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The great poet Said Akl. We will speak about many aspects of Said Akl’s life in this article.
Said Akl was born on July 4, 1912, in Zahle, Lebanon.
His childhood was full of roses in the shade of mother as the angel and in the shade of a father who was full of generosity.
He was raised on a lot of love and indulgence, taking from his pure mother, and from his father the spirit of giving.
As for the history of his town, Zahle, he took honor and heroism.
God had given him a unique look and a certain genius, so he was blessed.
He excelled in his school in Zahle, where he began his studies until he completed a section of secondary school.
He belonged to a Maronite Christian family.
Akl received his elementary education at Al-Moulama Sophia School in Zahle.
While he spent high school in the Marian Brothers School, later known as the Eastern College.
Said Akl, a famous Lebanese poet, philosopher, and playwright.
He also worked as a proofreader.
Said Akl was considered one of the best pioneers of modern poetry in Lebanon.
Akl was famous for his support of the Lebanese identity and nationalism.
He was also supportive of the idea of speaking in the local Lebanese dialect.
It was considered that the Lebanese alphabet has 36 letters.
His writings included poetry and prose.
Both are written mostly in the colloquial Lebanese language or the colloquial dialect of one of the other Arab countries.
Sansad Akl excelled in other fields.
He wrote many theater scripts.
He wrote many lyrics to popular songs that were very popular today.
The great poet Said Akl
The beginnings of his life
The bankruptcy of Said Akl’s father in 1927 and the sale of his lands resulted in the emigration of Said Akl’s brother, known as Aql, to the U.S.A.
Meanwhile, Saeed was forced to leave school and look for work.
In 1930, Said Akl moved to Beirut to work there at a time as a teacher and at another time as an editor for some newspapers.
After that, he returned to studies where he joined the Institute of Wisdom in 1939 and studied at the French École Normale Supérieure in 1943.
Although Aql studied theology, literature, and Islamic history, he did not get any university degree. Said Akl also worked as a lecturer at several Lebanese universities and political institutes in Lebanon.
Saeed Akl began his writing career when he joined Al-Wadi newspaper in Zahle.
The founder of this newspaper was the poet Bechara El-Khoury, nicknamed Al-Akhtal Al-Saghir.
The achievements of Saeed Aql
Said Akl learned a great deal about Sanskrit, Chinese, and literature through attending the library of a French officer.
Akl also taught at the School of Arts and the Institute of Arts of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts established by Alexei Boutros.
He also taught at the Teachers House, then at the Lebanese University (knowing that he did not hold any university degree).
After that, he moved to the Holy Spirit University to study the history of Lebanese thought.
He also gave lessons in theology in Kaslik.
After that, he entered the field of writing and editing through his work for some newspapers.
He wrote in Al-Barq newspaper, whose founder was the poet Bechara El-Khoury, nicknamed Al-Akhtal Al-Saghir.
Work in the following newspapers
- The exhibition newspaper is owned by Michel, a male owner.
- Lisan El Hal by Khalil Sarkis.
- Newspaper by George Niqash
- Al Sayyad by Said Freiha.
His writing spread and became famous, and he won the Golden University Award for Fiction in 1935.
Akl’s political relations were complex and many.
He had links with the Communist Party.
Among his most prominent communist friends were Khaled Bakdash, Farag Allah al-Helw, and Nukla al-Shawi.
But he did not actually join this party.
About what was said about Akl’s affiliation with the Syrian Nationalist Party and that he wrote the party’s anthem, Aql denied this during an interview with Al-Nahar newspaper on May 9, 1992.
He stated that he never knew the leader of this party, Anton Saadeh.
As for the party’s anthem, Wadih Nasrallah, a Syrian nationalist, was the one who wrote the anthem and asked Aql to help him reform it, so Akl met his request.
When the party adopted this anthem, they attributed it to Saeed Aql.
Among his other political connections, he is close to the Arab Nationalist Movement.
Where he organized the hymn of this association known as (For the Eagles and for us Al-Stadium).
The reason behind this rapprochement was his love for a girl named Laila Tannous who was a member of this association.
In 1950 Akl and George Ghara rented the Saint Ephrem Syriac Catholic School.
It transformed it from elementary school to high school.
He called it Saint Ephrem College.
It blossomed greatly during his reign.
It collapsed completely when he abandoned it, so she moved into the public sector in 1966.
Among Said Akl’s literary achievements, he wrote more than 100 introductions to famous books.
These books dealt with various aspects, such as thought, art, poetry, and politics.
About forty doctoral and master’s theses have been written about Akl’s poetry.
Among Said Akl’s political goals was his arrival to the presidency of the Lebanese Republic.
Run for this position.
But he did not succeed in reaching it.
He also ran in the municipal elections in 1963, he lost by thirty votes.
Akl wrote many classical and colloquial poems by Fayrouz.
He was the one who called Fairouz (Lebanon’s ambassador to the stars).
Among the most famous of these poems
- A ride
- Jerusalem
- Mecca was sung
4- Ask me, Yasam.
Among the most famous poetry books
- “Bint Yiftach” in 1935
- Magdalene in 1937
- Randley in 1950
- No more beautiful than you, 1960
- Yara 1960.
Among his most famous prose books
1- The elite in the east in 1954.
2- Lebanon if speaking in 1960, (translated into Spanish.)
The poetic works occupy most of Said Akl’s production.
According to a statistic made by Hind Adeeb, Akl wrote 3,521 lyric verses out of 5,564 lines, which is about two-thirds.
He did that in 23 years.
In terms of poems, he has written 233 song-like poems out of 356 poems.
On October 11, 2010, AUST honored him.
She erected a statue of him in the Creators’ Garden, next to statues of Gibran Khalil Gibran and Michael Debagy.
Under the title: “My Genius”.
AUL University honored Said Akl, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, at a dinner held at the Al Habtoor Hotel on May 11, 2012.
On 3 July 2012, his 100th birthday was celebrated in a ceremonial mass at the Monastery of Saint Sarkis and Bacchus in the town of Qartaba, Jbeil.
But he was unable to attend due to his health conditions.
The Ministry of Communications issued a postage stamp in his name at the age of 100, on December 24, 2014.
Akl passed away on 28 November 2014 in Beirut.
He was buried in his hometown Zahle.
Saeed gave himself the ambitious request and the great vision.
He worked hard to develop his personality and stylize it just as he wanted it to be.
Also, He had a great passion for idealism and missionary spirit.
He delegated himself, like the elders in the world, to important tasks.
In 1962, he created a thousand Lebanese pounds for a poetry prize from his own money.
It is granted to the best antique owner that increases love and beauty to Lebanon and the world.
He had read world heritage masterpieces in poetry and prose.
He became one of the vanguard intellectuals in this East.
Delve into Christian theology until it became a reference in it.
Taking from Christianity love and joy.
He studied the history of Islam and its jurisprudence.
Also, He taught the history of Lebanese thought at the Holy Spirit University.
He gave theological lessons at the Institute of Theology in Saint Anthony Al-Ashrafiyah.
Saeed Akl’s personal life
Said Akl’s father is a cub of Akl.
His mother is Adal Yazbek.
He has a brother named Aql and two sisters, Haifa and Emily.
Saeed Akl announced his engagement to Suad Abi Saleh, daughter of journalist Yusef Abi Saleh, in 1952.
This engagement lasted for two years, but it did not end with a marriage.
On April 2, 1983, Akl married Amal Jumblatt.
However, this marriage ended with Amal committing suicide on 23 May of the same year.
In terms of Said Aql’s religion, beliefs, and indigenous sect, he was born into a Christian family
Quick facts on Saeed Aql
Said Akl was considered one of the founders of the Lebanese Renewal Party in 1972.
He is considered the godfather of Eitan Saqr, the Guardians of the Cedar Party.
Said Akl was one of the most prominent supporters and supporters of the idea of Lebanese nationalism by focusing on the Lebanese characteristic.
Said Akl was considered one of the supporters of the Israeli attack on Lebanon in 1982 with the aim of eliminating the armed Palestinian presence in Lebanon.
This was one of the historical shortcomings in Mind’s life.
Saeed Akl designed an alphabet that used the Latin alphabet.
That includes few newly designed letters and some Latin letters so that he chose it in a way that matches the Lebanese phonology.
This alphabet, known as the Latin alphabet, Akl, contained 36 letters.
Critics’ opinions on Said Akl
So far, Said Akl’s work has not been the subject of a regular and in-depth investigation by literary and university criticism.
Opinions about his poetry and the place he occupies in contemporary Arabic poetry have become vague and subjective.
Between exaggerated praise and an offensive accusation, his works did not find their proper place.
This means that Said Aql’s works are the only ones about which the critics’ opinions may have differed.
However, these contradictory opinions have both objective and subjective reasons.
With regard to poetic pictures, Said Akl was one of the few poets who were able to use them almost regularly.
The purification of poetic language is due in favor of an illustrated expression of inner emotions, feelings, and motives.
Said Akl’s poetry has been able, through the content of his works, their episodic structures, images, and language, to create coherence and harmony rarely achieved by Arab poets in the twentieth century.
Thus, we find it difficult to classify it within a specific trend.
It belongs to all currents, not to one stream.
One of the first true poets in the field of poetic modernity
Some quotes by the great Said Aql
1.I read your glory in my heart and in books
Sham, what is the glory? You are the glory did not go away.
- Not in love hatred
- Here is the dirt of perfume and of fragrance, and wherever the stone is rested without shame
- I have been absent from them, and I have no hand in absence, I am the wing with which the travels have fun.
Some beautiful verses from a poem that (carried Beirut)
Beirut carried in my voice and my tune
And Damascus carried me the sword that is like a pen
We are Lebanon, and eagle’s nest in our home
And the Sham is our neighbor, oh girl of determination
From here there are scents of glory
And there were flags on the tops
Redeem the eyes of the miasmas, sleepy
She fell asleep in a dream and did not sleep
They are the ones who have broken their lives out of passion
Ring me a tune, crying with every mouth
My heart is a vineyard that has no fence
We plunder the beloved from an unsuspecting person
Oh, a fan from Damascus that does not part with me
Dwelling in mind is dwelling in color
Here we reach the end of our beautiful article in which we dealt with A biography of The great poet Said Akl in all aspects of his life
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