"The voice you hear is not my speaking voice - -but my mind's voice.
I have not spoken since I was six years old. No one knows why - -not even me.
My father says it is a dark talent, and the day I take
it into my head to stop breathing will be my last.
Today I was to be married me to a man I have not yet met.
My future husband is not a kind man, he wrote me to say,
he did not mind my silence. Why, he said.
God loves dumb creatures, so why not I".
But sea took me away to another land, far, far away from him.
And the strange thing is, I don't think myself silent.
That is because of my piano.
How did it find me on this strange shore?
I must play and sing.
But first I must drag the piano under a palm tree,
and dry its keys with a palm leaf.
If only I could find a palm tree!
If only I could speak!
brutally adapted from 'The Piano'
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