Conversations in the Pyrenees

Authors: Adonis and Pierre Joris

Translators: Pierre Joris, Rainer J. Hanshe, and Peter Cockelbergh

Publisher: Contra Mundum Press (2018)

Adonis in the Pyrenees: another “conversation in the mountains” where a multiplicity of orients and occidents intermingle, where dialogue between Adonis, the major Arab-language poet at work today, and Pierre Joris, nomad poet between the United States, Europe and North Africa, becomes polylogue, exchanging reflections that range from the destructive role all monotheisms play in history—in relation to woman, but also to the power structures throughout cultures—to questions of poetics and the possible role of the spiritual in contemporary poethics.

These conversations—under the general title “Religion is an answer, poetry a question”—took place in June 2017 in the small village of Germ-Louron in the French Pyrenees in the context of “Les Porteurs de Mots / The Word-carriers,” an annual cultural festival organized by Franck Morinière. These conversations were framed by a range of events, musical & theatrical performances, poetry readings and talks.