By Shakiba Ghasemi.
The third Café Scientifique was organized at Tampereen lyseon lukio on Wednesday the 16th of March 2022. The invited speaker for the Café Scientifique for March was Christine De Luca. Christine is a well-known Scottish poet and novelist who writes mainly in English and in Shetland Dialect, which is a blend of Old Scots with much Norse influence. Being a well-known poet and writer, Christine has won many Shetland Writing Prizes throughout her lifetime.
The audience members as well as the hosts were keen on asking De Luca questions after the presentation, such as what inspired De Luca to become an author and poet. She responded by saying that she has loved poetry since she was a little girl, however, she mostly wrote it during her free time. However, the real reason she became an author, was because she felt a responsibility to help people not lose interest in their ancestry. De Luca also mentioned that when she visits schools, and meets eager little children, she feels as though she has achieved her responsibility.
When asked if De Luca has a specific style that she follows when writing her poems, she mentions that her poems write themselves in any shape or language. She also stated that music, art, her old memories, and the natural world inspire her the most when she is writing her poetry.
During De Luca’s presentation, she had translated the poems of Kalevala, which is the Finnish epic poetry written by Eino Leino, into Shetlandic. This translation as well as the Finnish and Swedish versions were read out loud during the presentation. This was very interesting for me, so I asked De Luca what got her interested in Kalevala, she responded by saying Eino Leino’s method of collecting these epic short stories and putting them together was what mainly fascinated her. The plot line of the epic also interested her, because of the similarities to other epic stories from all around the world.
De Luca voiced her concerns about the younger generation losing interest in reading poetry and novels, however, she believes that the new forms of art, such as rap and pop music, can lead to become something greater. She is also amazed by the number of individuals from the younger generation, who are dedicating their lives to study the art of writing and its different forms.
Picture: Starting from the right: Mariam Hamdi, who was my co-host, Shakiba Ghasemi, this article’s writer, Christine De Luca, our adored guest for this event, and two very eager pre-IB students.
A big thank you to Christine De Luca for her presentation and the time she took to answer the questions about her interesting topic!
The next Café Scientifique will be on the 26th of April 2022 about sustainable packaging with Ronak Ziaee. See you next time!