On 20 March, World Poetry Day was celebrated at the Vilnius House of Literature, where the laureates of the fourth “Poetry Day” student translation competition were honoured.
The competition was organised by the VMU Classical Education Lyceum, “Vilnius, UNESCO City of Literature”, and the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO. It featured students from Years 7 to 10 representing nine UNESCO Associated Schools. This unique competition attracts an increasing number of participants each year, all eager to take on the demanding challenge of translating selected poems. The students translated works by English, French, and German authors, including S. Silverstein, B. Collins, L. S. Senghor, and U. A. Sandig.
Competition Winners:
1st Place: Rapolas Černius (Jonava Raimundas Samulevičius Pro-gymnasium, German).
2nd Place: Elanas Rutkauskas (Pasvalys Lėvuo Basic School, English).
3rd Place: Gintarė Kubiliūtė (Vilnius Žemyna Gymnasium, French).
Special Prize: Skaistė Grockytė (VMU Šakiai “Žiburys” Gymnasium, English).
All participants and teachers were presented with certificates of appreciation and souvenirs from the organisers. The judging panel consisted of representatives from the Vilnius House of Literature and teachers from the VMU Classical Education Lyceum. The entries were evaluated based on grammatical and lexical accuracy, creativity, literary quality, and richness of vocabulary. A total of 29 translations, pre-selected by the schools, were submitted (each school was permitted to submit two entries from the Year 7–8 and Year 9–10 groups respectively).
Participating schools included: Alytus Dainava Pro-gymnasium, Jonava Raimundas Samulevičius Pro-gymnasium, Kaunas 11th of March Gymnasium, Klaipėda Technology Training Centre, Kuršėnai Laurynas Ivinskis Gymnasium, Pasvalys Lėvuo Basic School, Vilnius Waldorf Green School, Vilnius Žemyna Gymnasium, and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) Šakiai “Žiburys” Gymnasium. During the event, students met with poet, translator, and lecturer Dr Rimas Užgiris, who shared his professional experience. Afterwards, the participants took part in a guided tour of the Professors’ House.
“Here, we saw the authentic living conditions of the professors, including the library, letters, documents, and even medicine bottles and clothing. Later, we had the chance to test our own creative abilities during an educational session where we ‘reconstructed’ missing parts of poems according to our own interpretations. We were amazed at how the same poem by Kernagis, Aistis, Shakespeare, Mačernis, or Strielkūnas could resonate with such different emotions when touched by different people,” shared representatives from the VMU Šakiai “Žiburys” Gymnasium.
“The hopeful farewell of ‘See you next year’ from students and teachers who have participated multiple times, along with the impressions they take home from the event, inspires us to continue this work,” concluded the initiator of the competition, Auksė Urbonienė, Deputy Head for Education at the VMU Classical Education Lyceum.