Breakfast, Birds, and Biscuits: Teaching Intercultural Reading through Student Poetry Translation : a Presentation

This presentation examines how Ukrainian students translated everyday cultural details in Rita Dove’s poem "Dawn Revisited." The analysis is based on 70 student translations produced for a 2024 translation contest. It focuses on four “scene anchors”: blue jay, oak, biscuits, and eggs and sausage on the grill. These details help build the poem’s morning scene through sound, smell, food, place, and the presence of someone cooking. The presentation shows that some items, such as oak, were translated very consistently, while others, especially blue jay and biscuits, caused more variation. The main teaching point is that translation students need to ask what scene their translation creates.