Adonis, behind the scenes, and some beautiful surprises for me

Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber with Rym Ghazal. Satish Kumar / The National

I was nervous to meet Mr Adonis. Not the greek God, but the man known as the Arab world's greatest living poet. I had sat, researched, read and memorised some of his poems before our interview, as was told he may just quiz me.

It is like getting the chance to meet, say Shakespeare in real life. It is intimidating.

When I came looking for the great poet in the lobby of an Abu Dhabi hotel (he was here last week to perform as part of the Abu Dhabi Classics International Concert season, presented by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority at The Emirates Palace) I spotted him immediately as he was the only one wearing a bright pink scarf, and sitting calmly while people rushed about.

He had an aloof smile on his face, and a twinkle in his eyes, as if he knew some secret. “I am always creating poetry in my mind. We are always rushing and not noticing the little beautiful things around us,” he said. “Life is poetry but we are too busy imposing our own words and labels on it depending, on our mood.”

The 85-year-old Syrian poet, whose full name is Ali Ahmad Said Esber, made me laugh so many times, it was like sitting with an old friend.

“You know, when I want to write something anonymous, I just put my real name,” he said with a wink. Most don’t know his real name, they just know him as Adonis.

Some of his words of wisdom included his hopes that Arabs remember their important role in being a a “bridge” between Europe and Asia, between East and West.

One of the few lines that I always remember include: “In our culture, the ‘others’ is very important. Part of our identity, is this ‘others’ we include. So we have to start there and see what we are doing with this type of identity and how we can improve on it or even restart again from zero,” he said. “The hardest place to start, is with oneself.”

After almost 90 minutes of interviewing, he made me pause and said: “You have been writing my words for the past hour, it is time for you to write your own words. “We forget what are our words, our thoughts, as we spend so much time worrying about others, reading and collecting other people’s thoughts and ideas and think that is who we are. Sit with yourself, really sit, and see what are your words, the words of your poetic soul.”

Thank you Adonis, that is what I have been doing ever since meeting you. And I have discovered some surprises.