زوكالو

by Adonis, أدونيس

In his last trip to Mexico, the poet Adonis strolls through the streets of Mexico City, noticing the unique sounds, smells, colors, and the vibrant light being reflected in every house. It is those rooms within those houses that Adonis feels old images unfolding, answering his intuitions about the Maya, Nahua, and other inhabitants of this metropolis. Zócalo is the count-memory of the poet making his last trip to the city. A place full of nostalgia, this story will enlighten readers on the history of Mexico as well as the poet.

Genres: Poetry

111 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Adonis was born Ali Ahmed Said in the village of Al Qassabin in Syria, in 1930, to a family of farmers, the oldest of six children. At the age of nineteen, he adopted the name Adonis (also spelled Adunis), after the Greek god of fertility, with the hopes that the new name would result in newspaper publication of his poems.

Although his family could not afford to send Adonis to school, his father taught him to read poetry and the Qu'ran, and memorize poems while he worked in the fields. When he was fourteen, Adonis read a poem to the president of Syria who was visiting a nearby town. The impressed president offered to grant a request, to which the young Adonis responded that he wanted to attend school. The president quickly made arrangements for Adonis to attend a French-run high school, after which he studied philosophy at Damascus University.

In 1956, after a year-long imprisonment for political activities, Adonis fled Syria for Beirut, Lebanon. He joined a vibrant community of artists, writers, and exiles in Beirut, and co-founded and edited Sh'ir, and later Muwaqaf, both progressive journals of poetry and politics. He studied at St. Joseph University in Beirut and obtained his Doctorat d'Etat in 1973.

Considered one of the Arab world's greatest living poets, Adonis is the author of numerous collections, including 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); Transformations of the Lover (1982); The Book of the Five Poems (1980); The Blood of Adonis (1971), winner of the Syria-Lebanon Award of the International Poetry Forum; Songs of Mihyar the Damascene (1961), Leaves in the Wind (1958), and First Poems (1957). He is also an essayist, an editor of anthologies, a theoretician of poetics, and the translator of several works from French into Arabic.

Over the course of his career, Adonis has fearlessly experimented with form and content, pioneering the prose poem in Arabic, and taking a influential, and sometimes controversial role in Arab modernism. In a 2002 interview in the New York Times, Adonis declared: '"There is no more culture in the Arab world. It's finished. Culturally speaking, we are a part of Western culture, but only as consumers, not as creators."

Adonis's awards and honors include the first ever International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award, the Syria-Lebanon Best Poet Award, and the Highest Award of the International Poem Biennial in Brussels. He was elected as Stephen Mallarme Academy Member in Paris in 1983. He has taught at the Lebanese University as a professor of Arabic literature, at Damascus University, and at the Sorbonne. He has been a Lebanese citizen since 1961 and currently lives in Paris.
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...

Reviews

[Leopoldo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un poemario sensacional. Adonis es un maestro, se siente como si con cada verso engarzara una joya con otra y nos colgara el resultado al cuello. Visita México sin intenciones de lambisconear, más bien dejando que el paisaje y los estímulos, como dice en el libro, le agreguen una cuerda al laúd del sentido.

(Relectura, junio de 2023)

[Adrià Ibáñez Pelegrí · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Lo real es también una metáfora […] / Todos los puentes se derrumban, salvo los construidos por la poesía. / El poema como la abeja tiene sus flores de las que extrae el perfume de sus secretos”

Tuve la suerte inmensa de poder escuchar una conferencia de Adonis en la FIL de Guadalajara, y fue de lo más conmovedor y valiente que he presenciado nunca. No conocía al poeta sirio, pero lo que escuché me hizo querer saber más y más acerca de su obra. Este poemario está compuesto por versos que Adonis escribió estando de viaje por México. Y así estuve atravesando el país, con su “Zócalo” bajo el brazo, a lo largo de este último mes de diciembre.

[Melissa Chalhoub · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a big problem with the Arabic publishing house, other than the cover (and there is no info whatsoever about it), there is no forward, no preface, no context.

It took me 5 pages to know that this book was written in Mexico and to figure out who “Maya” is, the names of places and gods are written in the footnotes in latin letters but nothing explaining them. There is only one footnote that actually explains that the name mentioned is a city. I really don’t get the laziness of Arab publishing houses, god forbid we get some info.

Anyway, about the actual poems, i enjoyed them but it’s not the best introduction to Adonis (even tho the recommendation came from the publishing house booth clerc, dar el saqi just failing at every turn) the book is written in 2012, so very late career for Adonis, and it’s mainly about Mexico, which is not what i would want to start with from a poet known as a key “Syrian”(Greater Syria).

So yeah, if i had some context before starting the book i wouldn’t have started it now but read some of Adonis’ earlier works.

[Barin Othman · Rating 2 out of 5]

الأسلوب رديء جداً.

[AlAli · Rating 1 out of 5]

لم أستمتع بها، الاسلوب كان ركيك جداً.

[Rizgar Haji · Rating 3 out of 5]

لم أنم تلك الليلة
رحت أرتب سواد الليل في فراشي جديلة جديلة
تغمرني ذكرى تلك الفتاة الصغيرة
مزجت كل جديلة بتنهيداتي
واخذت اتخيل لهذا السواد ضوءا
في ظله شققت فراغا في جسم الشهوة
هبط في تجويف لاقرار له

[Hassan Bin Salem · Rating 4 out of 5]

‏في الفراغ فراغٌ آخر مليء بالأرقام
‏فراغٌ هو ، وحده ، لا ينسى مواعيده .
‏⁧‫،
،
،
،
نالت إعجابي

[Majeda · Rating 2 out of 5]

لم يوفّق أدونيس في محاولته لبلورة اللغة العربية (بفصاحتها ومقاييسها النحوية) وتوليفها مع المعنى والحالة الشعرية بالأسلوب التجريبي الذي اشتهر به

[Alejandro Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

De los mejores libros que he leído en 2022. Una viaje poético a México pero no sólo desde lo geográfico sino sobre todo desde lo espiritual. Extraordinaria obra poética de Adonis.

[Gabino G. Ocampo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un lenguaje hermoso y sencillo. Imágenes compactas y bien formadas.

[Eman AlMahhari · Rating 1 out of 5]

ديوان ملطّخ بالفكر الشيوعي. لم يعجبني.

[Yaser Samra · Rating 1 out of 5]

ما هذا الخبل

[Firyal · Rating 5 out of 5]

من اجمل ما قرأت لأدونيس حتى الأن.
" لا شي كمثل الزائل يعرف كيف يصفح جمال البقاء"
" أقول: الظلمة هى أيضا بداية للنور"
" آهٍ ما أكثر الشي الشي وما أقل اللغة في هذه البلاد التي أنتمي إليها"
" ألبس الموت لكي أستطيع أن أبقي الحياة عارية"
.
.
" ولماذا يجند الخالق بشراً سواهم هو، من أجل أن يقتلوا آخرين سواهم هو أيضا؟"

[Nour Armouti · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتابة شعرية جميلة مؤثرة، الرمز الخفي والرمز الظاهر كلاهما جميل