Today I want to talk about the meaning of words, how we define them and how they, almost as revenge, define us.
Danas želim govoriti o značenju riječi, kako ih određujemo i kako one, gotovo osvetnički, određuju nas.
The English language is a magnificent sponge. I love the English language. I'm glad that I speak it. But for all that, it has a lot of holes. In Greek, there's a word, "lachesism" which is the hunger for disaster. You know, when you see a thunderstorm on the horizon and you just find yourself rooting for the storm. In Mandarin, they have a word "yù yī" -- I'm not pronouncing that correctly -- which means the longing to feel intensely again the way you did when you were a kid. In Polish, they have a word "jouska" which is the kind of hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head. And finally, in German, of course in German, they have a word called "zielschmerz" which is the dread of getting what you want.
Engleski je jezik veličanstvena spužva. Volim engleski jezik. Drago mi je što njime govorim. Unatoč tome, on ima puno rupa. U grčkome postoji riječ "lachesism" što znači "glad za propašću." Kad ugledate grmljavinsko nevrijeme na obzoru i jednostavno se nađete kako prizivate oluju. U mandarinskome, postoji riječ "yù yī" -- ne izgovaram je ispravno -- što znači žudnju da ponovno nešto osjetite onako intenzivno kao što ste to osjećali kao dijete. U poljskome, postoji riječ "jouska" što je svojevrstan hipotetski razgovor koji se prisilno odvija u vašoj glavi. I konačno, u njemačkome -- naravno u njemačkome -- postoji i riječ "zielschmerz," odnosno strepnja od dobivanja onoga što želite.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Finally fulfilling a lifelong dream. I'm German myself, so I know exactly what that feels like.
U konačnici, ispunjenje životnog sna. I sam sam Nijemac pa točno razumijem kakav je to osjećaj.
Now, I'm not sure if I would use any of these words as I go about my day, but I'm really glad they exist. But the only reason they exist is because I made them up.
Ne vjerujem da bih ijednu od ovih riječi upotrijebio tijekom uobičajenog dana, ali doista mi je drago da postoje. Doduše, one postoje samo zato što sam ih ja izmislio.
I am the author of "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows," which I've been writing for the last seven years. And the whole mission of the project is to find holes in the language of emotion and try to fill them so that we have a way of talking about all those human peccadilloes and quirks of the human condition that we all feel but may not think to talk about because we don't have the words to do it.
Ja sam autor "Rječnika neznanih jada," kojeg pišem posljednjih sedam godina. Svrha čitavoga projekta jest pronaći rupe u jeziku emocija i nastojati ih popuniti kako bismo mogli govoriti o svim onim ljudskim manama i osobitostima ljudskoga stanja, koja svi mi osjećamo, ali ni ne pomišljamo o njima govoriti jer nemamo riječi kojima bismo to učinili.
And about halfway through this project, I defined "sonder," the idea that we all think of ourselves as the main character and everyone else is just extras. But in reality, we're all the main character, and you yourself are an extra in someone else's story. And so as soon as I published that, I got a lot of response from people saying, "Thank you for giving voice to something I had felt all my life but there was no word for that." So it made them feel less alone. That's the power of words, to make us feel less alone.
Negdje na pola puta tijekom projekta, definirao sam riječ "sonder," ideju da svi mi sebe smatramo glavnim protagonistima, a sve ostale tek statistima. No, u stvarnosti, svi smo mi glavni protagonist, i svatko je od nas statist u nečijoj tuđoj priči. Čim sam to objavio, brojni su mi ljudi odgovorili: "Hvala vam što ste imenovali ono što osjećam cijeloga života, ali nije za to postojala riječ." To ih je učinilo manje usamljenima. U tome je moć riječi -- one nas čine manje usamljenima.
And it was not long after that that I started to notice sonder being used earnestly in conversations online, and not long after I actually noticed it, I caught it next to me in an actual conversation in person. There is no stranger feeling than making up a word and then seeing it take on a mind of its own. I don't have a word for that yet, but I will.
Nedugo nakon toga počeo sam primjećivati da ljudi "sonder" sasvim ozbiljno koriste u komunikaciji na internetu, a nedugo sam ga potom primijetio i osobno, u razgovoru uživo. Nema neobičnijeg osjećaja od toga kad izmislite riječ, i potom je vidite kako živi neki svoj život. Nemam za to još uvijek riječ, ali naći ću je.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
I'm working on it.
Radim na tome.
I started to think about what makes words real, because a lot of people ask me, the most common thing I got from people is, "Well, are these words made up? I don't really understand." And I didn't really know what to tell them because once sonder started to take off, who am I to say what words are real and what aren't. And so I sort of felt like Steve Jobs, who described his epiphany as when he realized that most of us, as we go through the day, we just try to avoid bouncing against the walls too much and just sort of get on with things. But once you realize that people -- that this world was built by people no smarter than you, then you can reach out and touch those walls and even put your hand through them and realize that you have the power to change it.
Počeo sam razmišljati o tome što riječi čini stvarnima. Mnogo me ljudi pita i najčešće od ljudi čujem: "Jesu li te riječi izmišljene? Stvarno ne razumijem." Nisam znao što da im kažem, jer kad je "sonder" zaživio, tko sam ja da govorim koje su riječi stvarne i koje nisu?! Osjećao sam se poput Stevea Jobsa koji je opisao svoje otkriće uvidjevši da većina nas, svakodnevno, jednostavno nastoji ne udarati previše u zidove, nego se jednostavno nosimo sa svime. Ali, kad jednom shvatite da su ovaj svijet izgradili ljudi nimalo pametniji od vas, tad možete ispružiti ruke i dodirnuti te zidove, pa čak i pružiti ruke kroz njih te shvatiti da ih imate snage promijeniti.
And when people ask me, "Are these words real?" I had a variety of answers that I tried out. Some of them made sense. Some of them didn't. But one of them I tried out was, "Well, a word is real if you want it to be real." The way that this path is real because people wanted it to be there.
I kad me ljudi pitaju: "Jesu li te riječi stvarne?", na različite im načine odgovaram. Neki od njih imaju smisla. Neki i nemaju. Jedan od onih koje sam iskušao je: "Dakle, svijet je stvaran ako želite da stvaran bude." Jednako kao što je ovaj prolaz stvaran jer su ga ljudi željeli ovdje.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
It happens on college campuses all the time. It's called a "desire path."
U studenskim se kampusima to događa sve vrijeme. Naziva se "putem želja."
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
But then I decided, what people are really asking when they're asking if a word is real, they're really asking, "Well, how many brains will this give me access to?" Because I think that's a lot of how we look at language. A word is essentially a key that gets us into certain people's heads. And if it gets us into one brain, it's not really worth it, not really worth knowing. Two brains, eh, it depends on who it is. A million brains, OK, now we're talking. And so a real word is one that gets you access to as many brains as you can. That's what makes it worth knowing.
No, onda sam zaključio da se ljudi uistinu pitaju, kad pitaju je li riječ stvarna: "Kolikim će mi umovima ovo omogućiti pristup?" Mislim da je to način na koji mi nerijetko doživljavamo jezik. U biti, riječ je ključ kojim otključavamo glave drugih ljudi. I ako njome otključavamo jedan mozak, ona nije osobito vrijedna, ne vrijedi je zapravo ni poznavati. E sad, dva mozga ... ovisi čija su. Milijun mozgova? Može, to je prava stvar. Prema tome, prava riječ je ona kojom pristupate što većem broju mozgova. Radi toga je vrijedi poznavati.
Incidentally, the realest word of all by this measure is this.
Uzgred, najstvarnija riječ od svih, prema ovom kriteriju, je:
[O.K.]
[O.K.]
That's it. The realest word we have. That is the closest thing we have to a master key. That's the most commonly understood word in the world, no matter where you are. The problem with that is, no one seems to know what those two letters stand for.
To je to. Najstvarnija riječ koju imamo. Najbliža ključu svih ključeva. To je najrazumljivija riječ u svijetu uopće, gdje god se zatekli. Problem je u tome što gotovo nitko ne zna što predstavljaju ta dva slova.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
Which is kind of weird, right? I mean, it could be a misspelling of "all correct," I guess, or "old kinderhook." No one really seems to know, but the fact that it doesn't matter says something about how we add meaning to words. The meaning is not in the words themselves. We're the ones that pour ourselves into it.
Nekako neobično, zar ne? Moglo bi se raditi o pogrešnom sricanju riječi "all correct," ili "old kinderhook." Nitko zapravo ne zna, ali činjenica da nije ni važno govori o tome kako pridajemo značenje riječima. Značenje nije u riječima samim. Mi smo ti koji učitavamo sebe u njih.
And I think, when we're all searching for meaning in our lives, and searching for the meaning of life, I think words have something to do with that. And I think if you're looking for the meaning of something, the dictionary is a decent place to start. It brings a sense of order to a very chaotic universe. Our view of things is so limited that we have to come up with patterns and shorthands and try to figure out a way to interpret it and be able to get on with our day. We need words to contain us, to define ourselves.
Svi tražimo smisao u svojim životima, i u životu uopće, i vjerujem da riječi s time imaju neke veze. Tražite li značenje nečega, sasvim je prikladno krenuti od rječnika. On donosi osjećaj reda u vrlo kaotičan svemir. Naše je razumijevanje toliko ograničeno da moramo osmisliti obrasce i skraćenice te iznaći načine da ih interpretiramo i nastavimo živjeti. Trebamo riječi da bismo se uobličili, da bismo se definirali.
I think a lot of us feel boxed in by how we use these words. We forget that words are made up. It's not just my words. All words are made up, but not all of them mean something. We're all just sort of trapped in our own lexicons that don't necessarily correlate with people who aren't already like us, and so I think I feel us drifting apart a little more every year, the more seriously we take words.
Mislim da se većina nas osjeća sputanima onime kako koristimo riječi. Zaboravljamo da su riječi izmišljene. Ne samo moje riječi. Sve su riječi izmišljene, ali ne znače i sve nešto. Svi smo mi nekako zarobljeni u vlastitim rječnicima koji nužno ne koreliraju s ljudima koji već nisu poput nas, pa mi se čini da osjećam kako se svake godine sve više udaljavamo što ozbiljnije doživljavamo riječi.
Because remember, words are not real. They don't have meaning. We do.
Jer, upamtite, riječi nisu stvarne. One nemaju značenja. Mi ih imamo.
And I'd like to leave you with a reading from one of my favorite philosophers, Bill Watterson, who created "Calvin and Hobbes." He said, "Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. To invent your own life's meaning is not easy, but it is still allowed, and I think you'll be happier for the trouble."
Prije no što vas napustim, volio bih vam pročitati jednog od mojih najdražih filozofa, Billa Wattersona, autora "Calvina i Hobbesa." On je rekao: "Stvoriti život koji odražava vaše vrijednosti i udovoljava vašoj duši rijetko je postignuće. Osmisliti vlastiti život nije lako, ali još je uvijek dopušteno, i mislim da ćete biti sretniji potrudite li se."
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)