How do you know you exist? - James Zucker

Translator: Kartini Rahmatillah Reviewer: Hafizh Alfarisi

How do you know you're real?

Bagaimana kau yakin dirimu nyata?

Pertanyaan ini memang mudah sampai akhirnya kau menjawabnya.

It's an obvious question until you try to answer it,

but let's take it seriously.

Namun, jawablah dengan serius.

How do you really know you exist?

Bagaimana kau begitu yakin dirimu ada?

Dalam buku “Meditasi Filsafat Pertama”, René Descartes mencoba menjawabnya.

In his "Meditations on First Philosophy,"

René Descartes tried to answer that very question,

Dia mengesampingkan semua keyakinan dan opininya

demolishing all his preconceived notions and opinions

untuk memulai lagi dari dasar.

to begin again from the foundations.

All his knowledge had come from his sensory perceptions of the world.

Semua ilmunya berasal dari pemahaman indranya akan dunia.

Sama denganmu, ’kan?

Same as you, right?

You know you're watching this video with your eyes, hearing it with your ears.

Kau menonton video ini dengan matamu, mendengarnya dengan telingamu.

Your senses show you the world as it is.

Semua indramu menunjukkan dunia.

Dunia tidak menipumu, tapi terkadang begitu.

They aren't deceiving you, but sometimes they do.

Kau bisa salah mengira orang yang kau kenal dari kejauhan

You might mistake a person far away for someone else,

atau kau yakin bisa menangkap bola, tapi bola itu malah jatuh di depanmu.

or you're sure you're about to catch a flyball,

and it hits the ground in front of you.

But come on, right here and now,

Namun, ayolah, di sini dan saat ini, kau tahu semua yang di depanmu nyata.

you know what's right in front of you is real.

Your eyes, your hands, your body: that's you.

Mata, tangan, tubuhmu: itulah dirimu.

Orang gila akan menyangkalnya, tapi kau tidak gila.

Only crazy people would deny that, and you know you're not crazy.

Anyone who'd doubt that must be dreaming.

Siapa pun yang meragukannya pasti sedang bermimpi.

Oh no, what if you're dreaming?

Oh, tidak. Bagaimana jika memang mimpi?

Dreams feel real.

Mimpi terasa nyata.

Kau yakin sedang berenang, terbang, atau melawan monster dengan tangan kosong

You can believe you're swimming, flying

or fighting off monsters with your bare hands,

when your real body is lying in bed.

saat tubuh aslimu berbaring di kasur.

Tidak.

No, no, no.

Saat kau bangun, kau tahu kau sedang bangun.

When you're awake, you know you're awake.

Oh! Namun, saat tertidur, kau tidak menyadarinya.

Ah! But when you aren't, you don't know you aren't,

so you can't prove you aren't dreaming.

Tak bisa dipastikan kau sedang bermimpi.

Maybe the body you perceive yourself to have isn't really there.

Mungkin tubuh yang kau anggap milikmu tak benar-benar ada.

Mungkin semua realitas, bahkan konsep abstraknya,

Maybe all of reality, even its abstract concepts,

like time, shape, color and number are false,

seperti waktu, bentuk, warna, dan angka, salah semua.

Semua hanya tipuan yang dikarang oleh genius jahat!

all just deceptions concocted

by an evil genius!

No, seriously.

Ya, aku serius.

Descartes asks if you can disprove the idea that an evil genius demon

Descartes menanyakan apa kau bisa membantah gagasan

bila iblis genius jahat tengah membuatmu memercayai bahwa realitas ini nyata.

has tricked you into believing reality is real.

Bisa jadi iblis penipu ini telah memperdayamu.

Perhaps this diabolical deceiver has duped you.

The world, your perceptions of it, your very body.

Dunia, persepsimu terhadapnya, tubuhmu.

You can't disprove that they're all just made up,

Kau tidak bisa menyangkal semua itu hanya dibuat-buat.

and how could you exist without them?

Bagaimana kau ada tanpa itu semua?

You couldn't! So, you don't.

Tak bisa kau sangkal! Jadi, tak kau sangkal.

Life is but a dream,

Hidup tak lain hanyalah mimpi.

and I bet you aren't row, row, rowing the boat merrily at all, are you?

Aku yakin hidupmu tidak dijalani dengan sukacita, ’kan?

Tidak, kau susah payah menjalaninya

No, you're rowing it wearily

like the duped, nonexistent doof you are/aren't.

seperti orang pandir tak nyata yang tertipu, atau mungkin tidak.

Apa hal itu terdengar meyakinkan? Apa kau terbujuk?

Do you find that convincing?

Are you persuaded?

Jika tidak, bagus. Jika iya, itu lebih baik.

If you aren't, good; if you are, even better,

because by being persuaded,

Sebab, andai kau terbujuk,

you would prove that you're a persuaded being.

kau membuktikan dirimu sebagai “makhluk” yang diyakinkan.

Kau bukan hal yang tiada jika kau anggap dirimu sesuatu,

You can't be nothing if you think you're something,

even if you think that something is nothing

sekalipun kau anggap sesuatu itu bukanlah apa-apa.

Sebab, apa pun yang kau pikirkan, kau sedang memikirkan sesuatu,

because no matter what you think, you're a thinking thing,

or as Descartes put it, "I think, therefore I am,"

seperti ungkapan Descartes: “Aku berpikir. Karenanya, aku ada.”

Begitu pula dirimu, sungguh.

and so are you, really.

(Airplane engine)

(Deru Mesin Pesawat)