Adonis and Khaled Mattawa: A New Divan
20th October 2019
This event marked the 200th anniversary of the publication of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s great work of world literature, the West-East Divan, with readings and discussion from two internationally renowned poets: the renowned Syrian poet Adonis, known as ‘the grand old man of poetry, secularism and free speech in the Arab world’, and the Libyan-US poet Khaled Mattawa, who writes in English and who is also Adonis’s regular translator. They gathered to talk about poetry, translation, Goethe and different cultural traditions.