Concerto al-Quds Adonis, Khaled Mattawa

“The poet’s secularist summa, a condemnation of monotheism couched in the form of a surrealist montage . . . It is impossible to read Concerto—the relentlessly high pitch of its language, its emphatic repetitions and violent imagery—without recalling its Old Testament and Quranic models. There is no other modern Arab poet who so successfully conjures the grim beauty of the ancient works even while casting them in forms taken from the twentieth-century avant-garde.”—Robyn Creswell, New Yorker

“Concerto al-Quds is likely one of the last collections we shall see from this great poet. Its unique melding of history, surrealism, religion and personal investigation in poetry which refuses to conform to the rhetoric of political statements is a fitting capstone to a career of intense engagement, with the world, with history, the imagination and the written word.”—Stephen Delbos, Body

“These sensitively serious reflections imbue us with a much-needed hope.”—Jade Cuttle, Magma

“Simultaneously cacophonous and sublime. . . Adonis is a master of poetic orchestration.”—Eric Ormsby, TLS

"In Concerto al-Quds, the poet Adonis grapples with the ravages of history and the ancient, fractious site known as al-Quds, or Jerusalem. Adonis writes with music in the blood, ferocity of vision, and bristling intelligence. Fueled by serious duende and a powerful sense of urgency, Concerto al-Quds is a monumental work and book of reckoning, masterfully translated by Khaled Mattawa."—Jessica Hagedorn, author of Dogeaters

“This universal concerto as translated by Khaled Mattawa has captured the beauty of the original. It is a beautiful English verse, faithful and sensitive; it is a great service not only to the poetry of Adonis, or Arabic poetry, but to world poetry.”—Bassam Frangieh, author of Arabic for Life