Lebanese poet Ounsi al-Hajj dies

Renowned Lebanese poet Ounsi al-Hajj died Tuesday in Beirut at the age of 77 following a long battle with colon cancer.

Born in Kaitouli, Jezzine in South Lebanon on July 27, 1937 to Louis al-Hajj, a journalist and translator, and Marie Akl, he showed an interest in literature at a young age.

He began his professional career in journalism in 1956 as director of the culture page at Al-Hayat newspaper.

Hajj is considered a pioneer in the Lebanese and Arab literary world, in particular of Arabic free verse. He wrote six collections of prose poetry, starting with “Lann” (Not) in 1960, the first prose poetry collection of its kind in Arabic, and ending with “Al-Waleema” (The Banquet), published in 1994.

In the 1960s founded “She’r” (Poetry) magazine with fellow pioneer poets Youssef al-Khal and Adonis, with a focus on experimental poetry, and he was editor-in-chief of Lebanese newspaper Al-Nahar from 1992 and 2003.

Hajj translated over 10 plays into Arabic, including some by William Shakespeare, Bertholt Brecht and Albert Camus. He also translated André Breton and Antonin Arnaud.

Parts of his own work were translated to French, English, German, Portuguese and Finnish. 

"I often told the same history. I don't believe that it is of any interest to anyone,” he once said when asked about his life. “I have more remorse than achievements, and all that I have done I did without my knowledge. When nobody used to ask me for my opinion on things, such as love and death, I willingly said the truth, but then I stopped saying it as soon as there was someone to ask."

Egyptian intellectuals are most acquainted with Ounsi’s writing about the Lebanese singer Fairouz, who was a friend of his. 

“Some voices are a ship, some are a shore, and some are a lighthouse,” he wrote. “Fairouz’s voice is the ship, the shore, and the lighthouse. It is poetry, music, and sound, and what surpasses poetry, music, and sound. Even music envies her voice.”

He married Layla Daou in 1957, and had two children, Nada and Louis.