TWO VOICES: Robert Hass, Greg Delanty, and Michael Matto Discuss Anglo-Saxon Poetry

This event brought together editors, poets, and translators Robert Hass, Greg Delanty, and Michael Matto to talk about some of the great richness of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Delanty and Matto are coeditors of The Word Exchange, which features over 70 contemporary poets (Hass included among them) translating a wealth of Anglo-Saxon verse into modern English. In this audio you can hear Hass, Delanty, and Matto read in both English and Anglo-Saxon while discussing these poems.

Delanty started the event by talking about the process of translating from Old English into modern English. Part of the question with translating from a historic language like Old English is the degree to which a translator should stay true to the original, versus trying to find equivalents in modern English. Another difficulty, which Hass and Matto discussed later on, was balancing between the sound of the Old English and the meaning of the translation.

Matto then discussed what exactly Old English is and where this poetry comes from. Pride of place was given to the year 1066, in which William the Conqueror ("also known as 'William the Bastard,'" explained Matto, "not just because he was an illegitimate child") brought the French language to England, initiating a cross-fertilization that was hugely important to Old English. Matto also discussed how Old English literature was very much oral—many, many poems in The Word Exchange were never written down until they were codified by scholars. He went on to note the great similarities between the poems known to be oral and the ones known to be written, and he discussed the various kinds of meter and form found in Old English poetry.

As Matto explained, the poems read here show "the range of diversity" in interpreting from the Old English verse. To demonstrate this, he read one of the various maxims, noting the differences in interpretation. For instance, here's Brigit Kelly's translation of a maxim:

Frost must freeze, fire melt wood earth bear fruit, ice build bridges, and, most wonderful, water put on a glass helmet to protect the earth's sprouts. . . .

And then a different approach to another maxim, by Mark Halliday:

To live well is to do what needs doing. If you have wise counsel, speak it clearly; but when secrecy is wise, write silent words. If you have a song, sing it. When you must judge, then judge. The day for action is always today. . . .

Hass than talked about his history with Old English and the poetry that he translated for The Word Exchange. He discussed the "dance" of influences from which Old English was made, and he noted that for many years the survival of Anglo-Saxon literature was dependent on "hobbyists" until renewed interest in the literature by scholars after Shakespeare's time. Hass made stirring remarks about the use of violence in Old English poetry, declaring that many of the great works of Anglo-Saxon poetry falls into a European poetic "celebration of violence in a world dominated by wars." He situated Tennyson's famous "Charge of the Light Brigade" as the last in this lineage of poetry, being the final time anyone could "get away with" senselessly glorifying violence as Tennyson did.

The event concluded with a particularly energetic question and answer session, with Delanty, Hass, and Matto interjecting among one another on questions including the best translation of Beowulf and the tradition of violence in Anglo-Saxon poetry.