Just in: Syrian poet wins the Goethe Prize

Just in: Syrian poet wins the Goethe Prize

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norman lebrecht

August 28, 2011

An 81 year-old writer who goes under the name Adonis (also Adunis) was handed the 50,000-Euro award in Frankfurt today. Report here.

 

Born Ali Ahmad Said Asbar, he did prison time in Damascus for not joining the ruling party, taught in Beirut 1970-85 and fled the civil war to Paris, where he became professor of Arabic at the Sorbonne.

Here’s a youtube video of Adonis reading a poem in Arabic.

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