ISBN: 9780300153064

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (5 Nov 2010)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 16 x 3 cm

Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most celebrated poets of the Arabic-speaking world. His poems have earned international acclaim, and his influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliots on English-language verse. This volume serves as the first comprehensive survey of Adoniss work, allowing English readers to admire the arc of a remarkable literary career through the labours of the poets own handpicked translator, Khaled Mattawa. Experimental in form and prophetic in tone, Adoniss poetry sings exultantly of both the sweet promise of eros and the lingering problems of the self. Steeped in the anguish of exile and the uncertainty of existence, Adonis demonstrates the poets profound affection for Arabic and European lyrical traditions even as his poems work to destabilize those very aesthetic and moral sensibilities. This collection positions the work of Adonis within the pantheon of the great poets of exile, including César Vallejo, Joseph Brodsky, and Paul Celan, providing for English readers the most complete vision yet of the work of the man whom the cultural critic Edward Said called todays most daring and provocative Arab poet.