Adrian Wanner will present an experiment that he conducted in his CMLIT 510 seminar in Spring 2026. Following the model of the telephone game, it involved translating a “mystery poem” (Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”) sequentially through 13 iterations in seven different languages. In addition to the eight students enrolled in the course, the participants in the experiment included other Penn State faculty and visiting scholars. The individual participants will read their versions aloud and discuss their translational choices.
• Adrian Wanner is Distinguished Professor of Slavic Languages and Comparative Literature and a translator of Russian and Ukrainian poetry into German.