Learning a language

Learning a language

is like doing a jigsaw puzzle

of million places

with a picture that keeps changing.

It’s like getting lost in a foreign city

without a map.

It’s like playing tennis without a ball,

like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.

It’s being an acrobat with a broken leg,

an actor without a script,

a carpenter without a saw,

a storyteller without a middle or an end.

But then gradually

It’s like being out in the early morning

with the mists lifting.

It’s like a chink of light under a door,

like finding the glove you were looking for,

catching the train you thought you were going to miss

getting an unlooked present,

exchanging a smile.

And then one day it’s like riding a bicycle

very fast downhill.