Thursday, April 17, 2008

New Hamlet-alluding Adonis collection

Adonis has a new poetry collection, just out this year, with a Hamlet-themed long poem in it. (Cover art is by Adonis as well.)

The poem is titled (slightly less decorously than the collection as a whole) "Calm down Hamlet, inhale Ophelia's smell." It was written in January 2006 (before the most recent Lebanon war, which he also writes about). On a very cursory first reading, not quite sure what it has to do with Hamlet (and it does not seem to be Adonis' best work, not that I am any kind of expert).
More soon.

1 comment:

Tasnim said...

A more accurate translation would be "calm down Hamlet, breathe in Ophelia's madness." Otherwise the keyword جنون is sort of left out :)

I hope that doesn't sound too nitpicky.