Ali Ahmad Said Esber gave a lecture at the Guadalajara International Book Fair reflecting on women’s liberation in monotheistic countries.
The Syrian-Lebanese poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber (January 1, 1930), better known as Adonis, gave a press conference at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, where he reflected on issues such as women’s liberation in monotheistic countries, the importance of culture in the world and the literary references in his poetic work.
“I am with the struggle of women for their liberation in Iran and throughout the world, it must be said that the struggle that women live in monotheistic societies is different from the struggle in Islamic countries,” said the 92-year-old poet.
Adonis affirmed that he put aside his personal desires to make way for “new horizons” and reflections in the FIL.
“This fair is the space of desires. I have abandoned my personal desires and now I only want new relationships to manifest in the meeting that unites us today, I mean, desires for freedom, desires for culture, and desires for democracy for all cultures and nationalities, however, I will leave my most intimate and personal wishes to myself,” he said.
The essayist also spoke about his homeland, Syria: “I send greetings to the Syrian people, to the people, to Syrian civilization and history,” he commented, and spoke about the struggle of women in that country, “Can you talk about a revolution that does not respect women and does not support them? That is the question, we have to reflect on it, ”he reiterated.
The author of works such as Between the fixed and the changeable (translation by Jaafar al Aluni) gave some reflections on the prizes in relation to the poets.
“Prizes in general are a social matter more than an artistic one, the best prize a poet can have is a poem; the poet should not think of anything other than how to create the poem to be able to describe this world, that is the best prize a poet can have, ”he pondered.
And I add. “The prizes, referring to the Nobel, are part of the culture, but they have nothing to do with poetry.”
The poet also reflected on concepts such as death, silence and oblivion.
“Death only takes place in the lap of life; in this sense, death does not exist because it is part of life; if you really want to be a creator and a writer, you have to forget everything, memory repeats, that’s why you have to forget.
Regarding the silence, I think it is a rebellion against any answer; the human being himself is a question, and if he forgets the question, he forgets himself, ”said the writer.