The Pages of Day and Night

Adonis (Ali Ahmen Said), a two-time Nobel finalist and the author of more than 20 books of poetry, prose and literary criticism, is arguably the leading Arabic poet in the world. As he states in his preface, ``Poetry is . . . a perpetual beginning,'' and many of the poems in this collection, whether lyrical, fantastical or revelatory, are imbued with a mystical timelessness; a style that echoes the pre-Islamic poetry of Sufism; and a linguistic sensibility that prefers the simple, more accessible image over the intellectualized imagery of Western poetry. The long poem ``Transformations of the Lover'' celebrates sexual union with such energy that the poem is elevated to an intensely spiritual level: ``My body started to prepare itself for something / like the fall of planets. . . Your body is April itself, and every part / of you becomes a dove that speaks my name.'' But the most engaging portion of the collection comes in the form of a brief concluding essay in which Adonis addresses the difficulties faced by a poet writing in Arabic--a language that was, at least for him, nullified with the advent of Islam. This is an immensely satisfying new collection of poems--continuing the poet's restless, metaphysical exploration into ``everything strange.'' (May)