‘If the world is a flower then poetry is its fragrance’

The perfume of poetry should be capable of combating the dark or evil forces in society, says Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber, who is mostly known worldwide by his penname Adonis. The greatest living poet in Arabic made the observation during the first plenary session of Dhaka Lit Fest 2017 on Thursday. Bangladesh’s leading poet in English Kaiser Haq had held the plenary with Adonis at Bangla Academy’s Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad Auditorium in Dhaka after the festival’s inauguration ceremony. At the plenary session, 87-year-old Adonis said: “If the world is considered as a flower, then the poetry is its fragrance. The perfume should be capable of combating dark or evil forces in society. “However, all people nowadays rush towards the flower forgetting the fragrance.” The poet, speaking in French, also shed light on poetry, philosophy, fundamentalism and ignorance, contemporary political crisis in the Middle East and about his own works during the session, titled “Role of Poetry is to Diffuse Perfume against Ignorance, Fundamentalism.” Jahangirnagar University’s English Department teacher Kazi Ashraf Uddin was Adonis’s English translator during the plenary. The poet also shared experiences from his journey in becoming a world renowned poet from a little boy in the small village of al-Qassabin in Syria. When asked about his political stance, Adonis claimed he was a leftist, but added: “I consider myself to be always with human beings. Humanity is the central concern and essence of leftism. However, the essential essence of human being is basically change and not a static entity.” Stressing on the importance of reading of classical texts, he said the re-reading those will bring a greater understanding of the meta-narratives that people blindly believe in. Talking about people’s reading habit nowadays, the poet said currently people were reading more than in previous times.