[Oliver Jeffers]
[Oliver Jeffers]
[Oda a la vida a la Terra]
[An ode to living on Earth]
Hola. Estic segur que quan arribi al final d'aquesta frase, de la manera com parlo jo, haureu deduït que vinc d'un lloc anomenat planeta Terra. La Terra és genial. És la nostra casa. I la dels microbis. Aquests [piiip] els deixarem per un altre moment, perquè, si bé costa creure-ho, hi ha més coses a la Terra.
Hello. I'm sure by the time I get to end of this sentence, given how I talk, you'll all have figured out that I'm from a place called planet Earth. Earth is pretty great. It's home to us. And germs. Those [blip] take a back seat for the time being, because believe it or not, they're not the only thing going on.
Aquest planeta també té cotxes, cols de Brussel·les, aquests peixos estranys que tenen llums, l'art, el foc, els extintors, lleis, coloms, botelles de cervesa, llimones i bombetes, Pinot noir i paracetamol, fantasmes, mosquits, flamencs, flors, l'ukelele, ascensors i gats, vídeos de gats, internet, bigues de ferro, edificis i piles, ingenuïtat i idees brillants, tota la vida coneguda, i moltes coses més. Bàsicament, tot el que coneixem que existeix. És el meu lloc favorit. Aquesta petita esfera, que flota en una part del cosmos solitària i freda. Tinc accent de Belfast, i Belfast és... aquí! Aproximadament.
This planet is also home to cars, brussels sprouts; those weird fish things that have their own headlights; art, fire, fire extinguishers, laws, pigeons, bottles of beer, lemons and light bulbs; Pinot noir and paracetamol; ghosts, mosquitoes, flamingos, flowers, the ukulele, elevators and cats, cat videos, the internet; iron beams, buildings and batteries, all ingenuity and bright ideas, all known life ... and a whole bunch of other stuff. Pretty much everything we know and ever heard of. It's my favorite place, actually. This small orb, floating in a cold and lonely part of the cosmos. Oh, the accent is from Belfast, by the way, which is ... here. Roughly.
Potser us penseu que coneixeu la Terra perquè sou d'aquí. Però probablement, fa temps que no heu pensat en coses bàsiques. Jo pensava que la coneixia. Jo pensava que era un expert. Fins que vaig haver d'explicar tot el planeta i com funciona, a una persona que mai no hi havia estat. No és el que us penseu, encara que el meu pare sempre em deia que la prova de la vida intel·ligent és que no s'han molestat a contactar-nos. Era el meu fill nadó a qui volia explicar-li. No havíem estat mai pares, la meva dona i jo, així que el tractàvem com un convidat quan va arribar a casa, i li vam ensenyar la casa. Aquí viuràs tu, fill. Aquí és on fem el menjar. Aquí és on tenim cadires, i així tot. És molt divertit explicar com funciona el teu planeta a algú de zero anys. Però després de la diversió i conscient de tenir un nou humà que no sap absolutament res, i conscient que vosaltres tampoc no en sabeu massa més, explicar tot el planeta és una tasca que imposa. Però m'hi vaig posar.
You may think you know this planet Earth, as you're from here. But chances are, you probably haven't thought about the basics in a while. I thought I knew it. Thought I was an expert, even. Until, that is, I had to explain the entire place, and how it's supposed to work, to someone who had never been here before. Not what you might think, although my dad always did say the sure sign of intelligent life out there is that they haven't bothered trying to contact us. It was actually my newborn son I was trying to explain things to. We'd never been parents before, my wife and I, and so treated him like most guests when he arrived home for the first time, by giving him the tour. This is where you live, son. This room is where we make food at. This is the room we keep our collection of chairs, and so on. It's refreshing, explaining how our planet works to a zero-year-old. But after the laughs, and once the magnitude that new humans know absolutely nothing settles on you and how little you know either, explaining the whole planet becomes quite intimidating. But I tried anyway.
Mentre passejava amb ell les primeres setmanes, explicant el món que veia, prenia nota de totes les bestieses que deia. Aquestes notes van prendre la forma d'una carta adreçada al meu fill quan comenci a llegir. I de la carta, a un llibre sobre els principis bàsics del significat de ser un humà que viu a la Terra en el segle XXI. Algunes coses semblen evidents. El planeta es divideix en dues parts: terra i mar. Algunes menys evidents fins que les penses bé. El temps, per exemple. Les coses es mouen lentament aquí a la Terra. Però sovint es mouen ràpidament, així que has d'usar bé el temps, perquè fuig. O la gent. Hi ha gent de tots tipus, mides i colors. Tots som diferents, actuem diferent i sonem diferent. Però no us enganyeu. Tots som persones.
As I walked around those first few weeks, narrating the world as I saw it, I began to take notes of the ridiculous things I was saying. The notes slowly morphed into a letter intended for my son once he learned to read. And that letter became a book about the basic principles of what it is to be a human living on Earth in the 21st century. Some things are really obvious. Like, the planet is made of two parts: land and sea. Some less obvious until you think about them. Like, time. Things can sometimes move slowly here on Earth. But more often, they move quickly. So use your time well, it will be gone before you know it. Or people. People come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. We may all look different, act different and sound different, but don't be fooled. We are all people.
De tots els llocs de l'univers només hi ha gent a la Terra i només poden viure a la Terra, i a sobre, només en llocs sense aigua. Només hi ha una petita part de la superfície de la Terra habitable per als humans i atapeïts aquí és on tots vivim. És fàcil oblidar quan estàs tan a prop del sòl, les roques, els boscos, el formigó que trepitgem, que tenim un espai limitat per maniobrar. Mirant des d'uns ulls propers al sòl, l'horitzó sembla infinit. No fem cada dia un ritual valorant el lloc que ocupem en el nostre planeta, i quin lloc en l'espai ocupa la Terra.
It doesn't skip me that of all the places in the universe, people only live on Earth, can only live on Earth. And even then, only on some of the dry bits. There's only a very small part of the surface of our planet that is actually habitable to human life, and squeezed in here is where all of us live. It's easy to forget when you're up close to the dirt, the rocks, the foliage, the concrete of our lands, just how limited the room for maneuvering is. From a set of eyes close to the ground, the horizon feels like it goes forever. After all, it's not an every-day ritual to consider where we are on the ball of our planet and where that ball is in space.
No vull explicar al meu fill les mateixes històries de països que m'explicaven a mi a Irlanda del nord. Que érem d'un petit poblet que ignora la vida més enllà de les nostres coses. Jo intentava sentir què significa veure la Terra com un sistema, com un objecte individual, penjat a l'espai. Per aconseguir-ho, necessitava canviar els dibuixos plans dels llibres per escultures 3D del carrer, i necessitava uns 60 metres, un bloc de pisos a Nova York, i construir un model a gran escala de la Lluna, la Terra i les persones.
I didn't want to tell my son the same story of countries that we were told where I was growing up in Northern Ireland. That we were from just a small parish, which ignores life outside its immediate concerns. I wanted to try to feel what it was like to see our planet as one system, as a single object, hanging in space. To do this, I would need to switch from flat drawings for books to 3D sculpture for the street, and I'd need almost 200 feet, a New York City block, to build a large-scale model of the moon, the Earth and us.
Aquest projecte es va materialitzar en un parc de Nova York l'hivern passat, en el 50 aniversari de la missió de l'Apolo 11 a la Lluna. Després de la instal·lació, vaig poder posar-me un casc espacial amb el meu fill i enlairar-me com ho va fer l'Apolo 11 fa mig segle cap a la Lluna. Fèiem tombs al seu voltant i ens vèiem. Vaig sentir que estava molt sol a la foscor. Però dissimulava perquè no es notés. La Lluna és l'únic objecte més proper a nosaltres. I en aquesta escala del projecte, amb una Terra de 3 metres de diàmetre, Mart, el següent, té la mida d'una pilota de yoga, i està a més de 3 kilòmetres.
This project managed to take place on New York City's High Line park last winter, on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's mission around the Moon. After its installation, I was able to put on a space helmet with my son and launch, like Apollo 11 did half a century ago, towards the Moon. We circled around and looked back at us. What I felt was how lonely it was there in the dark. And I was just pretending. The Moon is the only object even remotely close to us. And at the scale of this project, where our planet was 10 feet in diameter, Mars, the next planet, will be the size of a yoga ball and a couple of miles away.
Si bé no veiem fronteres des de l'espai, a la meva escultura vaig marcar totes les fronteres. Però en comptes d'escriure noms de països, hi vaig escriure molts cops, "aquí viu gent, aquí viu gent". "Aquí viu gent". I en la Lluna, vaig escriure, "No hi viu ningú aquí". Sovint, les coses òbvies no són tan òbvies fins que les penses.
Although borders are not visible from space, on my sculpture, every single border was drawn in. But rather than writing the country names on the carved-up land, I wrote over and over again, "people live here, people live here." "People live here." And off on the Moon, it was written, "No one lives here." Often, the obvious things aren't all that obvious until you think about them.
Veure les coses des d'una distància prou gran ho canvia tot. Això ho saben els astronautes. I l'ull humà només ha vist la nostra Terra des de la Lluna, com a molt lluny. És bastant lluny abans d'arribar als extrems del sistema solar. I molt lluny d'altres estrelles o altres constel·lacions, només hi ha un punt en tot el cosmos que està present en totes les constel·lacions d'estrelles, i aquesta presència és el planeta Terra. Aquestes fotografies de grups d'estrelles només tenen sentit des d'aquest punt de vista. Aquestes coses només tenen sentit a la Terra. I només per nosaltres. Les persones. Som criatures d'històries. Som les històries que expliquem, som les històries que ens expliquen.
Seeing anything from a vast enough distance changes everything, as many astronauts have experienced. And human eyes have only ever seen our Earth from as far as the Moon, really. It's quite a ways further before we get to the edges of our own Solar System. And even out to other stars, to the constellations. There is actually only one point in the entire cosmos that is present in all constellations of stars, and that presence is here, planet Earth. Those pictures we have made up for the clusters of stars only make sense from this point of view down here. Their stories only make sense here on Earth. And only something to us. To people. We are creatures of stories. We are the stories we tell, we're the stories we're told.
Penseu en la història de la civilització humana. Són històries d'enginy, elegància, generositat i de cuidar la natura d'una espècie, egoista, vulnerable i protectora. Nosaltres, les persones, protegim la flama de la nostra vida dels elements que no controlem, de la grandiositat del més enllà. I sempre ens centrem en la nostra vida. "Pel que nosaltres sabem" quan ho diem, significa la suma total de tots els coneixements. Però en un altre sentit, "pel que nosaltres sabem", significa que no sabem res. Aquest és el bonic i fràgil drama de la civilització. Som actors i espectadors d'un joc còsmic que ho és tot per nosaltres, però no vol dir res a altres llocs. Potser no signifiqui res aquí tampoc.
Consider briefly the story of human civilization on Earth. It tells of the ingenuity, elegance, generous and nurturing nature of a species that is also self-focused, vulnerable and defiantly protective. We, the people, shield the flame of our existence from the raw, vast elements outside our control, the great beyond. Yet it is always to the flame we look. "For all we know," when said as a statement, it means the sum total of all knowledge. But when said another way, "for all we know," it means that we do not know at all. This is the beautiful, fragile drama of civilization. We are the actors and spectators of a cosmic play that means the world to us here, but means nothing anywhere else. Possibly not even that much down here, either.
Si pensem en la nostra relació amb el nostre vaixell, amb la nostra Terra, podria ser una història d'ignorància i ambició. Com en el cas de Faust, un home que pensava que ho posseïa tot, i va començar a estudiar què posseïa. Deia que posseïa una flor, una ovella, un arbre i un camp. Els llacs i muntanyes són difícils de conquerir, però finalment es rendeixen. Però quan intentava conquerir el mar la seva cobdícia li demostra el seu error, quan, en un atac d'arrogància, es llença al mar per demostrar-li qui mana. Però no ho comprèn, i s'escola per les onades, i s'enfonsa. El mar estava trist però seguia sent el mar. I també tots els altres objectes que ell posseïa, perquè el destí de Faust no els importa gens.
If we truly thought about our relationship with our boat, with our Earth, it might be more of a story of ignorance and greed. As is the case with Fausto, a man who believed he owned everything and set out to survey what was his. He easily claims ownership of a flower, a sheep, a tree and a field. The lake and the mountain prove harder to conquer, but they, too, surrender. It is in trying to own the open sea where his greed proves his undoing, when, in a fit of arrogance, he climbs overboard to show that sea who is boss. But he does not understand, slips beneath the waves, sinks to the bottom. The sea was sad for him but carried on being the sea. As do all the other objects of his ownership, for the fate of Fausto does not matter to them.
Tant que ens pensem que som importants al cosmos, no tindríem res si no fos per la Terra. La Terra seguiria rodant, evidentment, sense nosaltres.
For all the importance in the cosmos we believe we hold, we'd have nothing if not for this Earth. While it would keep happily spinning, obliviously without us.
En aquest planeta, hi viu gent. Anem passant els dies, de vegades mirem amunt i cap a fora sovint mirem cap a baix i cap a dins. Quan mirem amunt i dibuixem línies entre els punts del cel, intentem entendre el caos. Quan mirem cap baix, marquem línies a la terra per saber on pertanyem i on no. Ens oblidem que aquestes línies que connecten estrelles i les línies que divideixen la terra només estan al nostre cap. També són històries. Nosaltres fem la nostra vida rutinària i ritual segons les històries que creiem, i ara, la història canvia a mesura que l'escrivim.
On this planet, there are people. We have gone about our days, sometimes we look up and out, mostly we look down and in. Looking up and by drawing lines between the lights in the sky, we've attempted to make sense out of chaos. Looking down, we've drawn lines across the land to know where we belong and where we don't. We do mostly forget that these lines that connect the stars and those lines that divide the land live only in our heads. They, too, are stories. We carry out our everyday routines and rituals according to the stories we most believe in, and these days, the story is changing as we write it.
Hi ha molta por en aquesta història actual i fins fa poc, les històries que semblaven més punyents són les més amargues, sobre coses que no ens han anat bé com individus i com a col·lectiu. Resulta edificant veure com el millor sorgeix del pitjor. Com la gent ens despertem en temps de consciència global i adonar-nos que les nostres connexions són les coses més importants que tenim.
There is a lot of fear in this current story, and until recently, the stories that seemed to have the most power are those of bitterness, of how it had all gone wrong for us individually and collectively. It has been inspiring to watch how the best comes from the worst. How people are waking up in this time of global reckoning to the realization that our connections with each other are some of the most important things we have.
Però anem enrere. Malgrat les coses dolentes, passem molt poc temps buscant allò que és més important i que sempre ens ha funcionat. Que existim, que estem vius. Que encara estem vius. Un milió d'anys i mig més tard després de descobrir el foc, no ho hem cremat tot. Encara. Les possibilitats d'estar aquí són molt poques. Però aquí estem. Contra tot pronòstic.
But stepping back. For all we've had to lament, we spend very little time relishing the single biggest thing that has ever gone right for us. That we are here in the first place, that we are alive at all. That we are still alive. A million and a half years after finding a box of matches, we haven't totally burned the house down. Yet. The chances of being here are infinitesimal. Yet here we are. Perils and all.
Som més gent a la Terra que mai abans. Utilitzem molts recursos. I és evident que molts sistemes antics que vam inventar nosaltres han quedat obsolets. N'hem de construir de nous. Si no fos pels microbis, el nostre foc col·lectiu aviat s'apagaria. Quan veiem que es van aturant els engranatges de la indústria, la maquinària del progrés emmudeix, i tenim la millor oportunitat per premer el botó del reset. Podem anar per un altre camí.
There have never been more people living on Earth. Using more stuff. And it's become obvious that many of the old systems we invented for ourselves are obsolete. And we have to build new ones. If it wasn't germs, our collective fire might suffocate us before long. As we watch the wheels of industry grind to a halt, the machinery of progress become silent, we have the wildest of opportunities to hit the reset button. To take a different path.
Aquí estem, a la Terra. I la vida a la Terra és meravellosa. És grandiosa, però som moltes persones. Set bilions i mig de persones, diuen, i cada dia som més. Tot i així, encara n'hi ha prou per tothom, si tots donem una mica. Si us plau, siguem benèvols.
Here we are on Earth. And life on Earth is a wonderful thing. It looks big, this Earth, but there are lots of us on here. Seven and a half billion at last count, with more showing up every day. Even so, there is still enough for everyone, if we all share a little. So please, be kind.
Quan pensem d'una altra manera, si la Terra és l'únic lloc on pot viure gent, és realment el lloc menys solitari de l'univers. Hi ha molta gent que ens pot estimar i molta per estimar. Ens necessitem. Ho sabem, ara més que mai.
When you think of it another way, if Earth is the only place where people live, it's actually the least lonely place in the universe. There are plenty of people to be loved by and plenty of people to love. We need each other. We know that now, more than ever.
Bona nit.
Good night.