• Born in Qassaeen village, Lattakia, Syria, 1930
  • His father taught him Quran, Poetry, Language and farming
  • Entered school at the age of 13 after writing a poem celebrating a visit by the president who granted him a scholarship to enrol in the French School in Tarsus
  • Published his first poem in 1947 under the name Adonis
  • BA in philosophy, Damascus University, 1954
  • 1954, published his collection of poems, Said the Earth
  • 1957, settled in Beirut with his wife Khalida Saeed
  • 1957, published his collection of poems, Preliminary Poems
  • 1957, launched Shir (Poetry) magazine with Yousif Al Khal
  • 1958, published his collection of poems, Papers in the Wind
  • 1960, won a scholarship by the French  government to spend a ayear inParis where he wrote most of his collection Songs of Damascus’ Mihyar
  • 1961, published his collection Songs of Damascus’ Mihyar in Beirut
  • 1961, attended the International Conference of Arabic Literature, Rome
  • 1964-1968, published his collection Arabic poetry Dewan, 3 vols.
  • 1965, published his collection The Book of Trends and Migration in the Regions of Day and Night
  • 1968, published his collection The Theatre and Mirrors
  • 1968, Launched Mawaqif (Attitudes) magazine
  • 1968, won Book Fraternity Award, Beirut1970, published his collection A Time among Ashes and Roses
  • 1971, visited the US for the first time to receive the International Poetry Forum Award and wrote afterward his poem A Tomb for New York
  • 1971, published his book Introduction to Arabic Poetry
  • 1972,published his book The Age of Poetry
  • 1973-1978, published his four volumes The Stagnant and the Transformed, which was his thesis to win his PhD from Beirut’s SaintPeter University
  • 1971-1985, Lecturer at Lebanese University
  • 1974, won the National Award of Poetry, Beirut
  • 1977, published his collection of poems Singular in Plural
  • 1972-1978, translated the complete plays of George Shehada, two plays for Racine and the poetic works of Saint-John Perse
  • 1980, visiting professor at Sorbonne
  • 1980, published his study Introduction the Century’s End
  • 1980, published his collection of poems Book Of the Five Poems
  • 1982, published his poem collection The Book of Siege
  • 1984, presented a number of lectures at College de France published later on under the title In the Arabic Poeticism
  • 1985, visiting professor at Georgetown University
  • 1986, won the International Award of Poetry, Liege, Belgium
  • 1985-1989, the Arab League’s permanent representative at UNESCO, Paris
  • 1987, published his collection of poems A Lust Advancing in the Cities’ Maps
  • 1988, translated into French some of Abul Ala’a Al Maari’s Luzimiyat published by Fayard in Paris
  • 1988, published his collection of poems Celebrating Clear Ambiguous Things
  • 1989, organised the Arab-French Meeting in Sana’a sponsored by UNESCO and Sana’a University
  • 1989-1995, Associate Professor at Geneva University
  • 1994, published his collection of poems A Second Alphabet
  • 1994, won Nazim Hikmat Award, Istanbul
  • 1995, won the Mediterranean Award in Paris and the Lebanese Cultural Forum
  • 1996-1997, Visiting Professor, Princeton University, Middle East and North Africa Studies Institute
  • 1996, published his poem collection Granada1997, won NoNino Poetry Award, Italy
  • 1998, organised Granada Arab Writers Poets with Princeton University  1998, won Macedonia Poetry Award
  • 1998, translated Jibran’s Al Maw
  • akib into French
  • 1998, published his poem collection Index of the Wind’s Works
  • 2000, won LaRche Pia Award, Italy
  • 2000, honoured by the Arab Institute in Paris on his 70thbirthday
  • 2001, with Goethe Award for Poetry, Berlin
  • Most of his works were translated into French as well as English, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Greek and Polish

 Decision of the General Secretariat   

In addition to being one of the pioneering experimentalists who opened new horizons to Arab poetry, Adonis was a leader in the field of post-modernism. Since he appeared in the arena of poetry, he worked open-mindedly to alter concepts and defeat inherited thoughts to give them a new form. Thus he is considered the effective voice that carried the poetry movement to a new lane that is so open to liberal creativity.