An ode to living on Earth | Oliver Jeffers

Translator: Mariona Sabate-Carrove Reviewer: María Pérez del Cura

[Oliver Jeffers]

[Oliver Jeffers]

[An ode to living on Earth]

[Oda a la vida a la Terra]

Hello.

Hola.

I'm sure by the time I get to end of this sentence,

Estic segur que quan arribi al final d'aquesta frase,

given how I talk,

de la manera com parlo jo,

you'll all have figured out that I'm from a place called

haureu deduït que vinc d'un lloc anomenat

planet Earth.

planeta Terra.

Earth is pretty great.

La Terra és genial.

It's home to us.

És la nostra casa.

And germs.

I la dels microbis.

Those [blip] take a back seat for the time being,

Aquests [piiip] els deixarem per un altre moment,

because believe it or not, they're not the only thing going on.

perquè, si bé costa creure-ho, hi ha més coses a la Terra.

This planet is also home to cars, brussels sprouts;

Aquest planeta també té cotxes, cols de Brussel·les,

those weird fish things that have their own headlights;

aquests peixos estranys que tenen llums,

art, fire,

l'art, el foc,

fire extinguishers,

els extintors,

laws, pigeons, bottles of beer,

lleis, coloms, botelles de cervesa,

lemons and light bulbs;

llimones i bombetes,

Pinot noir and paracetamol;

Pinot noir i paracetamol,

ghosts, mosquitoes, flamingos, flowers,

fantasmes, mosquits, flamencs, flors,

the ukulele, elevators and cats,

l'ukelele, ascensors i gats,

cat videos, the internet;

vídeos de gats, internet,

iron beams, buildings and batteries,

bigues de ferro, edificis i piles,

all ingenuity and bright ideas, all known life ...

ingenuïtat i idees brillants, tota la vida coneguda,

and a whole bunch of other stuff.

i moltes coses més.

Pretty much everything we know and ever heard of.

Bàsicament, tot el que coneixem que existeix.

It's my favorite place, actually.

És el meu lloc favorit.

This small orb,

Aquesta petita esfera,

floating in a cold and lonely part of the cosmos.

que flota en una part del cosmos solitària i freda.

Oh, the accent is from Belfast, by the way, which is ...

Tinc accent de Belfast, i Belfast és...

here.

aquí!

Roughly.

Aproximadament.

You may think you know this planet Earth,

Potser us penseu que coneixeu la Terra

as you're from here.

perquè sou d'aquí.

But chances are,

Però probablement,

you probably haven't thought about the basics in a while.

fa temps que no heu pensat en coses bàsiques.

I thought I knew it.

Jo pensava que la coneixia.

Thought I was an expert, even.

Jo pensava que era un expert.

Until, that is, I had to explain the entire place,

Fins que vaig haver d'explicar tot el planeta

and how it's supposed to work,

i com funciona,

to someone who had never been here before.

a una persona que mai no hi havia estat.

Not what you might think,

No és el que us penseu,

although my dad always did say

encara que el meu pare sempre em deia

the sure sign of intelligent life out there

que la prova de la vida intel·ligent

is that they haven't bothered trying to contact us.

és que no s'han molestat a contactar-nos.

It was actually my newborn son I was trying to explain things to.

Era el meu fill nadó a qui volia explicar-li.

We'd never been parents before,

No havíem estat mai pares,

my wife and I,

la meva dona i jo,

and so treated him like most guests when he arrived home for the first time,

així que el tractàvem com un convidat quan va arribar a casa,

by giving him the tour.

i li vam ensenyar la casa.

This is where you live, son.

Aquí viuràs tu, fill.

This room is where we make food at.

Aquí és on fem el menjar.

This is the room we keep our collection of chairs, and so on.

Aquí és on tenim cadires, i així tot.

It's refreshing,

És molt divertit

explaining how our planet works to a zero-year-old.

explicar com funciona el teu planeta a algú de zero anys.

But after the laughs,

Però després de la diversió

and once the magnitude that new humans know absolutely nothing

i conscient de tenir un nou humà que no sap absolutament res,

settles on you and how little you know either,

i conscient que vosaltres tampoc no en sabeu massa més,

explaining the whole planet becomes quite intimidating.

explicar tot el planeta és una tasca que imposa.

But I tried anyway.

Però m'hi vaig posar.

As I walked around those first few weeks,

Mentre passejava amb ell les primeres setmanes,

narrating the world as I saw it,

explicant el món que veia,

I began to take notes of the ridiculous things I was saying.

prenia nota de totes les bestieses que deia.

The notes slowly morphed into a letter

Aquestes notes van prendre la forma d'una carta

intended for my son once he learned to read.

adreçada al meu fill quan comenci a llegir.

And that letter became a book

I de la carta, a un llibre

about the basic principles of what it is to be a human

sobre els principis bàsics del significat de ser un humà

living on Earth in the 21st century.

que viu a la Terra en el segle XXI.

Some things are really obvious.

Algunes coses semblen evidents.

Like, the planet is made of two parts:

El planeta es divideix en dues parts:

land and sea.

terra i mar.

Some less obvious until you think about them.

Algunes menys evidents fins que les penses bé.

Like, time.

El temps, per exemple.

Things can sometimes move slowly here on Earth.

Les coses es mouen lentament aquí a la Terra.

But more often, they move quickly.

Però sovint es mouen ràpidament,

So use your time well, it will be gone before you know it.

així que has d'usar bé el temps, perquè fuig.

Or people.

O la gent.

People come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.

Hi ha gent de tots tipus, mides i colors.

We may all look different,

Tots som diferents,

act different and sound different,

actuem diferent i sonem diferent.

but don't be fooled.

Però no us enganyeu.

We are all people.

Tots som persones.

It doesn't skip me that of all the places in the universe,

De tots els llocs de l'univers

people only live on Earth,

només hi ha gent a la Terra

can only live on Earth.

i només poden viure a la Terra,

And even then, only on some of the dry bits.

i a sobre, només en llocs sense aigua.

There's only a very small part of the surface of our planet

Només hi ha una petita part de la superfície de la Terra

that is actually habitable to human life,

habitable per als humans

and squeezed in here is where all of us live.

i atapeïts aquí és on tots vivim.

It's easy to forget when you're up close to the dirt,

És fàcil oblidar quan estàs tan a prop del sòl,

the rocks, the foliage, the concrete of our lands,

les roques, els boscos, el formigó que trepitgem,

just how limited the room for maneuvering is.

que tenim un espai limitat per maniobrar.

From a set of eyes close to the ground,

Mirant des d'uns ulls propers al sòl,

the horizon feels like it goes forever.

l'horitzó sembla infinit.

After all, it's not an every-day ritual

No fem cada dia un ritual

to consider where we are on the ball of our planet

valorant el lloc que ocupem en el nostre planeta,

and where that ball is in space.

i quin lloc en l'espai ocupa la Terra.

I didn't want to tell my son the same story of countries

No vull explicar al meu fill les mateixes històries de països

that we were told where I was growing up in Northern Ireland.

que m'explicaven a mi a Irlanda del nord.

That we were from just a small parish,

Que érem d'un petit poblet

which ignores life outside its immediate concerns.

que ignora la vida més enllà de les nostres coses.

I wanted to try to feel what it was like to see our planet

Jo intentava sentir què significa veure la Terra

as one system, as a single object,

com un sistema, com un objecte individual,

hanging in space.

penjat a l'espai.

To do this,

Per aconseguir-ho,

I would need to switch from flat drawings for books

necessitava canviar els dibuixos plans dels llibres

to 3D sculpture for the street,

per escultures 3D del carrer,

and I'd need almost 200 feet,

i necessitava uns 60 metres,

a New York City block,

un bloc de pisos a Nova York,

to build a large-scale model of the moon,

i construir un model a gran escala de la Lluna,

the Earth and us.

la Terra i les persones.

This project managed to take place on New York City's High Line park

Aquest projecte es va materialitzar en un parc de Nova York

last winter,

l'hivern passat,

on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's mission around the Moon.

en el 50 aniversari de la missió de l'Apolo 11 a la Lluna.

After its installation,

Després de la instal·lació,

I was able to put on a space helmet with my son

vaig poder posar-me un casc espacial amb el meu fill

and launch, like Apollo 11 did half a century ago,

i enlairar-me com ho va fer l'Apolo 11 fa mig segle

towards the Moon.

cap a la Lluna.

We circled around

Fèiem tombs al seu voltant

and looked back at us.

i ens vèiem.

What I felt was

Vaig sentir

how lonely it was there in the dark.

que estava molt sol a la foscor.

And I was just pretending.

Però dissimulava perquè no es notés.

The Moon is the only object

La Lluna és l'únic objecte

even remotely close to us.

més proper a nosaltres.

And at the scale of this project,

I en aquesta escala del projecte,

where our planet was 10 feet in diameter,

amb una Terra de 3 metres de diàmetre,

Mars, the next planet, will be the size of a yoga ball

Mart, el següent, té la mida d'una pilota de yoga,

and a couple of miles away.

i està a més de 3 kilòmetres.

Although borders are not visible from space,

Si bé no veiem fronteres des de l'espai,

on my sculpture,

a la meva escultura

every single border was drawn in.

vaig marcar totes les fronteres.

But rather than writing the country names on the carved-up land,

Però en comptes d'escriure noms de països,

I wrote over and over again,

hi vaig escriure molts cops,

"people live here, people live here."

"aquí viu gent, aquí viu gent".

"People live here."

"Aquí viu gent".

And off on the Moon, it was written,

I en la Lluna, vaig escriure,

"No one lives here."

"No hi viu ningú aquí".

Often, the obvious things

Sovint, les coses òbvies

aren't all that obvious until you think about them.

no són tan òbvies fins que les penses.

Seeing anything from a vast enough distance

Veure les coses des d'una distància prou gran

changes everything,

ho canvia tot.

as many astronauts have experienced.

Això ho saben els astronautes.

And human eyes have only ever seen our Earth

I l'ull humà només ha vist la nostra Terra

from as far as the Moon, really.

des de la Lluna, com a molt lluny.

It's quite a ways further

És bastant lluny

before we get to the edges of our own Solar System.

abans d'arribar als extrems del sistema solar.

And even out to other stars, to the constellations.

I molt lluny d'altres estrelles o altres constel·lacions,

There is actually only one point in the entire cosmos

només hi ha un punt en tot el cosmos

that is present in all constellations of stars,

que està present en totes les constel·lacions d'estrelles,

and that presence is

i aquesta presència és

here, planet Earth.

el planeta Terra.

Those pictures we have made up for the clusters of stars

Aquestes fotografies de grups d'estrelles

only make sense from this point of view down here.

només tenen sentit des d'aquest punt de vista.

Their stories only make sense here on Earth.

Aquestes coses només tenen sentit a la Terra.

And only something to us.

I només per nosaltres.

To people.

Les persones.

We are creatures of stories.

Som criatures d'històries.

We are the stories we tell,

Som les històries que expliquem,

we're the stories we're told.

som les històries que ens expliquen.

Consider briefly the story of human civilization on Earth.

Penseu en la història de la civilització humana.

It tells of the ingenuity, elegance,

Són històries d'enginy, elegància,

generous and nurturing nature of a species

generositat i de cuidar la natura d'una espècie,

that is also self-focused, vulnerable

egoista, vulnerable

and defiantly protective.

i protectora.

We, the people, shield the flame of our existence

Nosaltres, les persones, protegim la flama de la nostra vida

from the raw, vast elements outside our control,

dels elements que no controlem,

the great beyond.

de la grandiositat del més enllà.

Yet it is always to the flame we look.

I sempre ens centrem en la nostra vida.

"For all we know,"

"Pel que nosaltres sabem"

when said as a statement,

quan ho diem,

it means the sum total of all knowledge.

significa la suma total de tots els coneixements.

But when said another way,

Però en un altre sentit,

"for all we know,"

"pel que nosaltres sabem",

it means that we do not know at all.

significa que no sabem res.

This is the beautiful, fragile drama of civilization.

Aquest és el bonic i fràgil drama de la civilització.

We are the actors and spectators of a cosmic play

Som actors i espectadors d'un joc còsmic

that means the world to us here,

que ho és tot per nosaltres,

but means nothing anywhere else.

però no vol dir res a altres llocs.

Possibly not even that much down here, either.

Potser no signifiqui res aquí tampoc.

If we truly thought about our relationship with our boat,

Si pensem en la nostra relació amb el nostre vaixell,

with our Earth,

amb la nostra Terra,

it might be more of a story of ignorance and greed.

podria ser una història d'ignorància i ambició.

As is the case with Fausto,

Com en el cas de Faust,

a man who believed he owned everything

un home que pensava que ho posseïa tot,

and set out to survey what was his.

i va començar a estudiar què posseïa.

He easily claims ownership of a flower,

Deia que posseïa una flor,

a sheep, a tree and a field.

una ovella, un arbre i un camp.

The lake and the mountain prove harder to conquer,

Els llacs i muntanyes són difícils de conquerir,

but they, too, surrender.

però finalment es rendeixen.

It is in trying to own the open sea

Però quan intentava conquerir el mar

where his greed proves his undoing,

la seva cobdícia li demostra el seu error,

when, in a fit of arrogance,

quan, en un atac d'arrogància,

he climbs overboard to show that sea who is boss.

es llença al mar per demostrar-li qui mana.

But he does not understand,

Però no ho comprèn,

slips beneath the waves, sinks to the bottom.

i s'escola per les onades, i s'enfonsa.

The sea was sad for him

El mar estava trist

but carried on being the sea.

però seguia sent el mar.

As do all the other objects of his ownership,

I també tots els altres objectes que ell posseïa,

for the fate of Fausto does not matter to them.

perquè el destí de Faust no els importa gens.

For all the importance in the cosmos we believe we hold,

Tant que ens pensem que som importants al cosmos,

we'd have nothing

no tindríem res

if not for this Earth.

si no fos per la Terra.

While it would keep happily spinning,

La Terra seguiria rodant,

obliviously without us.

evidentment, sense nosaltres.

On this planet, there are people.

En aquest planeta, hi viu gent.

We have gone about our days,

Anem passant els dies,

sometimes we look up and out,

de vegades mirem amunt i cap a fora

mostly we look down and in.

sovint mirem cap a baix i cap a dins.

Looking up and by drawing lines between the lights in the sky,

Quan mirem amunt i dibuixem línies entre els punts del cel,

we've attempted to make sense out of chaos.

intentem entendre el caos.

Looking down, we've drawn lines across the land to know where we belong

Quan mirem cap baix, marquem línies a la terra per saber on pertanyem

and where we don't.

i on no.

We do mostly forget that these lines that connect the stars

Ens oblidem que aquestes línies que connecten estrelles

and those lines that divide the land

i les línies que divideixen la terra

live only in our heads.

només estan al nostre cap.

They, too, are stories.

També són històries.

We carry out our everyday routines and rituals

Nosaltres fem la nostra vida rutinària i ritual

according to the stories we most believe in,

segons les històries que creiem,

and these days, the story is changing as we write it.

i ara, la història canvia a mesura que l'escrivim.

There is a lot of fear in this current story,

Hi ha molta por en aquesta història actual

and until recently,

i fins fa poc,

the stories that seemed to have the most power

les històries que semblaven més punyents

are those of bitterness,

són les més amargues,

of how it had all gone wrong for us individually and collectively.

sobre coses que no ens han anat bé com individus i com a col·lectiu.

It has been inspiring to watch how the best comes from the worst.

Resulta edificant veure com el millor sorgeix del pitjor.

How people are waking up in this time of global reckoning

Com la gent ens despertem en temps de consciència global

to the realization that our connections with each other

i adonar-nos que les nostres connexions

are some of the most important things we have.

són les coses més importants que tenim.

But stepping back.

Però anem enrere.

For all we've had to lament,

Malgrat les coses dolentes,

we spend very little time relishing the single biggest thing

passem molt poc temps buscant allò que és més important

that has ever gone right for us.

i que sempre ens ha funcionat.

That we are here in the first place,

Que existim,

that we are alive at all.

que estem vius.

That we are still alive.

Que encara estem vius.

A million and a half years after finding a box of matches,

Un milió d'anys i mig més tard després de descobrir el foc,

we haven't totally burned the house down.

no ho hem cremat tot.

Yet.

Encara.

The chances of being here are infinitesimal.

Les possibilitats d'estar aquí són molt poques.

Yet here we are.

Però aquí estem.

Perils and all.

Contra tot pronòstic.

There have never been more people living on Earth.

Som més gent a la Terra que mai abans.

Using more stuff.

Utilitzem molts recursos.

And it's become obvious that many of the old systems

I és evident que molts sistemes antics

we invented for ourselves

que vam inventar nosaltres

are obsolete.

han quedat obsolets.

And we have to build new ones.

N'hem de construir de nous.

If it wasn't germs,

Si no fos pels microbis,

our collective fire might suffocate us before long.

el nostre foc col·lectiu aviat s'apagaria.

As we watch the wheels of industry grind to a halt,

Quan veiem que es van aturant els engranatges de la indústria,

the machinery of progress become silent,

la maquinària del progrés emmudeix,

we have the wildest of opportunities

i tenim la millor oportunitat

to hit the reset button.

per premer el botó del reset.

To take a different path.

Podem anar per un altre camí.

Here we are on Earth.

Aquí estem, a la Terra.

And life on Earth is a wonderful thing.

I la vida a la Terra és meravellosa.

It looks big, this Earth,

És grandiosa,

but there are lots of us on here.

però som moltes persones.

Seven and a half billion at last count,

Set bilions i mig de persones, diuen,

with more showing up every day.

i cada dia som més.

Even so,

Tot i així,

there is still enough for everyone,

encara n'hi ha prou per tothom,

if we all share a little.

si tots donem una mica.

So please,

Si us plau,

be kind.

siguem benèvols.

When you think of it another way,

Quan pensem d'una altra manera,

if Earth is the only place where people live,

si la Terra és l'únic lloc on pot viure gent,

it's actually the least lonely place in the universe.

és realment el lloc menys solitari de l'univers.

There are plenty of people to be loved by

Hi ha molta gent que ens pot estimar

and plenty of people to love.

i molta per estimar.

We need each other.

Ens necessitem.

We know that now, more than ever.

Ho sabem, ara més que mai.

Good night.

Bona nit.