American poets who don't know even a single foreign language well enough to actually read poetry... I'm always taken aback by this, since I always wanted to learn as many languages as I could. Akiko taught me enough Japanese so that I can at least tell which word is which in a Basho poem (in romaji). My German is weak. I can read most Romance languages to varying degrees... French, Portuguese, and Catalan fairly well. Italian much less. Not to mention Spanish. I used to read Latin fairly well but it's fallen off quite a bit.

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Here is that Fanny Howe quote, from "O'Clock,"

"A full Irish breakfast
consists of sausage, black pudding, brown bread,
butter, jam, and some kind of egg.
The tea bag is dropped
into a stainless steel pot
and your pour steamed water on it."