Saisons

by Etel Adnan

« Penser, ce n’est pas contempler, mais rendre compte. » Saisons est une célébration de la nature « qui reste immobile au cœur des tempêtes », « qui ne sait pas ce qu’est l’inquiétude » et qui pourtant passe sans bruit, aussi fragile que la destinée humaine. Source de connaissance, la nature a son langage qu’Etel Adnan comprend et retranscrit. Ainsi elle la rend présente à notre conscience, nous remet au cœur des rythmes et de la polyphonie du monde. Car « la nature aide à devenir humain. » L’observation des éléments est l’occasion d’un dialogue intérieur entre l’esprit et les sens, d’une méditation percutante sur le monde. Tissant les liens qui unissent l’Etre aux forces de l'univers, Etel Adnan révèle ses intuitions sur les mythes et l’Histoire, les guerres et l’amour, le silence et le langage. Tels des haïkus, les fragments qui composent ce recueil claquent sur la page comme autant de moments de révélation. Sa foi en l’homme, en la transcendance de l’esprit et en l’énergie de la création est servie par une écriture colorée et limpide.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Etel Adnan was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1925. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, U.C. Berkeley, and at Harvard, and taught at Dominican College in San Rafael, California, from 1958–1972.

In solidarity with the Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962), Adnan began to resist the political implications of writing in French and became a painter. Then, through her participation in the movement against the Vietnam War (1959–1975), she began to write poetry and became, in her words, “an American poet.” In 1972, she returned to Beirut and worked as cultural editor for two daily newspapers—first for Al Safa, then for L’Orient le Jour. Her novel Sitt Marie-Rose, published in Paris in 1977, won the France-Pays Arabes award and has been translated into more than ten languages.

In 1977, Adnan re-established herself in California, making Sausalito her home, with frequent stays in Paris. Adnan is the author of more than a dozen books in English, including Journey to Mount Tamalpais (1986), The Arab Apocalypse (1989), In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country (2005), and Sea and Fog (2012), winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and the California Book Award for Poetry. Her most recent books are Night (2016) and Surge (2018). In 2014, she was awarded one of France’s highest cultural honors: l’Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. Numerous museums have presented solo exhibitions of Adnan’s work, including SFMoMA; Zentrum Paul Klee; Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris; Serpentine Galleries; and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar.

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
Kind of feels like reading her fever dreams. Cadence feels chaotic but still lots to ponder and love in there.

[Emily Hunerwadel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Etel Adnan writes in waves of philosophical thought, unafraid to posit answers to huge, age-old questions. Seasons in particular is focused on the movement and changes inherent in time, memory, and civilization. Writing in justified paragraphs (stanzas?), Etel sometimes collects connected thoughts and sometimes makes huge associative leaps between sentences, whichever brings her closer to revelation. The grandiosity of each passing stanza is unrestricted, which makes reading Etel a slippery process. In one paragraph, she may hit us with deep insight into the viciousness of war and the plight of the Arab body, while the very next posits our being as a factor of memory. Etel is not concerned with giving us time to think over her observations. She is purposefully hard to grasp so that we are forced into the grandness of a moment of thought, making her writing at once ephemeral and limitless.

[Megan]

deep bows to Seasons, and Etel.

[Missmmking · Rating 5 out of 5]

poetry...i picked this up after this poet read at a Poetry Reading recently. I turned it over only to discover - another great writer, friend Megan had written the review! She gets 5 stars for the review!
Megan Pruiett says of it, “A series of meditations following the sun...Intimate with ephemera, alert to what’s hidden, Seasons seeks the universe within and beyond the spirit’s changeable weather, finding everywhere its center.” Adnan, born to a Greek Christian and a Muslim Syrian father, has published seven books of poetry and the novel Sitt Marie-Rose.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best contemporary poet of our time … Adnan writes about nature and Being and consciousness, and therein all of their blending formless realities, with deep precise language … Adnan’s tone is ancient and tired and conceptual