Considering that Sweden has hosted the Nobel Prize Awards for more than a century and until Thursday had not presented one of its own authors with the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1974 (to Eyvind Johnson), the world can hardly blame the awards committee for presenting this year’s prize to poet Tomas Transtromer.
Along with the Syrian poet Adonis, Transtromer was among the top ten authors favored by Britain’s Ladbrokes betting agency as a likely win. Transtromer, according to the agency, was an 8-1 favorite while Adonis was favored 4-1. The poets are also close in age, with the Swede born 1931 and the Syrian in 1930. However, Transtromer became the 104th recipient of the award by virtue of what the prize committee recognized as the following: “through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality."
Transtromer has published volumes of acclaimed works in both his native tongue and in translations, among them: The Sorrow Gondola(Green Integer, 2010); New Collected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2011); and The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems (New Directions, 2003). As an author who has already received the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the Swedish Award from the International Poetry Forum, few would argue that he deserves the Nobel prizeas well. Yet even as the crowd of onlookers cheered and applauded the announcement of his win, many others were stunned (as people tend to be when their cultural heroes do not triumph) that the name called out was not that of Adonis.
A Gifted Poet in Strange Lands
Born Ali Ahmed Said in the mountain town of Syria’s Al Qassabin, Adonis has spent much of his adulthood outside of his native country. Imprisonment at the age of twenty-five for political activities forced him to flee Syria for Beirut, Lebanon, in 1956. Although a citizen of Lebanon since 1961, he currently resides Paris, France.
In the years leading up to the 2011 Arab Spring, Adonis spoke often of his belief that the Arab world needed to find ways to embrace modernization. Only a few months ago, he wrote an open letter to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in which he broached the extremely sensitive issue of separation of politics and religion. He noted the following as a prerequisite for the establishment of a stable system of democracy in the region:
“Democracy needs a climate of freedom of speech, opinions, and expressions: Small minds can reduce rich texts into nothingness.”
Powerful words wisely delivered from a distance. He added: “Leniency regarding difference of opinions is good, but what is required is equality under the laws of the land in matters of human rights.”
The Power of the Poet
Adonis has been celebrated as a poet for at least half a century. After his relocation to Beirut, he co-founded and edited two progressive journals of poetry and politics, Sh'ir and Muwaqaf.Among his books are: Selected Poems (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) published by Yale University Press in 2010; Mihyar of Damascus(BOA Editions, 2008), A Time Between Ashes and Roses (Syracuse University Press, 2004); If Only the Sea Could Sleep (2003); The Pages of Day and Night (2001); and Transformations of the Lover (1982).
In a 2008 interview with famed broadcast journalist Charlie Rose, he spoke about the power of poetry in his life:
“For me, poetry cannot express the human person,” said Adonis. “I write poetry in order to live in a better way and to have a better view of the world. If I leave some legacy behind, I hope it is to help my reader to live better themselves. And to see the world [in a better way].”
Although he did not win the Nobel Prize in Literature this time around, Adonis did become in August the first Arab to win Germany’s highly-coveted Goethe Prize.
by Aberjhani, National African American Art Examiner
author of The River of Winged Dreams
and co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Celebrating Literature and Nobel Laureates in the 21st Century
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