The book is the Spanish version, but my feeble translation skills to english below it will hopefully suffice to move you as well.

“En el invierno de 1981, el viajero camina con su mujer por las calles de Praga, cuando ve a un muchacho dibujando los edificios de su alrededor. Le gusta uno de los dibujos y decide comprarlo.

Al tenderle el dinero, se da en cuenta de que el muchacho no lleva guantes, a pesar de la temperatura de cinco grados bajo cero.

–¿Por que no usas guantes?–pregunta.

–Para poder coger el lápiz.

Conversan un poco sobre Praga. El muchacho decide dibujar el rostro de la mujer del viajero, sin cobrar nada. Mientras espera que el dibujo esté listo, el viajero se percata de que algo extraño ha occurido; ha hablado durante casi cinco minutos con el muchacho, sin que ninguno de los dos hablase la lengua del otro.

Habian sido simplemente gestos, sonrisas, expresiones faciales, pero la voluntad de compartir algo hizo que entrasen en el mundo del lenguaje sin palabras.¨

¨In the winter of 1981, a traveler went walking with his wife through the streets of Prague, when he saw boy drawing the buildings of his surroundings. He liked one of the drawings and decided to buy it.

Upon fetching the money, he realized that the boy wasn’t wearing any gloves, as he weighed the fact that the temperature was 5 degrees below zero.

“Why aren’t you wearing any gloves?” he asked.

“So that I have the power to grasp the pencil.”

They chatted a little about Prague. The boy decided to draw the face of the traveler’s wife, without charge.

While the traveler was waiting for the drawing to be ready, he noticed that something strange had occurred; he had talked for almost 5 minutes with the boy, without neither of them speaking in the language of the other.

It had simply been gestures, smiles, facial expressions… but the will of sharing something made it so that a language without words had entered the world.”

Gorgeous and accurate.

Much writing to do. Green Island, Hualien & Taroko, plus my Philippine trip to Boracay still lingers. Await the posts!