I listened to the rats.� One of them had teeth of yellow diamonds�I suddenly realized that if I tried hard enough I could understand the language of the rats.� They were saying, as they ate their way through mom�s sack of garri, that the world is tougher than fire or steel.� I didn�t understand what they meant and I dozed off trying to get them to explain it to me.� But they couldn�t understand me because, unlike us, they speak only one language.

 

 

Ben Okri

The Famished Road

1991