Summary

In the opening chapter, the unnamed Greek teacher discusses Jorge Luis Borges’ epitaph, which reads, “He took the sword and laid the naked metal between them” (3). The Greek teacher posits that the blade represents “the blindness that lay between the aging Borges and the world” (4). He recalls a trip to Switzerland, where Borges is buried. He notes that he was able to see the landscape around him and mentions another “knife” (4) that had yet to separate him from the world.

In Chapter 2, the Greek teacher asks an unnamed woman, dressed entirely in black, to read a sentence from the blackboard. In a flashback, Han reveals that the woman—once a published poet and professor herself—went completely mute while teaching a class the previous year. Since that moment, the woman has been unable to speak. She “had no choice but to abandon [her...