I'm here to give you your recommended dietary allowance of poetry. And the way I'm going to do that is present to you five animations of five of my poems. And let me just tell you a little bit of how that came about. Because the mixing of those two media is a sort of unnatural or unnecessary act.
Bili Kolins: Ovde sam da se pobrinem za Vašu preporučenu dijetalnu dozu poezije. Učiniću to tako što ću Vam pokazati pet animacija pet mojih pesama. Ali dopustite da Vam najpre ispričam ukratko kako je do toga došlo. Jer kombinovanje ova dva medija je donekle neprirodan ili nepotreban čin.
But when I was United States Poet Laureate -- and I love saying that. (Laughter) It's a great way to start sentences. When I was him back then, I was approached by J. Walter Thompson, the ad company, and they were hired sort of by the Sundance Channel. And the idea was to have me record some of my poems and then they would find animators to animate them. And I was initially resistant, because I always think poetry can stand alone by itself. Attempts to put my poems to music have had disastrous results, in all cases. And the poem, if it's written with the ear, already has been set to its own verbal music as it was composed. And surely, if you're reading a poem that mentions a cow, you don't need on the facing page a drawing of a cow. I mean, let's let the reader do a little work.
Ali kada sam bio pesnik - laureat SAD, a volim da pominjem to. (Smeh) To je odličan način da započnete rečenicu. Kada sam bio taj u ono vreme, kontaktirala me je reklamna agencija Džej Valter Tomson, a njih je unajmio Sandens Kanal, na neki način. Njihova ideja je bila da ja snimim neke od svojih pesama, a oni bi onda našli animatore da ih animiraju. U početku sam se opirao, jer sam oduvek mislio da poezija može da stoji sama. Pokušaji da se moje pesme pretvore u muziku dali su katastrofalne rezultate, svaki put. Pesma, ako je pisana sa sluhom, je tako komponovana da već ima sopstvenu verbalnu muziku. A sasvim je sigurno da, ako čitate pesmu u kojoj se pominje krava, nije potrebno da na susednoj stranici vidite nacrtanu kravu. Mislim, pustimo čitaoca da sam nešto uradi.
But I relented because it seemed like an interesting possibility, and also I'm like a total cartoon junkie since childhood. I think more influential than Emily Dickinson or Coleridge or Wordsworth on my imagination were Warner Brothers, Merrie Melodies and Loony Tunes cartoons. Bugs Bunny is my muse. And this way poetry could find its way onto television of all places. And I'm pretty much all for poetry in public places -- poetry on buses, poetry on subways, on billboards, on cereal boxes. When I was Poet Laureate, there I go again -- I can't help it, it's true -- (Laughter) I created a poetry channel on Delta Airlines that lasted for a couple of years. So you could tune into poetry as you were flying.
Ipak sam pristao, zato što mi se to učinilo kao zanimljiva prilika i zato što sam potpuni zaluđenik za crtaće još od detinjstva. Čini mi se da su više uticaja od Emili Dikinson ili Kolridža ili Vordsvorta na moju maštu imali Vorner bros, Meri melodis i Luni tuns crtaći. Duško Dugouško je moja muza. A ovo je način da poezija dospe čak i na televiziju. Ja sam veliki pobornik prikazivanja poezije na javnim mestima - poezija u autobusima, u metrou, na bilbordima, na kutiji pahuljica. Kada sam bio pesnik - laureat, eto ponovo to pominjem... šta ću, istina je... (Smeh) pokrenuo sam kanal sa poezijom na letovima kompanije Delta, koji je postojao par godina. Tako da ste mogli da slušate poeziju dok letite.
And my sense is, it's a good thing to get poetry off the shelves and more into public life. Start a meeting with a poem. That would be an idea you might take with you. When you get a poem on a billboard or on the radio or on a cereal box or whatever, it happens to you so suddenly that you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school.
Moj utisak je da je dobro skinuti poeziju sa polica i uključiti je više u svakodnevni život. Započnite sastanak jednom pesmom. Tu biste ideju mogli primeniti. Kada je pesma na bilbordu, na radiju ili na kutiji od pahuljica ili bilo gde, desi Vam se tako iznenadno da nemate vremena da se sakrijete iza štitova svoje protiv-pesničke odbrane koje ste razvili u srednjoj školi.
So let us start with the first one. It's a little poem called "Budapest," and in it I reveal, or pretend to reveal, the secrets of the creative process.
Hajde da počnemo sa prvom pesmom. Ta mala pesma zove se "Budimpešta", a u njoj otkrivam, tačnije pretvaram se da otkrivam, tajne kreativnog procesa.
(Video) Narration: "Budapest." My pen moves along the page like the snout of a strange animal shaped like a human arm and dressed in the sleeve of a loose green sweater. I watch it sniffing the paper ceaselessly, intent as any forager that has nothing on its mind but the grubs and insects that will allow it to live another day. It wants only to be here tomorrow, dressed perhaps in the sleeve of a plaid shirt, nose pressed against the page, writing a few more dutiful lines while I gaze out the window and imagine Budapest or some other city where I have never been.
(Video) Naracija: "Budimpešta" Moje pero šeta po listu kao njuška neke čudne životinje u obliku ljudske ruke obučene u rukav širokog zelenog džempera. Posmatram kako njuška papir bez prestanka, namere kao u svakog proždrljivca koji ne misli ni na šta sem na crve i insekte, potrebne da preživi još jedan dan. Želi samo da bude tu i sutra, obučeno recimo u rukav kakve karirane košulje, nosa priljubljenog uz list, i napiše još par predanih redova dok ja zurim kroz prozor i zamišljam Budimpeštu ili neki drugi grad u kome nikad nisam bio.
BC: So that makes it seem a little easier. (Applause) Writing is not actually as easy as that for me. But I like to pretend that it comes with ease. One of my students came up after class, an introductory class, and she said, "You know, poetry is harder than writing," which I found both erroneous and profound. (Laughter) So I like to at least pretend it just flows out. A friend of mine has a slogan; he's another poet. He says that, "If at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence you ever tried."
BK: Eto, tako zvuči malo lakše. (Aplauz) Pisanje meni nije toliko lako, zapravo. Ali volim da se pretvaram da pišem s lakoćom. Jedna studentkinja mi je prišla posle časa, na kursu za početnike, i rekla: "Znate, poezija je teža od pisanja", što mi se učinilo u isti mah netačno i mudro. (Smeh) Dakle, volim da se makar pretvaram da to jednostavno teče. Jedan moj prijatelj voli da kaže, on je takođe pesnik, On kaže da, "ako isprva ne uspeš, sakrij sve dokaze da si ikad i pokušao".
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
The next poem is also rather short. Poetry just says a few things in different ways. And I think you could boil this poem down to saying, "Some days you eat the bear, other days the bear eats you." And it uses the imagery of dollhouse furniture.
Sledeća pesma je takođe dosta kratka. Poezija samo govori nekoliko stvari na različite načine. Mislim da se ova pesma može svesti na izreku: "Ima dana kada ti pojedeš medveda, ima dana kada medved pojede tebe". Koristi sliku nameštaja iz kućica za lutke.
(Video) Narration: "Some Days." Some days I put the people in their places at the table, bend their legs at the knees, if they come with that feature, and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs. All afternoon they face one another, the man in the brown suit, the woman in the blue dress -- perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved. But other days I am the one who is lifted up by the ribs then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse to sit with the others at the long table. Very funny. But how would you like it if you never knew from one day to the next if you were going to spend it striding around like a vivid god, your shoulders in the clouds, or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?
(Video) Naracija: Ima dana Ima dana kada stavim ljude na njihova mesta za stolom, savijem im noge u kolenima, ako poseduju tu funkciju, i posadim ih na majušne drvene stolice. Čitavo popodne zure jedni u druge, čovek u braon odelu, žena u plavoj haljini... savršeno nepomični, savršeno uljudni. Ali ima dana kada sam ja taj koga podignu za rebra visoko pa spuste u trpezariju kućice za lutke da sedim sa ostalima za dugim stolom. Baš smešno. Ali kako bi se tebi dopalo da nikad ne znaš danas, nećeš li sutra provesti dan šepureći se kao sam bog, sa ramenima među oblacima, ili sedeći tamo dole okružen tapetama buljeći pravo ispred sebe malog plastičnog lica?
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
BC: There's a horror movie in there somewhere. The next poem is called forgetfulness, and it's really just a kind of poetic essay on the subject of mental slippage. And the poem begins with a certain species of forgetfulness that someone called literary amnesia, in other words, forgetting the things that you have read.
BK: Ovde negde krije se scenario za horor film. Sledeća pesma se zove "Zaboravnost", to je zapravo neka vrsta poetskog eseja na temu mentalnog zamračenja. Pesma počinje pričom o određenoj vrsti zaboravnosti koju neki zovu literarna amnezija, drugim rečima, zaboravljate stvari koje ste pročitali.
(Video) Narration: "Forgetfulness." The name of the author is the first to go, followed obediently by the title, the plot, the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel, which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of. It is as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain to a little fishing village where there are no phones. Long ago, you kissed the names of the nine muses good-bye and you watched the quadratic equation pack its bag. And even now, as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps, the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay. Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen. It has floated away down a dark mythological river whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall, well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those who have forgotten even how to swim and how to ride a bicycle. No wonder you rise in the middle of the night to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war. No wonder the Moon in the window seems to have drifted out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
(Video) Naracija: "Zaboravnost" Ime pisca odlazi prvo, slede ga poslušno naslov, radnja, srceparajući rasplet, čitav roman odjednom postaje neki koji nikada nisi čitao, za koji nikada nisi ni čuo. Kao da su, jedno za drugim, sećanja koja si nekad gajio odlučila da se povuku u južnu hemisferu mozga u malo ribarsko selo u kome nema telefona. Odavno si rekao zbogom imenima svih devet muza i pomogao kvadratnoj jednačini da spakuje svoje kofere. Čak i sada, dok učiš redosled planeta, nešto drugo ti izmiče, možda ime državnog cveta, adresa nekog strica, glavni grad Paragvaja. Šta god da je čega ne možeš da se setiš ne stoji ti na vrhu jezika, i ne krije se čak ni u nekoj tamnoj komori tvoga srca. Sve je otplovilo niz mračnu mitološku reku čije ime počinje na L koliko uspevaš da se setiš, odmakao na svom putu ka zaboravu pridružićeš se onima koji su zaboravili da plivaju, čak i da voze bicikl. Nije ni čudo što ustaješ u sred noći da tražiš ime čuvene bitke u knjizi o ratu. Nije ni čudo što Mesec na prozoru kao da se išunjao iz ljubavne pesme koju si nekad znao napamet.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
BC: The next poem is called "The Country" and it's based on, when I was in college I met a classmate who remains to be a friend of mine. He lived, and still does, in rural Vermont. I lived in New York City. And we would visit each other. And when I would go up to the country, he would teach me things like deer hunting, which meant getting lost with a gun basically -- (Laughter) and trout fishing and stuff like that. And then he'd come down to New York City and I'd teach him what I knew, which was largely smoking and drinking. (Laughter) And in that way we traded lore with each other. The poem that's coming up is based on him trying to tell me a little something about a domestic point of etiquette in country living that I had a very hard time, at first, processing. It's called "The Country."
BK: Sledeća pesma se zove "Selo" i insiprisana je, kada sam bio na fakultetu upoznao sam jednog kolegu koji mi je ostao prijatelj On je živeo, i dalje živi, u ruralnom delu Vermonta. Ja sam živeo u Njujorku. Posećivali smo se. Kada bih ja išao kod njega na selo, on bi me učio stvarima kao što je lov na jelene, što je praktično značilo lutanje šumom sa puškom u ruci... (Smeh) i pecanju pastrmki i takvim stvarima. A kada bi on došao u Njujork, ja bih njega učio onome što ja znam, a to se u glavnom svodilo na alkohol i cigarete. (Smeh) Na taj način smo razmenjivali znanja. Sledeća pesma inspirisana je njegovim pokušajem da me nauči ponešto o domaćinskim pravilima života na selu koja su za mene u početku bila dosta komlikovana. Zove se "Selo".
(Video) Narration: "The Country." I wondered about you when you told me never to leave a box of wooden strike-anywhere matches just lying around the house, because the mice might get into them and start a fire. But your face was absolutely straight when you twisted the lid down on the round tin where the matches, you said, are always stowed. Who could sleep that night? Who could whisk away the thought of the one unlikely mouse padding along a cold water pipe behind the floral wallpaper, gripping a single wooden match between the needles of his teeth? Who could not see him rounding a corner, the blue tip scratching against rough-hewn beam, the sudden flare and the creature, for one bright, shining moment, suddenly thrust ahead of his time -- now a fire-starter, now a torch-bearer in a forgotten ritual, little brown druid illuminating some ancient night? And who could fail to notice, lit up in the blazing insulation, the tiny looks of wonderment on the faces of his fellow mice -- one-time inhabitants of what once was your house in the country?
(Video) Naracija: Selo Zbunio si me kad si mi rekao da nikad ne ostavljam kutiju šibica koje pale o sve bilo gde po kući, jer bi miš mogao da uđe u nju i izazove požar. Ali tvoje je lice bilo potpuno mirno kada si odvrnuo poklopac ovalne konzerve gde se šibice, kazao si, uvek čuvaju. Ko da zaspi te noći? Ko da odagna sliku jednog malo verovatnog miša koji hoda po hladnoj vodovodnoj cevi iza cvetnih tapeta, stežući čvrsto jednu drvenu šibicu među svojim igličastim zubima? Ko ga ne bi zamišljao kako zavija za ugao, plavi vrh kresne o hrapavu gredu, iznenadni blesak i stvorenje, na jedan blistav i sjajan trenutak, gurnuto naglo ispred svog vremena... sada on izaziva požar sada on nosi baklju u zaboravljenom obredu, mali smeđi druid koji osvetljava neku davnu noć? I kome ne bi privukli pažnju osvetljeni izolacijom u plamenu majušni izrazi čuđenja na licima njegovih drugova miševa... nekadašnjih stanovnika onoga što je jednom bila tvoja kuća na selu?
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
BC: Thank you. (Applause) Thank you. And the last poem is called "The Dead." I wrote this after a friend's funeral, but not so much about the friend as something the eulogist kept saying, as all eulogists tend to do, which is how happy the deceased would be to look down and see all of us assembled. And that to me was a bad start to the afterlife, having to witness your own funeral and feel gratified. So the little poem is called "The Dead."
BK: Hvala. (Aplauz) Hvala. I poslednja pesma zove se "Mrtvi". Napisao sam je nakon sahrane jednog prijatelja, ali ne toliko o njemu konkretno, već o nečemu što je sveštenik ponavljao, što svi sveštenici vole da ponavljaju, a to je koliko bi srećan pokojnik bio kada bi pogledao dole i video nas tu okupljene. To mi se učinilo kao loš početak zagrobnog života, da vidim sopstvenu sahranu i da budem srećan zbog toga. Ova mala pesma se zove "Mrtvi".
(Video) Narration: "The Dead." The dead are always looking down on us, they say. While we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich, they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven as they row themselves slowly through eternity. They watch the tops of our heads moving below on Earth. And when we lie down in a field or on a couch, drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon, they think we are looking back at them, which makes them lift their oars and fall silent and wait like parents for us to close our eyes.
(Video) Naracija: "Mrtvi" Mrtvi nas uvek gledaju odozgo, tako kažu. Dok obuvamo cipele ili pravimo sendvič, gledaju odozgo kroz staklena dna čamaca iz raja dok veslaju lagano kroz večnost. Posmatraju nam teme dok se šetamo dole na Zemlji. I kada ležimo na livadi ili na kauču, omamljeni možda šumom toplog popodneva, misle da i mi gledamo njih, i zato podižu vesla i sasvim su tihi i bde kao roditelji čekajući da zatvorimo oči.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
BC: I'm not sure if other poems will be animated. It took a long time -- I mean, it's rather uncommon to have this marriage -- a long time to put those two together. But then again, it took us a long time to put the wheel and the suitcase together. (Laughter) I mean, we had the wheel for some time. And schlepping is an ancient and honorable art.
BK: Ne znam zasigurno da li ćemo animirati i ostale pesme. Trajalo je dosta dugo... Mislim, dosta je neuobičajen ovaj spoj... trebalo nam je puno vremena da povežemo ta dva. Ali opet, trebalo nam je puno vremena da povežemo točak i kofer. (Smeh) Mislim, odavno imamo točak. A šlepanje jeste drevna i časna veština.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
I just have time to read a more recent poem to you. If it has a subject, the subject is adolescence. And it's addressed to a certain person. It's called "To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl."
Imam vremena još samo da Vam pročitam jednu noviju pesmu. Ako ima neku temu, onda je tema adolescencija. Posvećena je jednoj osobi. "Mojoj omiljenoj sedamnaestogodišnjoj srednjoškolki"
"Do you realize that if you had started building the Parthenon on the day you were born, you would be all done in only one more year? Of course, you couldn't have done that all alone. So never mind; you're fine just being yourself. You're loved for just being you. But did you know that at your age Judy Garland was pulling down 150,000 dollars a picture, Joan of Arc was leading the French army to victory and Blaise Pascal had cleaned up his room -- no wait, I mean he had invented the calculator? Of course, there will be time for all that later in your life, after you come out of your room and begin to blossom, or at least pick up all your socks. For some reason I keep remembering that Lady Jane Grey was queen of England when she was only 15. But then she was beheaded, so never mind her as a role model. (Laughter) A few centuries later, when he was your age, Franz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family, but that did not keep him from composing two symphonies, four operas and two complete masses as a youngster. (Laughter) But of course, that was in Austria at the height of Romantic lyricism, not here in the suburbs of Cleveland. (Laughter) Frankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15 or if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17? We think you're special just being you -- playing with your food and staring into space. (Laughter) By the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes, but that doesn't mean he never helped out around the house."
Da li si svesna da, da si počela da gradiš Partenon čim si se rodila, završila bi ga za još samo godinu dana? Naravno, ne bi mogla sve to da uradiš sama. Tako da nema veze; dobra si ti takva kakva jesi. Volimo te baš takvu kakva si. Ali znaš li da je u tvojim godinama Džudi Garland uzimala 150 000 dolara za jedan snimak, Jovanka Orleanka je vodila francusku vojsku u pobedu a Blez Paskal je već počistio svoju sobu... ovaj, mislim, izmislio je kalkulator? Naravno, biće vremena za sve to kasnije u tvom životu, kad izađeš iz svoje sobe i procvetaš, ili makar kad pokupiš sve svoje čarape. Ne znam zašto mi stalno pada na pamet da je Džejn Grej bila kraljica Engleske sa samo 15 godina. Ali onda je obezglavljena, tako da bolje da ne uzimamo nju kao uzor. (Smeh) Nekoliko vekova kasnije, kada je bio u tvojim godinama, Franc Šubert je prao sudove da pomogne svojima, ali to ga nije sprečilo da napiše dve simfonije, četiri opere i dve mise kao vrlo mlad. (Smeh) Ali naravno, to je bilo u Austriji, na vrhuncu romantičarskog lirizma, a ne ovde u predgrađu Klivlenda. (Smeh) Iskreno, koga je briga što je Eni Oukli nepromašivo pucala sa 15 godina i što je Marija Kalas debitovala kao Toska sa 17? Mi mislimo da si ti posebna baš takva kakva si... dok se igraš hranom i buljiš u prazno. (Smeh) Inače, lagao sam da je Šubert prao sudove, ali to ne znači da nije nikad pomagao po kući.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Thank you. Thank you.
Hvala Vam. Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Thanks.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)