君なら蝶に

—  Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena. 

“A poet circles around something, corners it with language and rhythm, but this cornered thing cannot be captured with language. So, I often find myself in the same corner, always one word away from capturing the thing that cannot be captured.”

—  Valzhyna Mort, Interview: Valzhyna Mort – “A spilling voice”.

“I thought I would be understood without words.”

—  Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo.

“ … I wonder if I will ever find a language to speak of the things that haunt me the most.”

—  Bao Phi, Vocabulary.

“There is a place inside me where I hold another language close. I’m the only one who knows it. I am the only language I can understand.”

— To a Young Poet, Mahmoud Darwish (translated by Fady Joudah)