Lebanese Bid Farewell to Senior Poet Akl
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The funeral service for poet and writer Said Akl was held on Tuesday at Saint George Cathedral in downtown Beirut before he was laid to rest at the al-Bayader cemetery in his hometown Zahle.
Akl passed away on Friday at the age of 102.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi led the prayers at the Saint George Cathedral.
“Akl loved Lebanon and raised its name high,” al-Rahi said, adding that the poet “considered Lebanon an extraordinary country.”
His coffin will be taken to his hometown of Zahle in the Bekaa valley for his burial.
Akl was born in 1912.
Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel, former President Michel Suleiman and several other officias took part in Akl's funeral service.
Akl's casket arrived at the Cathedral from the Notre Dame University - Louaize, where the poet's death was mourned on Monday in the presence of hundreds of artists, officials and students.
Akl's coffin was carved by sculptor, painter and poet Rudy Rahme, who designed the casket from Lebanese rock and a 3,000-year-old cedar tree that was uprooted by a storm in 1983.
He engraved in the wood the titles of Akl’s poems.
Akl is considered one of the most important modern Lebanese poets. He was a staunch advocate of Lebanese identity and nationalism and the Lebanese language, designing a Latin-based "Lebanese alphabet" made up of 37 letters which he used to publish Yara (poetry) and Loubnan (newspaper).
He set up a prize in his name for outstanding talents. He has written many works on theology, patriotism, politics, philosophy, poetry and arts in general.
His poetical works include Rindala, Ajmalou Minki? La (More Beautiful than You? No), Ajrass Al Yasameen (The Jasmine Bells), Kitabou Al Ward (The Book of Roses), Doulza, Qassa'ed min Daftariha (Poems from Her Notebook), Kama Al A'mida (Like Pillars), Nahtoun fi Al Daw' (Carving in Light), Sharar (Sparks).
Akl has written three plays in poetic form: The Daughter of Jephthah, The Magdalena and Cadmus.
His published prose includes Loubnan in Haka (If Lebanon were to Speak).
He has also published a number of lectures and articles.
In July 2014 the Beirut Municipality named a street in one of its neighborhoods after Akl.
The memorial plaque read: "Said Akl Street, a century of giving, creativity, honest nationalism.”
H.K.
G.K.
02 December 2014, 12:12
13
A good part of our national heritage is going, yet for a nation that produced such fine people as Akl, we still don't have one museum to treasure all this priceless memo of possibly the world's most talented artists ever. It would be a capital sin to leave matters so badly unattended. Rest in peace Saeed Akl.
02 December 2014, 18:49
03
Amen dude. Capital sin indeed, to say nothing of national shame. And I think that if we were to wait for the government to come up with such a museum we risk losing our cultural heritage while we wait. We, the Lebanese people, should bandy together and make such a museum a reality ourselves. The same way that groups like Xanadu and Beirut D.C. and the Soursouks have been doing for contemporary Lebanese literature, film and art, respectively, we should organize such a collection of classical Lebanese culture ourselves.
02 December 2014, 18:49
00
Amen dude. Capital sin indeed, to say nothing of national shame. And I think that if we were to wait for the government to come up with such a museum we risk losing our cultural heritage while we wait. We, the Lebanese people, should bandy together and make such a museum a reality ourselves. The same way that groups like Xanadu and Beirut D.C. and the Soursouks have been doing for contemporary Lebanese literature, film and art, respectively, we should organize such a collection of classical Lebanese culture ourselves.
02 December 2014, 18:51
03
I myself am a bit ashamed of the fact that my father-in-law, who's French, has a bigger collection of Lebanese literature, music and cinema than I do. In fact, he has a bigger collection of Lebanese culture than even the Cultural Attaché of the Lebanese Embassy in Paris has - I've seen it: One single bookshelf worth of classical books, CDs and DVDs. That is all our cultural history according to our embassy; my father-in-law has a whole wall, 10 metres long, three metres high, two levels deep. For Mathal, as we call it - Ma3had Thaqafi Lubnani - that can be a fair starting point.
02 December 2014, 14:37
41
Who's Said Akl, is he related to that guy Sabbah who I'm told allegedly died last week? If he's not a Hezbollah fighter I never heard or ever will hear of him. Cannot be important unless resistance related.
02 December 2014, 15:45
23
Abbas, leave politics aside in moments like this...this is a man very much loved & respected by most Lebanese.
May he rest in peace.
