And this is how I see the East.  I have seen its secret places and have looked into its very soul; but now I see it always from a small boat, a high outline of mountains, blue and afar in the morning; like faint mist at noon; a jagged wall of purple at sunset.
...
And then, before I could open my lips, the East spoke to me, but it was in a Western voice.
...
I had faced the silence of the East.  I had heard some of its language.  But when I opened my eyes again the silence was as complete as though it had never been broken.


-Joseph Conrad, "Youth" (1898);  Painting:  Odd Nerdrum, "Man in Boat" (1998).