Honouring Condescending Scepticism
It s the wrong time for the Goethe Prize winner Adonis to be criticizing the protests in his homeland, writes Stefan Weidner, Adonis s German translator, in his commentary
The Syrian poet Adonis, born near the coastal town of Latakia in 1930, has received this year s Goethe Prize at a ceremony in Frankfurt, a German literary award of high prestige. The award ceremony went ahead in spite of protests in the Arab world over statements he s been making about the situation in his homeland. There s a flood of awards for Arab writers this year which can only be explained by the democratic awakening in the Arab world.