The Beauty of What We'll Never Know | Pico Iyer | TED

Prevoditelj: Ivan Stamenković Recezent: Igor Pureta

One hot October morning,

Jednog vrućeg listopadnog jutra

I got off the all-night train

sišao sam s cjelonoćnog vlaka

in Mandalay,

za Mandalay,

the old royal capital of Burma,

staru kraljevsku prijestolnicu Burme,

now Myanmar.

sada Myanmar.

And out on the street, I ran into a group of rough men

I na ulici sam sreo skupinu grubih muškaraca

standing beside their bicycle rickshaws.

koji stoje pored svojih bicikl rikši.

And one of them came up

Jedan mi je prišao

and offered to show me around.

i ponudio mi da me provede.

The price he quoted was outrageous.

Cijena koju je stavio bila je nezamisliva.

It was less than I would pay for a bar of chocolate at home.

Manje nego bih platio čokoladicu kod kuće.

So I clambered into his trishaw,

Tako da sam se popeo u rikšu,

and he began pedaling us slowly between palaces and pagodas.

i počeo je pedalirati polako između mjesta i pagoda.

And as he did, he told me how he had come to the city from his village.

I dok je to radio rekao mi je kako je došao u grad sa sela.

He'd earned a degree in mathematics.

Imao je diplomu iz matematike.

His dream was to be a teacher.

Njegov san je bio da bude učitelj.

But of course, life is hard under a military dictatorship,

Ali naravno, život je težak u vojnoj diktaturi,

and so for now, this was the only way he could make a living.

i za sada, ovo je jedini način da zaradi za život.

Many nights, he told me, he actually slept in his trishaw

Puno noći je, rekao mi je, zapravo spavao u svojoj rikši

so he could catch the first visitors off the all-night train.

tako da bi mogao uhvatiti prve posjetitelje iz cijelonoćnog vlaka.

And very soon, we found that in certain ways,

I uskoro, shvatili smo da na određene načine,

we had so much in common --

imamo jako puno toga zajedničkog --

we were both in our 20s,

bili smo u 20im godinama,

we were both fascinated by foreign cultures --

fascinirale su nas strane kulture --

that he invited me home.

tako da me pozvao kući.

So we turned off the wide, crowded streets,

Pa smo sišli sa širokih, zakrčenih ulica,

and we began bumping down rough, wild alleyways.

i počeli smo se kotrljati kroz grube, divlje uličice.

There were broken shacks all around.

Svuda su bile raspadajuće kolibe.

I really lost the sense of where I was,

Izgubio sam osjećaj gdje sam,

and I realized that anything could happen to me now.

i shvatio sam da mi se sada svašta može dogoditi.

I could get mugged or drugged

Mogli bi me opljačkati ili drogirati

or something worse.

ili nešto gore.

Nobody would know.

Nitko nije morao znati.

Finally, he stopped and led me into a hut,

Napokon, stali smo i uveo me u kolibu,

which consisted of just one tiny room.

koja se sastojala od jedne sićušne sobe.

And then he leaned down,

I sagnuo se,

and reached under his bed.

posegnuo ispod kreveta.

And something in me froze.

I nešto u meni se smrzlo.

I waited to see what he would pull out.

Čekao sam da vidim što će izvući.

And finally he extracted a box.

I napokon je izvukao kutiju

Inside it was every single letter he had ever received

koja je sadržavala svako pismo koje je primio

from visitors from abroad,

od posjetitelja iz inozemstva,

and on some of them he had pasted

na neka je nalijepio

little black-and-white worn snapshots

male crno bijele fotografije

of his new foreign friends.

svojih novih stranih prijatelja.

So when we said goodbye that night,

Tako da kada smo se pozdravili te noći

I realized he had also shown me

shvatio sam da mi je također pokazao

the secret point of travel,

tajnu svrhu putovanja,

which is to take a plunge,

a to je odvažiti se,

to go inwardly as well as outwardly

ići unutra ali i prema van

to places you would never go otherwise,

na mjesta na kojima inače nikad ne bi išli,

to venture into uncertainty,

da zavirite u nesigurnost,

ambiguity,

nejasnost,

even fear.

čak i strah.

At home, it's dangerously easy

Kod kuće, vrlo je lako pretpostaviti

to assume we're on top of things.

da imamo sve pod kontrolom.

Out in the world, you are reminded every moment that you're not,

Vani, u svijetu, podsjećaju vas svakog trenutka kada nemate,

and you can't get to the bottom of things, either.

niti je možete steći.

Everywhere, "People wish to be settled,"

Svugdje, "Ljudi se žele smiriti,"

Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us,

podsjetio nas je Ralph Waldo Emerson,

"but only insofar as we are unsettled

"ali samo dok nismo smireni

is there any hope for us."

postoji nada za nas."

At this conference, we've been lucky enough

Na ovoj konferenciji, bili smo sretni

to hear some exhilarating new ideas and discoveries

čuti neke nevjerojatne ideje i nova otkrića

and, really, about all the ways

i stvarno, o svim načinima

in which knowledge is being pushed excitingly forwards.

na koje znanje napreduje.

But at some point, knowledge gives out.

Ali u nekoj točci, znanje posustaje.

And that is the moment

I to je trenutak

when your life is truly decided:

kada je vaš život zapravo odlučen:

you fall in love;

zaljubite se,

you lose a friend;

izgubite prijatelja,

the lights go out.

svjetla se ugase.

And it's then, when you're lost or uneasy or carried out of yourself,

I onda, kada ste izgubljeni ili nemirni ili izvan sebe,

that you find out who you are.

zapravo otkrijete sebe.

I don't believe that ignorance is bliss.

Ne vjerujem da je neznanje blagoslov.

Science has unquestionably made our lives

Znanost je naše živote nesumnjivo učinila

brighter and longer and healthier.

svjetlijima, dužima i zdravijima.

And I am forever grateful to the teachers who showed me the laws of physics

I zauvijek sam zahvalan učiteljima koji su mi pokazali zakone fizike

and pointed out that three times three makes nine.

i pokazali da je tri puta tri devet.

I can count that out on my fingers

Mogu to izbrojati na prste

any time of night or day.

u bilo koje doba dana ili noći

But when a mathematician tells me

Ali kada mi matematičar kaže

that minus three times minus three makes nine,

da je minus tri puta minus tri devet,

that's a kind of logic that almost feels like trust.

to je logika koja se čini kao povjerenje.

The opposite of knowledge, in other words, isn't always ignorance.

Suprotnost znanja, drugim riječima, nije uvijek neznanje.

It can be wonder.

Može biti čuđenje.

Or mystery.

Ili misterija.

Possibility.

Mogućnost.

And in my life, I've found it's the things I don't know

I u svom životu, otkrio sam da su stvari koje ne znam

that have lifted me up and pushed me forwards

one koje su me podigle i pogurale naprijed

much more than the things I do know.

više nego stvari koje sam znao.

It's also the things I don't know

I stvari koje ne znam

that have often brought me closer to everybody around me.

često su me dovele bliže svima oko sebe.

For eight straight Novembers, recently,

Posljednjih osam studenih, u posljednje vrijeme,

I traveled every year across Japan with the Dalai Lama.

putovao sam svake godine Japanom s Dalaj Lamom.

And the one thing he said every day

I jedna stvar koju je rekao svakoga dana

that most seemed to give people reassurance and confidence

koja je davala povjerenje i snagu ljudima

was, "I don't know."

bila je, "Ne znam."

"What's going to happen to Tibet?"

"Što će se dogoditi Tibetu?"

"When are we ever going to get world peace?"

"Kada će nastupiti mir u svijetu?"

"What's the best way to raise children?"

"Kako najbolje odgajati djecu?"

"Frankly," says this very wise man,

"Iskreno," kaže ovaj mudri čovjek,

"I don't know."

"Ne znam."

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman

Dobitnik Nobelove nagrade za ekonomiju, Daniel Kahneman

has spent more than 60 years now researching human behavior,

proveo je više od šezdeset godina istražujući ponašanje ljudi,

and his conclusion is

i njegov zaključak je

that we are always much more confident of what we think we know

da smo uvijek sigurniji u ono što mislimo da znamo

than we should be.

više no što bi trebali biti.

We have, as he memorably puts it,

Imamo, kako on to kaže,

an "unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance."

"neograničenu sposobnost ignoriranja našeg neznanja."

We know -- quote, unquote -- our team is going to win this weekend,

Znamo -- citat -- da će naš tim pobijediti ovaj vikend,

and we only remember that knowledge

i tog znanja se prisjetimo samo

on the rare occasions when we're right.

u rijetkim prilikama kada smo točno pogodili.

Most of the time, we're in the dark.

Većinu vremena, nemamo pojma.

And that's where real intimacy lies.

I tu leži prava intimnost.

Do you know what your lover is going to do tomorrow?

Znate li što će vaš partner raditi sutra?

Do you want to know?

Želite li znati?

The parents of us all, as some people call them,

Roditelji svih nas, kako ih neki zovu,

Adam and Eve,

Adam i Eva,

could never die, so long as they were eating from the tree of life.

nisu mogli umrijeti dokle god su jeli s drveta života.

But the minute they began nibbling

Ali istog trena kada su počeli grickati

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

sa stabla spoznaje dobra i zla,

they fell from their innocence.

izgubili su nevinost.

They grew embarrassed and fretful,

Postalo im je neugodno i bilo ih je sram,

self-conscious.

bili su samosvjesni.

And they learned, a little too late, perhaps,

I naučili su, možda malo prekasno,

that there are certainly some things that we need to know,

da postoje neke stvari koje moramo znati,

but there are many, many more that are better left unexplored.

ali ih ima puno više koje je bolje ostaviti neistraženima.

Now, when I was a kid,

Kada sam bio dijete,

I knew it all, of course.

sve sam znao, naravno.

I had been spending 20 years in classrooms collecting facts,

Proveo sam 20 godina u učionici skupljajući činjenice,

and I was actually in the information business,

i zapravo sam bio u informacijskom poslovanju,

writing articles for Time Magazine.

pišući članke za časopis Time.

And I took my first real trip to Japan for two-and-a-half weeks,

I otišao sam na svoj prvi pravi put u Japan na dva i pol tjedna,

and I came back with a 40-page essay

i vratio sam se s esejem od 40 stranica

explaining every last detail about Japan's temples,

objašnjavajući svaki detalj japanskih hramova,

its fashions, its baseball games,

mode, baseball utakmica,

its soul.

njegove duše.

But underneath all that,

No ispod svega toga,

something that I couldn't understand

nešto što nisam mogao razumjeti

so moved me for reasons I couldn't explain to you yet,

me toliko potaknulo, iz razloga koje vam još ne mogu objasniti,

that I decided to go and live in Japan.

da sam otišao živjeti u Japan.

And now that I've been there for 28 years,

I sad kada sam tamo više od 28 godina,

I really couldn't tell you very much at all

zaista vam ne mogu puno toga reći

about my adopted home.

o mom usvojenom domu.

Which is wonderful,

Što je prekrasno,

because it means every day I'm making some new discovery,

jer je svaki dan novo otkriće,

and in the process,

i u procesu,

looking around the corner and seeing the hundred thousand things

gledanja iza ugla i viđanja sto tisuća stvari

I'll never know.

koje nikad neću znati.

Knowledge is a priceless gift.

Znanje je neprocjenjiv dar.

But the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.

Ali iluzija znanja može biti opasnija od neznanja.

Thinking that you know your lover

Misliti da znate vašeg partnera

or your enemy

ili vašeg neprijatelja

can be more treacherous

može biti opasnije

than acknowledging you'll never know them.

nego prihvatiti da ih nikad nećete znati.

Every morning in Japan, as the sun is flooding into our little apartment,

Svakog jutra u Japanu, dok sunce ulazi u naš mali stan,

I take great pains not to consult the weather forecast,

borim se ne gledati vremensku prognozu,

because if I do,

jer ako to učinim,

my mind will be overclouded, distracted,

moj um će biti zamagljen, odvučen,

even when the day is bright.

čak i kada je dan vedar.

I've been a full-time writer now for 34 years.

Pišem već 34 godine.

And the one thing that I have learned

I ono što sam naučio jest

is that transformation comes when I'm not in charge,

da transformacija dolazi kada nemam kontrolu,

when I don't know what's coming next,

kada ne znam što je sljedeće,

when I can't assume I am bigger than everything around me.

kada ne mogu pretpostaviti da sam veći od svega oko mene.

And the same is true in love

Ista je stvar u ljubavi

or in moments of crisis.

ili trenutku krize.

Suddenly, we're back in that trishaw again

Odjednom, vratili smo se u rikšu

and we're bumping off the broad, well-lit streets;

i skačemo po širokim, jasno osvjetljenim ulicama,

and we're reminded, really, of the first law of travel

i podsjećamo se, zapravo, prvog pravila putovanja

and, therefore, of life:

i samim time života:

you're only as strong as your readiness to surrender.

jak si onoliko koliko si se spreman predati.

In the end, perhaps,

Na kraju je, možda,

being human

puno važnije

is much more important

biti čovjekom

than being fully in the know.

nego sve znati.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)