Why a Booktrail?
Mina Javaherbin’s charming and witty retelling combined with Eugene Yelchin’s refreshingly brilliant illustrations bring this enlightened classic, inspired by Rumi’s poem, vividly to life.
Elephant in the Dark
What you need to know before your trail
When the villagers hear of a huge and mysterious creature that has come all the way from India, they steal into the dark barn to find out what it is.
“It’s like a snake!” says one.
“It’s like a tree trunk,” says another.
“No, it’s like a fan!” argues the third.
Who is right? Which of them knows the creature’s true shape?
Travel Guide
India
Rumi’s poem
Some Hindus have an elephant to show.
No one here has ever seen an elephant.
They bring it at night to a dark room.
One by one, we go in the dark and come out
saying how we experience the animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk.
A water-pipe kind of creature.
Another, the ear. A very strong, always moving
back and forth, fan-animal. Another, the leg.
I find it still, like a column on a temple.
Another touches the curved back.
A leathery throne. Another the cleverest,
feels the tusk. A rounded sword made of porcelain.
He is proud of his description.
Each of us touches one place
and understands the whole that way.
The palm and the fingers feeling in the dark
are how the senses explore the reality of the elephant.
If each of us held a candle there,
and if we went in together, we could see it.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Elephant in the Dark
Destination : India Author/Guide: Mina Javaherbin Departure Time: Anytime
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