Before the 222th anniversary of the birth of Pushkin, the celebrated Russian poet, the Fourth Russian Poetry Festival of Nankai University was held in the 111 Academic Lecture Hall of the College of Foreign Languages. Wang Lidan, Jiang Min, Xu Li, Song Yinnan and other teachers of the Russian Department attended and served as judges for the recitation contest of Russian poetry.
The poetry recitation contest consists of two forms, respectively individual recitation and group recitation. According to the themes of the works recited by the contestants, they are divided into two groups. The first group of contestants demonstrated the history with affectionate recitations, delivering a unique understanding of Russian history, and bringing the audience into the historical context of poets such as Lermontov, Mandelstam, and Simonov, which made them feel the pulse of the different times. The second group recited classic poems on the theme of love, from Tsvetaeva’s whisper, Rozhdestvensky’s tenderness to Pushkin’s sincerity, which fully demonstrated the affection and profoundness of Russian poetry. The standardized Russian pronunciation, the natural and graceful style, and precise and rich emotional expression won bursts of applause from the audience. In addition, Bu Ailin and Jin Xuan, exchange students from Russia and Ukraine, Zhang Jingyu and Liu Xueqing, postgraduate students of the Russian Department, and Zhao Ziguang, an undergraduate student of the Russian Department were invited to recite the poems and sang songs, which made the atmosphere pleasant.
After a fierce competition, Shi Danyang and Sun Ao, the student of the Russian Department, won the first prize. The two of them cooperated to recite the A Letter from Tatyana to Onegin, and a Letter from Onegin to Tatyana, selected from Pushkin's famous poetic novel Jewgeni Onegin, combining theatrical performance with the poetry recitation, which is ingenious. They used desks, chairs, paper, pen and other props to reconstruct the writing scene, and interspersed the two letters that were originally in two chronological and space lines. The pacing was natural, and the emotions were sincere and moving, which shocked the audience.
Professor Wang Lidan, head of the Russian Department, reviewed the tradition of Poetry Festivals of the Russian Department in his concluding remarks and praised the students' recitation and presentation of classic Russian poems. She emphasized that the teachers and students of the Russian Department have overcome many inconveniences caused by the epidemic this year and successfully held the fourth Russian Poetry Festival, which is commendable.
It is reported that since 2016, the Russian Department of the College of Foreign Languages in Nankai University has begun to hold the Russian poetry festival. The competition system of the recitation contest this year has been adjusted and innovated. For the first time, a group recitation has appeared, and the participation of guests has enriched the content of the festival. The practice of this professional activity shows that the Russian poetry festival has realized the effective linkage between the first classroom and the second classroom, and has become a platform for students to approach literary classics, improve humanistic quality, and promote cultural exchanges between China and Russia.
