“In a mountain village, loneliness pervades in the water. Destroyed by visitors. only withered grasses.”
The international poetry event included readings from each of the international language teachers and two other faculty members. The international teachers selected poems from the various language they teach, like Spanish or German.
Each teacher selected anywhere from two to five poems from some famous poets hailing from their subject country, names like Pablo Neruda and Minamoto-No-Muneyuki Ason.
The poems were read in their native language first, then a translated version was read.
“The point of the experience is to give people a change to hear their favorite poems in the original language,” said Ben Kohn, who will be reading poems in German.
Kohn hoped that the event would attract new students to the international languages class, or at least he hoped that students enjoyed it.
The admission was free and there was even a packet of the poems passed out after the event. Kohn said that, “We didn’t want students to follow along, because it wasn’t about analyzing or interpreting the poems,” Kohn said. It was about, “wanting the students to get a sense of the beauty of the languages taught here.”
