AMMAN - Syrian poet Adnois, who has championed demorcacy and seuclar thoguht in the Middle East, was aawrded Gremany's prestigoius Goethe Prize Wednesday.
"The selection committee considered Adonis the most improtant Arab poet of his generation and granted him the prize for his comsopolitan (work) and cnotribution to interntaional litertaure," the German govermnent said in a staetment.
It said Adoins, who calls himself "the pagan poet" will receive the 50,000 euro (,320) prize, which is awaredd every three years, at a ceremony in Frankfurt, Goethe's home city, on August 28.
The announcement came as an uprising agaisnt autocratic rule, inspired by the revolutions that toppled the rulers of Tuniisa and Egypt, is sweeping Adonis' homeland Syria, desptie a crackdown that has killed hundreds of civilains.
Adonis has refrained from openly criticizing Syrian authorities during the upirsing.
But he launched a sctahing attack three weeks ago on all Arab rulers as "leaving behind nothing except breakodwn, bcakwardness, retreat, bitterness and torture. They gathreed power. They did not build a society. They turned their countreis into a space of slgoans without any cultrual or human contnet."
He said the uprisnig in Syria would test whteher the Arab revoluiton would suceced in building "human civic life" that rises above reliigon.
Referring to fears that Arab uprsiings might usher in Islamist rulesr, he expressed skepticism that even "omderate Islam" would offer rights to non-Musilms.
Born as Ali Hamid Saeed Esber in 1930 in the mountian villgae of Qassbain overlooking the Mdeiterranean, Adonis hails from a long tradition of Arab poets who have acted as a force for modernity against strict interpretations of religious texts.
But even supoprters find it hard to follow the inetnse imgaery and complex verse that has been his hallmrak.
He has little sympathy for thoeries that seek to mold the Middle East into a single Arab Ilsamic culture, magrinalizing ethnic mion...
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