There is always a place for poetry in your life…
The years when you are a university student is one of the brightest periods in life to remember, especially for young people who came to study from abroad. The preparatory faculty for foreign students (PFF) arranges numerous events, not only to help the students to get adapted to living in Russia, but to understand and accept its culture, customs and traditions. Late March is the time for traditional annual contest of Russian poetry recitation “Reciting verses in Russian”. According to E. Legochkina, PFF Dean,“when reading Russian poetry everyone can find the lines, close to his heart”. “The baton was passed” to the new students, by Mohammad Usman Usman, last year award winner among PFF students, and the second-prize winner of all-university poetic contest. The board of judges included the staff members of PFF and International education centre, representatives from Public creative centre, students’ cultural centre. Their task was far from simple, they had to score the students by their artistic performance, pronunciation skills, proper intonation and correct word stress.
For young people love is a primary concern, which explains the wide choice of love poems. You could hear the passionate lines written by K. Simonov, N.Rubtsov, A. Blok, F. Tyutchev, A.Pushkin, S.Esenin, E. Asadov. The foreign contestants were extremely creative during their preparation, which included not only recitation, but music background, sometimes offering very emotional videos and photos. The audience could see picturesque views, photos of the beloved, to whom they dedicated the touching poetic lines. However, a man cannot be satisfied with love only, everybody could speculate upon friendship, listening to “The song about a friend” by V. Vysotski, about human characters in E.Asadov’s “Different qualities”, “there are no uninteresting people….” as the contestants agreed with E.Evtushenko, a Russian poet. The tutors, Russian language instructors, helped the students to make their choice among endless diversity of Russian poetry. Russian poetic stanza, performed by foreign students, sounded unusual, fascinating and musical. Young men and ladies were speaking not only with words, but with their heart, trying to transmit the feelings, which touch the soul and make it fly, using pauses and body language. The main thing in common was sincerity without acting, helping them to express feelings and emotions.
As the board of judges was making the final scoring, Russian language teachers recited their favourite verses. BSTU named after V.G.Shukhov boasts itself for creating favourable conditions and technical support to make forums and events successful. The contestants and supporters’ groups felt comfortable in a new lecture hall and also could see the score of the candidates on the screen. That is why nobody was surprised to hear the name of the main award winner - Martin Ruwewe. He was not only distinguished for his expressive performance, but deserved praise for correct pronunciation, when reciting “I cannot make expensive gifts for your birthday…”. Together with P.Tasila Josephine he also won a prize from the audience. The young man and the girl are very much concerned about the theme of war, which was the reason for reciting «Talk with the grandpa» by L.Dolzhenko, with simultaneous screen video presentation. Phai Phearak, who proved that “there are no uninteresting people….” with the poet E.Evtushenko, won the second prize and Nelson Shamutea could address his African girlfriend in a special way with “Wait for me” by K. Simonov and won the third prize. Souvenirs were presented to the winners, but the biggest and most valuable gift was presented to everyone in the hall - a chance to be distracted from daily routine and enter the world of high spirits and pure feelings, to touch the vivifying spring of Russian poetry.