Wednesday, December 29, 2010

When they write about Arab culture in the Western press

I mean, you really have to know no Arabic, and you really have not know nothing about Arab culture in translation, and you really have to have not read anything by Adonis in prose or poetry to write this ignorant sentence:  "Adonis’s indifference to prizes appears to stem partly from modesty and partly, to judge from a noontime talk he gave on Tuesday, from a conception of poetry that transcends not just literary politics but politics altogether."  To speak about the modesty of Adonis and about his ostensible indifference to prizes is to speak about the resistance activities of Salam Fayyad. (thanks Khelil)