Hannah Brencher: Love letters to strangers

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Translator: Zala Smid Reviewer: Matej Divjak

I was one of the only kids in college who had a reason

Bila sem ena redkih na kolidžu z razlogom,

to go to the P.O. box at the end of the day,

da sem šla ob koncu dneva vedno do nabiralnika,

and that was mainly because my mother has never believed

predvsem zato, ker moja mati nikoli ni verjela

in email, in Facebook, in texting or cell phones in general.

v e-maile, Facebook, SMS-e ali mobilne telefone nasploh.

And so while other kids were BBM-ing their parents,

In ko so tako ostali pisali SMS-e staršem,

I was literally waiting by the mailbox

sem sama dobesedno čakala pri nabiralniku

to get a letter from home to see how the weekend had gone,

na pismo od doma, da sem izvedela, kakšen je bil vikend,

which was a little frustrating when Grandma was in the hospital,

kar je bilo kar sitno, ko je bila babica v bolnici,

but I was just looking for some sort of scribble,

toda potrebovala sem malce maminih čačk,

some unkempt cursive from my mother.

njene površne ležeče pisave.

And so when I moved to New York City after college

In ko sem se po kolidžu preselila v New York

and got completely sucker-punched in the face by depression,

in me je brez opozorila zadela in podrla depresija,

I did the only thing I could think of at the time.

sem naredila edino, česar sem se takrat lahko domislila.

I wrote those same kinds of letters that my mother had written me

Pisma, kakršna sem dobivala od mame, sem začela pisati

for strangers, and tucked them all throughout the city,

za popolne neznance in jih podtikala po vsem mestu, na ducate pisem.

dozens and dozens of them. I left them everywhere,

Puščala sem jih povsod, v kavarnah in knjižnicah, pri OZN, povsod.

in cafes and in libraries, at the U.N., everywhere.

I blogged about those letters and the days

Pisala sem blog o pismih in dnevih, ko sem jih potrebovala,

when they were necessary, and I posed

in bralcem sem na internetu precej noro obljubila:

a kind of crazy promise to the Internet:

that if you asked me for a hand-written letter,

če me prosite za ročno napisano pismo,

I would write you one, no questions asked.

ga bom napisala, brez vprašanj.

Overnight, my inbox morphed into this harbor of heartbreak --

Moj e-nabiralnik se je čez noč spremenil v pristanišče strtih src ...

a single mother in Sacramento, a girl being bullied

mati samohranilka iz Sacramenta, ustrahovano dekle iz podeželskega Kansasa,

in rural Kansas, all asking me, a 22-year-old girl

vsi so se obrnili name, 22-letnico,

who barely even knew her own coffee order,

ki sem komaj vedela, kakšno kavo pijem,

to write them a love letter and give them a reason

naj jim napišem ljubezensko pismo in tako dam razlog

to wait by the mailbox.

za čakanje ob nabiralniku.

Well, today I fuel a global organization

No, danes vodim svetovno organizacijo,

that is fueled by those trips to the mailbox,

ki jo poganjajo tiste poti do nabiralnika

fueled by the ways in which we can harness social media

in način, kako lahko danes izkoristimo družabna omrežja

like never before to write and mail strangers letters

kot nikoli prej, da napišemo in pošljemo pisma neznancem,

when they need them most, but most of all,

ko jih najbolj potrebujejo, predvsem pa

fueled by crates of mail like this one, my trusty mail crate,

jo poganjajo takšni zaboji pisem, kot tale moj zvesti zabojček,

filled with the scriptings of ordinary people,

poln rokopisov običajnih ljudi,

strangers writing letters to other strangers not because

pisma neznancev neznancem,

ne zato da bi se dobili in smejali na kavi,

they're ever going to meet and laugh over a cup of coffee,

but because they have found one another by way of letter-writing.

ampak zato, ker so našli en drugega preko pisanja pisem.

But, you know, the thing that always gets me

Ampak, kar me vedno zadene ob teh pismih, je, da so večino napisali ljudje,

about these letters is that most of them have been written

by people that have never known themselves loved on a piece of paper.

ki se niso nikoli čutili ljubljene zaradi lista papirja.

They could not tell you about the ink of their own love letters.

Ne morejo nam pripovedovati o črnilu na lastnih ljubezenskih pismih.

They're the ones from my generation,

So posamezniki moje generacije,

the ones of us that have grown up into a world

tisti, ki so odrasli v svetu,

where everything is paperless, and where some

kjer ni nič na papirju, in kjer

of our best conversations have happened upon a screen.

nekatere izmed najboljših pogovorov doživimo preko ekranov.

We have learned to diary our pain onto Facebook,

Naučili smo se svoje bolesti zaupati Facebooku

and we speak swiftly in 140 characters or less.

in naglo izražati v 140 znakih ali manj.

But what if it's not about efficiency this time?

Toda kaj če tokrat ne gre za učinkovitost?

I was on the subway yesterday with this mail crate,

Včeraj sem se peljala s podzemno s tem zabojem,

which is a conversation starter, let me tell you.

kar je dober povod za začetek pogovora, resnično,

If you ever need one, just carry one of these. (Laughter)

če ga kdaj potrebujete, nosite s sabo zaboj.

And a man just stared at me, and he was like,

Nek moški je kar strmel vame in mi nato rekel:

"Well, why don't you use the Internet?"

"Zakaj enostavno ne uporabite interneta?"

And I thought, "Well, sir, I am not a strategist,

Mislila sem si: "Gospod, nisem strateg,

nor am I specialist. I am merely a storyteller."

niti specialist. Sem le pripovedovalka zgodb."

And so I could tell you about a woman

Tako vam lahko povem o ženski,

whose husband has just come home from Afghanistan,

katere mož se je ravnokar vrnil iz Afganistana,

and she is having a hard time unearthing this thing called conversation,

ona pa ima težave s ponovnim vzpostavljanjem pogovora

and so she tucks love letters throughout the house

in tako nastavlja ljubezenska pisma po vsej hiši,

as a way to say, "Come back to me.

da bi mu povedala: "Vrni se k meni. Najdi me, ko boš zmogel."

Find me when you can."

Or a girl who decides that she is going to leave love letters

Ali o dekletu, ki se je odločilo nastavljati ljubezenska pisma

around her campus in Dubuque, Iowa, only to find

po kampusu v Dubuqueu v Iowi, samo da vidi,

her efforts ripple-effected the next day when she walks out

kako se njen trud verižno širi, ko gre naslednji dan

onto the quad and finds love letters hanging

v park pri kampusu in njena ljubezenska pisma

from the trees, tucked in the bushes and the benches.

visijo z dreves in tičijo v grmih in klopeh.

Or the man who decides that he is going to take his life,

Ali o možu, ki se odloči, da si bo vzel življenje,

uses Facebook as a way to say goodbye

se preko Facebooka poslovi od prijateljev in družine.

to friends and family.

Well, tonight he sleeps safely with a stack of letters

No, danes varno spi ob kupčku pisem, kot je tale, pod blazino.

just like this one tucked beneath his pillow,

scripted by strangers who were there for him when.

Napisali so jih neznanci, ki so bili tam, ko ...

These are the kinds of stories that convinced me

Zaradi takih zgodb verjamem,

that letter-writing will never again need to flip back her hair

da pisanju pisem ne bo nikoli več treba iskati pozornosti

and talk about efficiency, because she is an art form now,

in govoriti o učinkovitosti, saj je postalo oblika umetniškega ustvarjanja,

all the parts of her, the signing, the scripting, the mailing,

vsi deli tega - podpisovanje, rokopis, pošiljanje, čečkarije na robovih.

the doodles in the margins.

The mere fact that somebody would even just sit down,

Že zgolj dejstvo, da se je nekdo pripravljen usesti,

pull out a piece of paper and think about someone

vzeti list papirja in razmisliti o nekom z namenom, ki toliko težje pride

the whole way through, with an intention that is so much

harder to unearth when the browser is up and the iPhone

na plano, ko je prižgan internet, iPhone brni in hkrati sodelujemo v 6 pogovorih.

is pinging and we've got six conversations rolling in at once,

that is an art form

Je oblika ustvarjanja,

that does not fall down to the Goliath of "get faster,"

ki ne bo padla pod pestmi goljatovskega stremljenja k hitrosti,

no matter how many social networks we might join.

ne glede na to, v koliko družabnih omrežij se še vpišemo.

We still clutch close these letters to our chest,

Ta pisma si še vedno pritiskamo k srcu,

to the words that speak louder than loud,

stiskamo besede, ki nas nagovarjajo glasneje kot glasno,

when we turn pages into palettes to say the things

ko preobračamo strani v palete, da povemo, kar moramo povedati,

that we have needed to say,

the words that we have needed to write, to sisters

besede, ki smo jih morali napisati,

sestram, bratom, celo neznancem, dolgo, predolgo.

and brothers and even to strangers, for far too long.

Thank you. (Applause)

Hvala.

(Applause)