For a quarter century, students studying in FIT’s Modern Languages and Cultures department have been honing their foreign language skills through the art of poetry at the annual FIT/SUNY Student Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Competition. The competition has five foreign language categories: Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
![poetry recitation winners](https://news.fitnyc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Poetry-6023-400x288.jpg)
The finale and awards ceremony, held this year on November 13 at FIT, provided an opportunity for the student winners to challenge themselves by performing before an enthusiastic audience, and a chance for the FIT community to hear great international poetry, such as “Chun Xiao” (“Spring Morning”) by Meng Haoran (689-740 A.D.), “Il pleure dans mon coeur” (“It Rains in My Heart”) by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), “Chi sono?” (“Who Am I?”) by Aldo Palazzeschi (1885-1974), “Shira tsuyuni” (“The White Dew”) by Bunya No Asayasu (circa 900 A.D.), and “Arte poética” (“The Art of Poetry”) by Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986).
This year’s winners were:
Chinese
First Place: Daeyoung Yoo
Honorable Mention: Susanna Mazzoleni
Honorable Mention: Tania Suarez
French
First Place: Parinaz Heidari
Honorable Mention: Dario Javier
Honorable Mention: Andrea Lake
Italian
First Place: Sergio Falquez
Honorable Mention: Lukrecija Brady
Honorable Mention: Stephanie Skinner
Japanese
First Place: Sara Vondruskova
Honorable Mention: Borah Choi
Honorable Mention: Jung Eun Lee
Spanish
First Place: Steven Simione
Honorable Mention: Rockeisha Ellis
Honorable Mention: Marisa Franco