Elephant in the Dark

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's proud of his description.

Each of us touches one place and

understands the whole in 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.

Rumi