By Ms Levantine's Co-Editor
While we are all awaiting the Mehlis Report, a defining moment in Syrian-Lebanese relations might take place this coming Thursday when the Swedish Academy announces the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Just like in 2003, the odds-on favorite this year is the poet Adonis. Ali Ahmad Said was born in 1930, not far from Latakia in Syria. He moved to Lebanon in 1956, married a Lebanese woman and then acquired the Lebanese citizenship. As the story goes, he was quietly living in the Hotel Dieu district of Achrafieh during the civil war, when the local militia learned that a Syrian was residing in the area, and proceeded to invade his house and threaten him. Despite interventions by the local priest who explained that Adonis was a great artist who should not be harmed, the poet had to move. He eventually settled in France, where he has been living for the past twenty years.
Adonis is undoubtedly the most important Arabic speaking poet of his generation; but should he be awarded the Noble Prize on Thursday, which country would be claiming him? Here are my predictions:
- An overjoyed Emile Lahoud would immediately cancel Adonis’s Lebanese citizenship, and declare next Thursday a great day for Syria. He would then proceed to take a few celebratory laps in his favorite swimming pool.
- Bashar Al-Assad would congratulate the native son, announce that the time has come for him to come back to the new and improved Syria, and invite him for lunch at the date of his choice - his own agenda being wide open.
-The Pan-Syrianists would state that as far as they are concerned, being Lebanese or Syrian is one and the same.
-The Phoenicianists would wonder what all the fuss is about, and claim that Said Akl’s exquisite Phoenician poetry had been unjustly ignored by the Nobel committee. They would also remind us that the last time they checked, Adonis was not exactly an Arab deity.
-The Arabists would declare that this is simply yet another triumph in their illustrious history.
-The Lebanists would point out that the only way Adonis was able to write, was by leaving Syria, and settling in Lebanon’s nurturing environment.
- Detlev Mehlis would jump on the opportunity to interrogate yet another person, and would immediately question Adonis in the context of the Hariri murder investigation.
- Professor Joshua Landis would see the prize as one more proof that Bashar Al- Assad should be given a chance. If the man from Latakia is Nobel material, can the one from Qurdaha really be far behind?
-The city of Jbeil would start a spring festival honoring both Adonises, and organize a rafting trip down Nahr-Ibrahim.
But the most interesting piece of information, and by far, is which identity Adonis himself will choose: Syrian? Lebanese? Arab? Poet? All of the above? I will be rooting for him to win one for us, however we define ourselves.
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