Poetry) and a magazine of the same name. The influence of this journal on contemporary Arabic literature is considerable, as it introduces modern Western poetry forms and contents to traditional Arabic poetry. The collection Les Chants de Milhar le Damascene appears in 1961 and constitutes one of the founding works of modern Arabic poetry. The French translation, published in 1983, is a the beginning of Adonis worldwide recognition.