An ode to living on Earth | Oliver Jeffers

Prevoditelj: Kate Perak Recezent: Sanda L

[Oliver Jeffers]

[Oliver Jeffers]

[An ode to living on Earth]

[Oda životu na Zemlji]

Hello.

Hej.

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

Siguran sam da ćete do kraja rečenice,

given how I talk,

s obzirom na to kako govorim,

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

svi već shvatiti da sam iz mjesta zvanog

planet Earth.

planet Zemlja.

Earth is pretty great.

Zemlja je baš sjajna.

It's home to us.

Ona nam je dom.

And germs.

I mikrobima.

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

Ovi su k*** za sada u drugom planu,

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

ali vjerovali ili ne, nisu jedini.

Ovaj je planet također dom automobilima, prokulicama;

This planet is also home to cars, brussels sprouts;

those weird fish things that have their own headlights;

onim čudnim ribama koje imaju vlastite čeone lampe;

umjetnosti, vatri,

art, fire,

fire extinguishers,

protupožarnim aparatima,

laws, pigeons, bottles of beer,

zakonima, golubovima, bocama piva,

lemons and light bulbs;

limunima i žaruljama;

Pinot noir and paracetamol;

Pinotu crnom i paracetamolu;

ghosts, mosquitoes, flamingos, flowers,

duhovima, komarcima, plamencima, cvijeću,

the ukulele, elevators and cats,

ukuleleu, dizalima i mačkama,

cat videos, the internet;

snimkama mačaka, internetu;

iron beams, buildings and batteries,

polugama, zgradama i baterijama,

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

svoj domišljatosti i idejama, svom poznatom životu...

and a whole bunch of other stuff.

i gomili drugih stvari.

Pretty much everything we know and ever heard of.

Gotovo svemu što poznajemo i o čemu smo čuli.

It's my favorite place, actually.

To je moje najdraže mjesto.

This small orb,

Ova mala kugla,

floating in a cold and lonely part of the cosmos.

koja lebdi hladnim i usamljenim dijelom svemira.

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

Inače, naglasak je iz Belfasta, koji je...

here.

ovdje.

Roughly.

Otprilike.

You may think you know this planet Earth,

Možete pomisliti da poznajete ovaj planet,

as you're from here.

jer ste odavde.

But chances are,

Postoji mogućnost da

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

dugo niste razmišljali o osnovama.

I thought I knew it.

Ja sam mislio da ga poznajem.

Thought I was an expert, even.

Mislio sam da sam stručnjak.

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

Sve dok nisam morao objasniti ovo mjesto

and how it's supposed to work,

i način funkcioniranja

to someone who had never been here before.

nekome tko nikad nije bio ovdje.

Not what you might think,

Nije ono što mislite,

although my dad always did say

iako je moj otac uvijek govorio

the sure sign of intelligent life out there

da je siguran znak inteligentnog života

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

činjenica da se ne trude kontaktirati s nama.

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

Riječ je o mojem novorođenom sinu, njemu sam pokušavao objasniti stvari.

We'd never been parents before,

Prije nismo bili roditelji,

my wife and I,

moja supruga i ja,

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

pa nam je bio poput većine gostiju kad je prvi put došao kući.

by giving him the tour.

Poveli smo ga u obilazak.

This is where you live, son.

Ovdje stanuješ, sine.

This room is where we make food at.

U ovoj sobi pripremamo hranu.

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

U ovoj sobi čuvamo kolekciju stolica, i tako dalje.

It's refreshing,

Lijepa je promjena

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

kada novorođenčetu morate objasniti kako planet funkcionira.

But after the laughs,

Ali nakon što se ismijete

and once the magnitude that new humans know absolutely nothing

i kad vam se slegne značaj toga da mali ljudi ne znaju baš ništa

settles on you and how little you know either,

i koliko malo i vi sami znate,

explaining the whole planet becomes quite intimidating.

objašnjavanje čitavog planeta postaje zastrašujuće.

But I tried anyway.

Ipak sam pokušao.

As I walked around those first few weeks,

Dok sam prvih nekoliko tjedana

narrating the world as I saw it,

prepričavao svijet kakvim ga vidim,

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

počeo sam bilježiti smiješne stvari koje sam govorio.

The notes slowly morphed into a letter

Bilješke su polako poprimale oblik pisma

intended for my son once he learned to read.

posvećenog mojem sinu kad jednom nauči čitati.

And that letter became a book

I to je pismo postala knjiga

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

o osnovnim načelima života

living on Earth in the 21st century.

na Zemlji u 21. stoljeću.

Some things are really obvious.

Neke su stvari zbilja očite.

Like, the planet is made of two parts:

Planet se sastoji od dva dijela:

land and sea.

kopna i mora.

Some less obvious until you think about them.

Neke su manje očite dok ne promislite o njima.

Like, time.

Kao što je vrijeme.

Things can sometimes move slowly here on Earth.

Stvari se ponekad sporo kreću na Zemlji.

But more often, they move quickly.

Ali češće se kreću brzo.

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

Stoga dobro iskoristi vrijeme jer će ti pobjeći.

Or people.

Ili ljudi.

People come in all different shapes, sizes and colors.

Postoje ljudi različitih oblika, veličina i boja.

We may all look different,

Možda izgledamo drugačije,

act different and sound different,

ponašamo se i zvučimo drugačije,

but don't be fooled.

ali nemojte se zavaravati.

We are all people.

Svi smo mi ljudi.

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

Nisam propustio uočiti da od svih mjesta u svemiru

people only live on Earth,

ljudi žive samo na Zemlji,

can only live on Earth.

mogu živjeti samo na Zemlji.

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

Čak i tada, samo na nekim suhim predjelima.

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

Postoji samo vrlo mali komad površine našeg planeta

that is actually habitable to human life,

koji je pogodan za stanovanje

and squeezed in here is where all of us live.

i upravo tu svi stisnuti živimo.

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

Lako je zaboraviti, kad si tako blizu prašine,

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

stijena, lišća i betona,

just how limited the room for maneuvering is.

koliko je ograničen prostor za manevriranje.

From a set of eyes close to the ground,

Paru očiju na zemlji

the horizon feels like it goes forever.

horizont se čini beskrajan.

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

Uostalom, ne razmatramo svaki dan

to consider where we are on the ball of our planet

gdje se nalazimo na zemaljskoj kugli

and where that ball is in space.

i gdje je ta kugla u svemiru.

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

Nisam želio sinu pričati istu priču o državama

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

koja je nama ispričana dok sam odrastao u Sjevernoj Irskoj.

That we were from just a small parish,

Da smo iz malog okruga

which ignores life outside its immediate concerns.

koji zanemaruje život izvan vlastitih briga.

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

Želio sam pokušati vidjeti naš planet

as one system, as a single object,

kao jedan sustav, kao jedinstven objekt

hanging in space.

koji lebdi u prostoru.

To do this,

Da bih to učinio,

I would need to switch from flat drawings for books

trebao sam se prebaciti s crteža iz knjiga

to 3D sculpture for the street,

na 3D uličnu skulpturu

and I'd need almost 200 feet,

i trebao sam gotovo 60 metara,

a New York City block,

njujorški blok,

to build a large-scale model of the moon,

za izgradnju velikog modela Mjeseca,

the Earth and us.

Zemlje i nas.

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

Projekt se odvio u njujorškom parku High Line

last winter,

prošle zime

na 50. obljetnicu misije Apollo 11 oko Mjeseca.

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

After its installation,

Nakon postavljanja

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

mogao sam sa sinom staviti svemirsku kacigu

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

i lansirati se, poput Apolla 11 prije pola stoljeća,

towards the Moon.

prema Mjesecu.

We circled around

Kružili smo

and looked back at us.

i osvrnuli se na sebe.

What I felt was

Osjetio sam

how lonely it was there in the dark.

koliko je samotno bilo u mraku.

And I was just pretending.

A samo sam se pretvarao.

The Moon is the only object

Mjesec je jedini objekt

even remotely close to us.

koji nam je imalo blizu.

And at the scale of this project,

U omjeru ovog projekta,

where our planet was 10 feet in diameter,

gdje je naš planet promjera od 3 metra,

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

Mars, sljedeći planet, bit će veličine lopte za jogu

and a couple of miles away.

i udaljen nekoliko kilometara.

Although borders are not visible from space,

Iako granice nisu vidljive iz svemira,

on my sculpture,

na mojoj skulpturi

every single border was drawn in.

svaka je granica ucrtana.

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

Ali umjesto bilježenja imena država na izrezbarenom kopnu,

I wrote over and over again,

stalno sam iznova ispisivao:

"people live here, people live here."

"ljudi ovdje žive, ljudi ovdje žive".

"People live here."

"Ljudi ovdje žive."

And off on the Moon, it was written,

A na Mjesecu je bilo ispisano:

"No one lives here."

"Ovdje nitko ne živi".

Often, the obvious things

Često očigledne stvari

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

nisu uopće očigledne dok o njima ne promislite.

Seeing anything from a vast enough distance

Kad bilo što pogledate s dovoljno velike udaljenosti,

changes everything,

sve se mijenja,

as many astronauts have experienced.

kao što su to iskusili mnogi astronauti.

And human eyes have only ever seen our Earth

A najdalje odakle su ljudske oči gledale Zemlju

from as far as the Moon, really.

bilo je s Mjeseca.

It's quite a ways further

Poprilična je udaljenost

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

dok ne dopremo do ruba našeg Sunčevog sustava.

And even out to other stars, to the constellations.

Čak i do drugih sazviježđa.

There is actually only one point in the entire cosmos

Postoji zapravo samo jedna točka u cijelom kozmosu

that is present in all constellations of stars,

koja je prisutna u svim sazviježđima,

and that presence is

a ta je prisutnost ovdje,

here, planet Earth.

planet Zemlja.

Those pictures we have made up for the clusters of stars

One slike koje smo izmislili za zviježda

only make sense from this point of view down here.

imaju smisla samo s ovog gledišta.

Their stories only make sense here on Earth.

Njihove priče imaju smisla samo na Zemlji.

And only something to us.

I samo nama.

To people.

Ljudima.

We are creatures of stories.

Mi smo bića iz priče.

We are the stories we tell,

Mi smo priče koje pričamo,

we're the stories we're told.

mi smo priče koje su nam ispričane.

Consider briefly the story of human civilization on Earth.

Razmotrite ukratko priču o ljudskoj civilizaciji na Zemlji.

It tells of the ingenuity, elegance,

Priča o domišljatosti, eleganciji,

generous and nurturing nature of a species

velikodušnoj i nježnoj prirodi vrste

that is also self-focused, vulnerable

koja je također sebična, ranjiva

and defiantly protective.

i prkosno zaštitnička.

We, the people, shield the flame of our existence

Mi, ljudi, štitimo plamen svojeg postojanja

from the raw, vast elements outside our control,

od sirovih, neizmjernih elemenata izvan svoje kontrole,

the great beyond.

od velikog prostranstva.

Yet it is always to the flame we look.

Ipak uvijek na taj plamen gledamo.

"For all we know,"

Izreka "koliko znamo",

when said as a statement,

kada je izgovorimo,

it means the sum total of all knowledge.

označava ukupnost sveg znanja.

But when said another way,

Ali izrečena drugačije,

"for all we know,"

"koliko nam je poznato",

it means that we do not know at all.

znači da ne znamo ništa.

This is the beautiful, fragile drama of civilization.

To je lijepa, krhka drama civilizacije.

We are the actors and spectators of a cosmic play

Mi smo glumci i gledatelji kozmičke igre

that means the world to us here,

koja nama ovdje znači svijet,

but means nothing anywhere else.

ali bilo gdje drugdje ne znači ništa.

Possibly not even that much down here, either.

Možda ne toliko ni ovdje.

If we truly thought about our relationship with our boat,

Kad bismo uistinu promislili o našem odnosu s brodom,

with our Earth,

s našom Zemljom,

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

pričali bismo o neznanju i pohlepi.

As is the case with Fausto,

Kao u slučaju Fausta,

a man who believed he owned everything

čovjeka koji vjeruje da sve posjeduje

and set out to survey what was his.

i krene bilježiti što je njegovo.

He easily claims ownership of a flower,

S lakoćom traži vlasništvo nad cvijetom,

a sheep, a tree and a field.

ovcom, stablom i poljem.

The lake and the mountain prove harder to conquer,

Jezero i planina teže se osvajaju,

ali i oni se predaju.

but they, too, surrender.

It is in trying to own the open sea

Ali u pokušaju posjedovanja otvorenog mora

where his greed proves his undoing,

njegova ga pohlepa uništi,

when, in a fit of arrogance,

kada se, u naletu arogancije,

he climbs overboard to show that sea who is boss.

popne preko palube kako bi pokazao moru tko je glavni.

But he does not understand,

Ali ne razumije,

slips beneath the waves, sinks to the bottom.

klizne među valove i potone na dno.

The sea was sad for him

More je tugovalo za njim,

but carried on being the sea.

ali nastavilo je bivati morem.

As do all the other objects of his ownership,

Poput svih objekata u njegovu vlasništvu.

for the fate of Fausto does not matter to them.

Jer Faustova sudbina njima nije važna.

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

Sva važnost u svemiru koju vjerujemo da posjedujemo,

we'd have nothing

ne bi bila naša

if not for this Earth.

da nije ove Zemlje.

While it would keep happily spinning,

Jer bi se nastavila sretno okretati,

obliviously without us.

nesvjesno i bez nas.

On this planet, there are people.

Na ovom planetu postoje ljudi.

We have gone about our days,

Prolaze nam dani,

sometimes we look up and out,

ponekad pogledamo gore i izvan sebe,

mostly we look down and in.

uglavnom gledamo dolje i u sebe.

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

Gledajuć gore i povlačeći crtu između nebeskih svjetala,

we've attempted to make sense out of chaos.

pokušali smo kaosu donijeti smisao.

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

Gledajuć dolje, povukli smo crtu kako bismo znali gdje pripadamo,

and where we don't.

a gdje ne.

We do mostly forget that these lines that connect the stars

Uglavnom zaboravljamo da te crte koje povezuju zvijezde

and those lines that divide the land

i one koje odjeljuju kopno

live only in our heads.

borave samo u našim glavama.

They, too, are stories.

I one su priče.

We carry out our everyday routines and rituals

Nastavljamo sa svojom rutinom i običajima

according to the stories we most believe in,

u skladu s pričama u koje vjerujemo,

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

ali ovih dana priča se mijenja dok je ispisujemo.

There is a lot of fear in this current story,

Puno je straha u sadašnjoj priči,

and until recently,

a donedavno

the stories that seemed to have the most power

priče koje su imale najveću moć

are those of bitterness,

pričaju o gorčini,

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

o tome kako je sve pošlo po zlu, individualno i kolektivno.

Inspirativno je promatrati kako najbolje proizlazi iz najgorega.

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

How people are waking up in this time of global reckoning

Kako se ljudi bude u vremenu globalnog obračuna

to the realization that our connections with each other

i shvaćaju da su međusobni odnosi

are some of the most important things we have.

neke od najvažnijih stvari.

But stepping back.

Ali da se vratimo.

For all we've had to lament,

Zbog sveg nezadovoljstva

we spend very little time relishing the single biggest thing

provodimo vrlo malo vremena uživajući u jedinoj važnoj stvari

that has ever gone right for us.

koja nam je ikad pošla za rukom.

That we are here in the first place,

Da smo ovdje,

that we are alive at all.

da smo uopće živi.

That we are still alive.

Da smo još uvijek živi.

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

Milijun i pol godina nakon pronalaska kutije šibica,

we haven't totally burned the house down.

nismo spalili kuću.

Yet.

Još uvijek.

The chances of being here are infinitesimal.

Šanse da budemo ovdje beskrajno su male.

Yet here we are.

A ipak smo tu.

Perils and all.

Usprkos opasnostima.

There have never been more people living on Earth.

Nikad više ljudi nije stanovalo na Zemlji.

Using more stuff.

Ni koristilo više stvari

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

I očito je da su brojni sustavi,

we invented for ourselves

koje smo izumili,

are obsolete.

zastarjeli.

And we have to build new ones.

I moramo izraditi nove.

If it wasn't germs,

Ako neće bakterije,

our collective fire might suffocate us before long.

naša kolektivna vatra mogla bi nas uskoro ugušiti.

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

Dok promatramo kako se kotači industrije zaustavljaju,

the machinery of progress become silent,

strojevi napretka postaju tihi,

we have the wildest of opportunities

imamu najluđu priliku

to hit the reset button.

pritisnuti gumb za resetiranje.

To take a different path.

Krenuti drugačijim putem.

Here we are on Earth.

Evo nas na Zemlji.

And life on Earth is a wonderful thing.

I život na Zemlji je čudesan.

It looks big, this Earth,

Izgleda velika ova Zemlja,

but there are lots of us on here.

ali puno nas je ovdje.

Seven and a half billion at last count,

Sedam i pol milijardi po posljednjem izračunu,

with more showing up every day.

i rastemo svakim danom.

Even so,

I tada,

there is still enough for everyone,

ima dovoljno za svih,

if we all share a little.

ako dijelimo malo.

So please,

Stoga vas molim,

be kind.

budite susretljivi.

When you think of it another way,

Ako razmislite na drugačiji način,

if Earth is the only place where people live,

ako je Zemlja jedino mjesto na kojem se živi,

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

onda je najmanje osamljeno mjesto u svemiru.

There are plenty of people to be loved by

Puno je ljudi koji vam mogu pružiti ljubav,

and plenty of people to love.

i puno ljudi koje možete voljeti.

We need each other.

Trebamo jedni druge.

We know that now, more than ever.

Sada to znamo, bolje nego ikad.

Good night.

Laku noć.