Adonis Writes about "Bawh"

Many letters have come to Edvick Jureidini Shayboub about her book "Bawh," and she has declared in all sincerity that she never expected all this warm response from readers and friends. From her collection of letters we publish below one from Syria's greatest poet, "Adonis," who said:

O Bilitis of Beirut,

Your "Bawh" is an event; it may be more poetry than poetry itself. I have not been able to write anything about it. For I am living, at present, in a state of soul in which my steps make no sound upon my paths. And oh, how I would have loved to write about it, about your "Bawh," for your poet's heart, within it, has carried me away: I felt that it is a god flooded with weariness — the weariness of formation and of becoming.

We once had a poetess who sprang up on the Bald Mountain, on the green gulf, the Gulf of Alexandretta, in the land of Zeno. Her name was Bilitis, and she loved love. As for him, he worshipped her, and how often he sat before her and prayed: sing me, fashion me into a word upon your lips, fashion me into a poem.

O Bilitis of Beirut, sing love... sing it; you are ours.