Guest of the ilb 2002
Salah Stétié was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in
1929. Already at an early age, he was led to the playful use of
language by his father who himself wrote poems. The origins to
his poetic creations can be found in the city of his birth, the
crossroads between Arabic and European civilisation. His need for
the mutual inspiration of both cultures prompted him to write in French
although Arabic was his mother tongue. With this he exposed
himself to the pressure of the Islamic "Integrists" who, especially
from 1950 to 1960, encouraged the revival of the Arabic culture and for
whom the giving up of the own language was equal to the loss of
identity. Not letting this trouble him, Stétié studied Literature
and Law in Beirut as well as in Paris. In the sixties he founded
'L’Orient littéraire', a French language cultural magazine in
Beirut. This role as mediator between two cultures can be seen
through his whole life. Alongside his work as diplomat in Paris,
he was also ambassador in Marocco and the Netherlands and also General
Secretary of the Foreign Ministry in Lebanon and lastly as delegate of
UNESCO.
In his essay 'Les porteurs de feu' (1972), for which he was awarded the
'Prix de l’amitié franco-arabe', the French-Arabic friendship prize,
Stétié dedicates himself to the spiritual roots of the Arabic world and
questions its possible future. In 1994 he published 'Liban
plurielle' in which he describes the specifics and yet at the same time
the uncertainties due to its diversity, of the Lebanese culture.
Not only in content is the Arabic culture found in Stétié’s works.
Salah Stétié was the first poet of Arabic origin who published his
works in the French language. In the process of writing, a new
language is created: 'Françarabe' where many etymological roots are
taken from the Arabic but where the words are neverthe-less from the
French. The musicality of his poems goes back to the tradition of
Arabic poems which, with their distinct rhythm, achieve a high level of
cantability.
It is therefore not surprising that the reflection on language finds
significant status in his work. His text 'Le Français, l’autre
langue' which came out in 2001, is a homage to the French
language. The essay is nevertheless much more than a pure
'Francophilie', as Stétié doesn’t understand "a" language as a singular
thing but rather more the language itself in the way the French use it.
In 1995, the poet was awarded the 'Grand Prix de la Francophonie' from
the 'Académie Française' for his complete work. This includes
fifty works translated into 15 languages. Today Stétié lives in
France where he works as poet, essayist and art critic.
© international literature festival berlin
Salah Stétié online: www.salahstetie.com | 
