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.
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