Last Wednesday during most people’s lunch hour, Lindsay Auditorium in Sturm Hall held a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and ecocritical poetry reading. The third installment of the Spanish department’s annual spring poetry reading showcased readings focusing on the topic of nature in various languages.
The hour started with two Russian students reading Nikolai Gumilev’s “Giraffe” and Sergei Yesenin’s “Song About a Dog.” While one read the original Russian version of each poem, the other accompanied him on guitar. Both poems focused on the naturalistic beauty of the animals and how their place in nature is as significant as they are beautiful.
One of the highlights of the reading was when the Italian-speaking students performed a section out of Dante’s “Inferno” Canto XIII, this is the story of Pier Della Vigna and the fate of suicides in Hell. Introduced as one of the most famous stories in all of literature, another student read the English translation before the rest of their class of 15 stood up at the front of the auditorium and recited the original Italian version.
This story, taken out of Canto XIII, is one that details the fate of people who commit suicide in hell. The suicides have turned into black and gnarled trees in the afterlife, destined to sit there and rot for eternity.
Junior economics, history and Italian major from Spokane, Washington, Arthur Heaton, was a part of the Italian class that performed Dante’s work was pleased to see the turnout.
“I was honestly impressed by the number of languages represented and the number of students in attendance at the poetry reading. It was a great opportunity for each respective language to see what the students and faculty in the other language departments are doing,” said Heaton.
One of the biggest things to take away from the reading was learning the history behind each poem or song, and the different cultural aspects that go into that languages respect for the art of poetry. When the Spanish department read Juan Ramon Jimenez’s “Platero and I,” the readers explained how the poem expressed modernist ideals by rejecting realism. According to the readers, the poem received extensive backlash in a surrealist response written by Luis Bunueal and Salvador Dali.
Sophomore economics major from Bangladesh, Mohammed Mostafa, believes that the reading helps make DU more culturally diverse and aware of its surroundings.
“I think the reading helps build unity between the language departments,” said Mostafa. “A lot of programs don’t get to experience the other cultures. I’m studying Arabic and don’t get to see what the Chinese classes are doing, and this gives me that opportunity.”
Mostafa, who sang a rendition of the Arabic lyrical poem “Give me the Flute and Song” by Jibran Khalil Gibran to close the event, also believes merging the language departments is a catalyst for greater understanding of culture at DU.
“The main impact of the reading is making DU a more cosmopolitan campus and it allows students to experience different cultures through a universal medium such as poetry and song.”
