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.