Adonis

de Adūnīs

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. Eliot's on English-language verse. This volume serves as the first comprehensive survey of Adonis' work, allowing English readers to admire the arc of a remarkable literary career through the labours of the poet's own handpicked translator, Khaled Mattawa. Experimental in form and prophetic in tone, Adonis' 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 poet's profound affection for Arabic and European lyrical traditions even as his poems work to destabilize those very aesthetic and moral sensibilities.