Cristina Domenech: Poetry that frees the soul (with English subtitles) | TED

Translator: Sebastian Betti Reviewer: Gisela Giardino

Prevodilac: Milenka Okuka Lektor: Mile Živković

It's said that to be a poet

Kažu, da biste bili pesnik, morate se bar jednom spustiti u pakao.

you have to go to hell and back.

Prvi put kada sam ušla u zatvor, nije me iznenadila buka katanaca

The first time I visited the prison,

I was not surprised by the noise of the padlocks,

ni vrata koja su se zatvarala, ni rešetke,

or the closing doors, or the cell bars,

or by any of the things I had imagined.

ni bilo šta što sam očekivala.

Maybe because the prison is in a quite open space.

Možda zato što se zatvor nalazi na prilično otvorenom prostoru.

You can see the sky.

Vidi se nebo.

Seagulls fly overhead, and you feel like you're next to the sea,

Galebovi preleću i verujete da je more tu pored vas.

that you're really close to the beach.

Da ste veoma blizu plaže.

But in fact, the gulls are looking for food in the dump near the prison.

Ali, u stvari, galebovi dolaze da jedu smeće u blizini zatvora.

I went farther inside and I suddenly saw inmates moving across the corridors.

Ulazeći, iznenada sam ugledala zatvorenike kako se kreću po paviljonima, kruže.

Then it was as if I stepped back and thought

Kao da sam se osvrnula i pomislila

that I could have very well been one of them.

da sam mogla savršeno da budem jedna od njih.

If I had another story, another context, different luck.

Da sam imala drugačiju prošlost, drugačije okolnosti, drugu sreću.

Because nobody - nobody - can choose where they're born.

Jer niko, niko ne može da bira mesto gde će da se rodi.

In 2009, I was invited to join a project

Godine 2009. su me pozvali da učestvujem u jednom projektu

that San Martín National University conducted at the Unit 48 penitentiary,

koji je sprovodio Nacionalni univerzitet iz San Martina unutar Odeljenja 48,

to coordinate a writing workshop.

kako bih vodila radionicu kreativnog pisanja.

The prison service ceded some land at the end of the prison,

Zatvorski servis je ustupio deo prostora u pozadini zatvora

which is where they constructed the University Center building.

i baš tu su sagradili zgradu univerzitetskog centra.

The first time I met with the prisoners,

Prvi put kad sam se susrela sa zatvorenicima,

I asked them why they were asking for a writing workshop

upitala sam ih zašto su zahtevali radionicu kreativnog pisanja,

and they told me they wanted to put on paper

i rekli su mi kako su poželeli da stave na papir

all that they couldn't say and do.

sve ono što nisu mogli da kažu i što nisu mogli da urade.

Tada sam odlučila da želim da donesem poeziju u zatvor.

Right then I decided that I wanted poetry to enter the prison.

So I said to them why don't we work with poetry,

Pa sam ih upitala, zašto ne bismo radili s poezijom,

if they knew what poetry was.

ako znaju šta je poezija.

Niko pojma nije imao šta je uistinu poezija.

But nobody had a clue what poetry really was.

They also suggested to me

Pritom su mi predložili da radionica

that the workshop should be not just for the inmates

ne bude isključivo za zatvorenike koji su pohađali fakultet,

taking university classes, but for all the inmates.

već i da uključi sve stanovnike iz zatvorske zajednice.

And so I said that to start this workshop,

Onda sam rekla, da bismo započeli ovu radionicu

I needed to find a tool that we all had in common.

potrebno mi je neko oruđe dostupno svima.

That tool was language.

A to oruđe je bio jezik.

We had language, we had the workshop. We could have poetry.

Imali smo jezik, imali smo radionicu. Mogli smo da imamo poeziju.

But what I hadn't considered was that inequality exists in prison, too.

Ali nisam računala na to da nejednakost počiva i u zatvoru,

Many of the prisoners hadn't even completed grammar school.

i da mnogi od njih nisu završili ni osnovnu školu.

Many couldn't use cursive, could barely print.

Mnogi nisu znali da koriste kurziv, jedva da su znali i štampana slova.

They didn't write fluently, either.

Nisu ni pisali naročito tečno.

Pa smo tražili kratke pesme, veoma kratke, ali veoma snažne.

So we started looking for short poems.

Very short, but very powerful.

And we started to read, and we'd read one author, then another author,

I počeli smo da čitamo, čitali smo pisca za piscem

and by reading such short poems, they all began to realize

i čitajući te kratke pesme, svi su shvatili

that what the poetic language did was to break a certain logic,

da jezik poezije nastaje kada se razbije logička izvesnost

and create another system.

i kada se uspostavi novi sistem.

Breaking the logic of language also breaks the logic of the system

Razbiti logiku jezika, takođe znači razbiti logičnost sistema

under which they've learned to respond.

kome su naučili da se povinuju.

So a new system appeared,

Tako je nastao novi sistem, nova pravila

new rules that made them understand very quickly,

koja su veoma brzo savladali, ali veoma brzo,

- very quickly -

that with poetic language

da uz pomoć poetskog jezika mogu da kažu apsolutno sve što žele.

they would be able to say absolutely whatever they wanted.

It's said that to be a poet you have to go to hell and back.

Kažu, da biste bili pesnik, morate se bar jednom spustiti u pakao.

And they have plenty of hell. Plenty of hell.

A njima pakla nije nedostajalo. Pakla im nije nedostajalo.

One of them once said: "In prison you never sleep.

Jednom je neko od njih rekao: "U zatvoru nikada ne spavaš.

You can never sleep in jail. You can never close your eyelids."

Nikada se ne spava u zatvoru. Nikada ne možeš da spustiš kapke."

And so, like I’m doing now, I gave them a moment of silence,

I tada sam uradila što i sada,

nakon momenta tišine, rekla sam im: "Ljudi, ovo je poezija, ovo."

then said, “That's what poetry is, you guys.

It's in this prison universe that you have all around you.

Ona se prikazuje u zatvorskom univerzumu, na dohvat vam je ruke.

Everything you say about how you never sleep,

Sve o čemu govorite, da nikada ne spavate.

it exudes fear.

Iz tog se luči strah. Sve nenapisano. Sve je to poezija.

All the things that go unwritten -- all of that is poetry."

So we started appropriating that hell;

Te smo počeli da prisvajamo taj pakao.

we plunged ourselves, headfirst, into the seventh circle.

I direktno smo se strmoglavili u sedmi krug.

And in that seventh circle of hell, our very own, beloved circle,

A u tom sedmom krugu pakla, nama bliskom, nama dragom,

they learned that they could make the walls invisible,

naučili smo da zidovi mogu da nestanu, da prozori mogu da vrište,

that they could make the windows yell,

and that we could hide inside the shadows.

da se skrivamo u senkama.

When the first year of the workshop had ended,

Prve godine, kada smo završili s radionicom

priredili smo malenu zabavu za kraj godine,

we organized a little closing party,

like you do when a job is done with so much love,

kakav je i običaj kada se odradi posao s toliko ljubavi.

and you want to celebrate with a party.

Želite da slavite i da napravite zabavu.

We called family, friends, the university authorities.

Pozvali smo porodicu, prijatelje, nadležne s univerziteta.

The only thing the inmates had to do was read a poem,

Sve što je trebalo da urade jeste da pročitaju jednu pesmu,

prime diplomu, dobiju aplauz i to je bila čitava naša skromna zabava.

and receive their diplomas and applause.

That was our simple party.

The only thing I want to leave you with

Samo želim da vam prenesem sliku momenta kada su ti muškarci,

is the moment in which those men,

some of them just huge when standing next to me,

često ogromni u poređenju sa mnom,

or the young boys - so young, but with an enormous pride,

ili momci, veoma mladi, ali s ogromnim ponosom,

held their papers and trembled like little kids and sweated,

kako su stajali s papirom i drhtali kao dečaci, preznojavajući se

i kako su čitali svoje pesme glasom potpuno skrhanim.

and read their poems with their voices completely broken.

Taj momenat me je naterao da pomislim da većina njih sigurno

That moment made me think a lot

that for most of them, it was surely the very first time

nikada pre nije primila aplauz za bilo šta što su uradili.

that someone applauded them for something they had done.

In prison there are things that can't be done.

U zatvoru ima stvari koje se ne mogu raditi.

In prison, you can't dream. In prison, you can't cry.

U zatvoru se ne može sanjati, u zatvoru se ne može plakati.

There are words that are virtually forbidden, like the word "time,"

Neke reči su praktično zabranjene, poput reči "vreme",

the word "future," the word "wish".

reči "budućnost", reči "žudnja".

But we dared to dream, and to dream a lot.

Ali mi smo se odvažili da sanjamo i to da sanjamo na veliko,

We decided that they were going to write a book.

jer smo odlučili da će oni da napišu knjigu.

Ne samo da su napisali knjigu, već su je i uvezali.

Not only did they write a book, but they also bound it themselves.

That was at the end of 2010.

To je bilo krajem 2010.

Then, we doubled the bet and wrote another book.

Onda smo podigli ulog i napisali drugu knjigu.

I uvezali smo drugu knjigu.

And we bound that one, too.

That was a short time ago, at the end of last year.

To je bilo nedavno, krajem prošle godine.

What I see week after week,

Ono što vidim, iz nedelje u nedelju, jeste kako postaju drugi ljudi,

is how they're turning into different people;

how they're being transformed.

kako se transformišu.

How words are empowering them with a dignity they had never known,

Kako ih reči uče dostojanstvu koje im je bilo strano,

that they couldn't even imagine.

nezamislivo čak.

They had no idea such dignity could come from them.

Nisu znali za dostojanstvo i da bi mogli da ga poseduju.

Za vreme radionice, u tom našem voljenom paklu, sve delimo.

At the workshop, in that beloved hell we share, we all give something.

We open our hands and hearts and give what we have, what we can.

Raširimo ruke i srce i delimo

koliko imamo, koliko možemo. Sve.

All of us; all of us equally.

Svima jednako.

And so you feel that at least in a small way

Na taj način osećate da bar malo

you're repairing that huge social fracture

popravljate tu ogromnu društvenu pukotinu

which makes it so that for many of them,

zbog koje mnogi nalik njima, iščekuju zatvor kao jedinu sudbinu.

prison is their only destination.

I remember a verse by a tremendous poet, a great poet,

Sećam se stiha jednog strašnog pesnika, velikog pesnika

from our Unit 48 workshop, Nicolás Dorado:

iz Odeljenja 48, iz naše radionice, Nikolasa Dorada:

"Moram da pronađem beskonačnu nit da njome zašijem ovu ogromnu ranu."

"I will need an infinite thread to sew up this huge wound."

Poezija to i radi. Šije rane izolacije.

Poetry does that; it sews up the wounds of exclusion.

Otvara vrata. Poezija je poput ogledala.

It opens doors. Poetry works as a mirror.

It creates a mirror, which is the poem.

Stvara ogledalo, a to je pesma sama.

They recognize themselves, they look at themselves in the poem

Oni se prepoznaju, ogedaju se u pesmi i pišu

and write from who they are, and are from what they write.

o onome što jesu, i jesu ono o čemu pišu.

In order to write,

Da bi mogli da pišu potrebno je da ovladaju trenutkom stvaranja pesme

they need to appropriate the moment of writing

which is a moment of extraordinary freedom.

a to je trenutak izuzetne slobode.

Moraju da potraže u svojoj glavi taj komadić slobode

They have to get into their heads, search for that bit of freedom

koji im nikad, nikad niko ne može da oduzme, trenutak stvaranja

that can never be taken away when they write

i da im to takođe služi da shvate da je sloboda moguća

and that is also useful to realize that freedom is possible

even inside a prison,

čak i u zatvoru, i da su jedine rešetke koje imamo

and that the only bars we have in our wonderful space

u našem divnom prostoru, samo reč "rešetke"

is the word "bars,"

and that all of us in our hell burn with happiness

i da svi u našem paklu gorimo od sreće

when we light the wick of the word.

kada naučimo kako da koristimo reči kao fitilj.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

Govorila sam vam mnogo o zatvoru,

I told you a lot about the prison, a lot about what I experience

mnogo o tome šta proživljavam svake sedmice

every week, and how I enjoy it and transform myself with the inmates.

i koliko uživam i kako se menjam zajedno s njima.

Ali znate šta bih volela, kada biste vi mogli da osetite, doživite,

But you don't know how much I'd like it

if you could feel, live, experience, even for a few seconds,

da iskusite, makar na nekoliko sekundi

what I enjoy every week and what makes me who I am.

ono u čemu ja uživam svake sedmice i zbog čega jesam to što jesam.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)

Martín Bustamante: The heart chews tears of time;

Martin Bustamante: "Srce žvaće suze vremena

blinded by that light,

zaslepljeno tom svetlošću

it hides the speed of existence

prikriva brzinu postojanja

where the images go rowing by.

kad slike naviru kao vesla,

It fights; it hangs on.

bori se, ne posustaje.

The heart cracks under sad gazes,

Srce se slama pod tužnim pogledima

rides on storms that spread fire,

jaše oluje koje kupaju požare

podiže grudi unižene stidom,

lifts chests lowered by shame,

knows that it's not just reading and going on,

zna da nije sve u praćenju uputstava

it also wishes to see the infinite blue.

takođe čezne da vidi beskrajno plavetnilo.

The heart sits down to think about things,

Srce sedne da razmisli,

bori se da ne nasedne na tričarije,

fights to avoid being ordinary,

tries to love without hurting,

želi da nauči da voli, a da ne povređuje,

breathes the sun, giving courage to itself,

udiše sunce i to ga hrabri,

prepušta se, ide razumu.

surrenders, travels toward reason.

The heart fights among the swamps,

Srce se bori u kaljugama,

skirts the edge of the underworld,

iscrtava granice podzemlja,

falls exhausted, but won't give in to what's easy,

padne onemoćalo, ali se ne predaje lako

sve dok ga neravnomerni koraci omamljenosti

while irregular steps of intoxication

wake up,

ne probude,

wake the stillness.

dok ne probude tišinu."

I'm Martín Bustamante,

Ja sam Martin Bustamante,

I'm a prisoner in Unit 48 of San Martín,

zatvorenik sam iz Jedinice 48, u San Martinu,

today is my day of temporary release.

danas su me privremeno pustili.

And for me, poetry and literature have changed my life.

Meni su poezija i književnost

promenile život.

Thank you very much!

Mnogo vam hvala! (Aplauz)

Cristina Domenech: Thank you!

Kristina Domenek: Hvala!

(Applause)

(Aplauz)