As a poet who is an extremely streaky writer, working on translations of the first poems written in Old English has often saved Miller Oberman from making nothing for long stretches of time. For him, translation is a conversation that moves back and forth through time and space, accruing meaning as it goes, and this talk is about how studying these poems has deeply influenced his own. He plans to talk about two fragmented Old English poems, "The Ruin," and "Wulf and Eadwacer," and will offer multiple translations of each.
Miller Oberman is the author of The Unstill Ones, due out in October, 2017. He is a former Ruth Lilly Fellow as well as a 2016 winner of the 92nd St .Y’s Boston Review/Discovery Prize, and has recent poems and translations in Poetry, Tin House, London Review of Books, and The Nation. Miller lives in Brooklyn.