Zoe Rakeshh

“The ships at first sailed down the Nile carrying guns not bread, and the railways were originally set up to transport troops; the schools were started so as to teach us how to say "Yes" in their language. They imported to us the germ of the greatest European violence, as seen on the Somme and at Verdun, the like of which the world had never previously known, the germ of a deadly disease that struck them more than a thousand years ago. Yes, my dear sirs, I came as an invader into your very homes: a drop of the poison which you have injected in the the veins of history.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“The pine needles stretch their tongues and sing an unfamiliar nocturnal song. Each tongue is so small that it cannot be heard; together the sound is so deep and powerful that it could level the hills if it wished.”
― Tarjei Vesaas, The Ice Palace

“I mean you no harm, except to the extent that the sea is harmful when ships are wrecked against its rocks, and to the extent that the lightning is harmful when it rends a tree in two.”
― Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North

“Meanwhile I am only twenty years old, and the days descend on me un-noticeably like dust, each one just like the rest.”
― Tove Ditlevsen, The Copenhagen Trilogy