NNA - The "Said Akl, If He Could Speak" museum project was officially inaugurated under the patronage of President Joseph Aoun during an exceptional national and cultural ceremony held at the Zahle Municipal Palace.

The Minister of Culture, Dr. Ghassan Salamé, representing President Joseph Aoun, the Speaker of Parliament, Nabih Berri, the Prime Minister, Dr. Nawaf Salam, and a large gathering of ministers, parliamentarians, ambassadors, judges, security chiefs, party leaders, religious leaders, directors general, writers, poets, artists, and prominent figures from various backgrounds were present, demonstrating the importance of the event and the symbolic significance of the figure whose legacy was being celebrated.

In his speech, Salamé emphasized that “poetry is a link that connects us to our heritage, our history, and the foundations of our identity, and that it is a balm for weary and discouraged souls.”

He declared: “I convey to you the greetings and congratulations of His Excellency the President of the Republic, patron of this celebration, who honored me by delegating my presence to represent him here today. I also have the pleasure of conveying the greetings and congratulations of His Excellency the Speaker of Parliament and His Excellency the Prime Minister, who have asked me to express their hope that the opening of this museum marks the beginning of its development and success.”

He continued: “What is poetry? Poetry is a joy; we hum the words and delight in their musicality. Poetry is a thread that connects us to our heritage, to history, and to the roots of our identity.” We learn poems written 1,500 years ago by heart with the same enthusiasm as those written yesterday, because in poetry, and particularly among Arabic speakers, there is a strong link between yesterday and today, between the present and the past, between modernity and tradition.

He continued: “Poetry is also a remedy for the weary, the exhausted, the frustrated. I confide in you that when I despaired of finding a solution or a ceasefire in the streets of Baghdad, Benghazi, or Yangon, every evening I returned to Al-Mutanabbi, Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, and Said Akl, and I found in their verses the necessary impetus for the next day, to continue my mission and try to reach an agreement with the tyrants of this century.” “

Salamé considered Zahle, “this unwavering, spontaneous, and generous city, as having bestowed many blessings upon Lebanon, but perhaps the greatest of these is being a cradle of poetry and poets. How numerous they are, how creative they are, and how profoundly they influence souls and hearts!”

He also congratulated the Zahle City Council, the Zahle Cultural Council, and Notre Dame University of Louaize “for joining forces to ensure that this giant of poetry has his museum in the city of his birth.”

He added: “As for your interest in a museum design based on artificial intelligence, this demonstrates both courage and discernment. We are all turning to AI; we know its capabilities and its limitations. It is a vast, automated, and instantaneous library, but it cannot express opinions, let alone emotions.” This is why combining AI with the grandeur of intellectual poetry is an adventure I eagerly anticipate. On the one hand, I am certain that it will allow us to better understand how Said Akl worked with language, like a quarry of words, taking them one by one, sculpting them with unparalleled effort and genius, and then presenting them to us as masterpieces in their own right. On the other hand, emotion—the emotion of the poet, and also that of the reader—on the fringes of which AI stands, is the exclusive domain of humanity, not of machines.”

Salamé concluded: “This fusion of the capabilities of artificial intelligence and human emotions corresponds exactly to what I expect from this museum. I congratulate its initiators and convey to them not only the greetings of the presidents, but also the commitment of the ministry entrusted to me to support them at every stage."

At the end of the ceremony, a commemorative plaque, designed by the artist Jihad Qassouf, was presented to Minister Salamé in gratitude for his support and presence.

------- Culture Minister's Media Bureau