Sarah Kay: How many lives can you live?
A performing poet since she was 14 years old, Sarah Kay is the founder of Project VOICE, an organization that uses spoken word poetry as a literacy and empowerment tool. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
The moon sees me.
that I don't see.
his laptop, his pager, his alarm clock.
asleep on his couch,
of coffee in the kitchen air.
العمل على مصادم الجسيمات.
stopped working on their particle machine.
إخراج القمامة متوتّر،
out the trash, is nervous,
a banana peel and a paper cup.
what this all mean for lost time.
are we losing per second?
can be launched?
flies off its energy cloud.
the table for dinner.
pulse against his wrist.
the pillowcase's sailing masts.
opens his eyes at once.
أروع وظيفة في العالم.
the most wonderful job in the world.
not understand the concept
أن بإمكاني أن أفعل
that I was going to get to do
based on age or gender
to actually experience
لحركة الحقوق المدنية
of the civil rights movement
خلال فترة "قصعة الغبار"
on a farm during the dust bowl
dynasty in China.
كان جوابي المعتاد:
my typical response was:
أحاول اختراع
is that I wasn't trying to invent
التي ظننت أنني سأكونها:
I was gonna get to be:
and an astronaut.
probably went on from there.
إذا كنت سأفعل شيئًا
of if I was gonna get to do something
to do everything,
to move pretty quickly,
of stuff I needed to do.
في حالة تعجّل مستمر.
in a state of rushing.
أتمكن من المواكبة.
that I was falling behind.
نيويورك، فعلي حد علمي،
in New York City, as far as I could tell,
this sinking realization,
any more than one life.
to be a teenage girl
في مدينة كانساس.
عيني فقط.
that I became obsessed with stories,
that I was able to see
حتى لو كانت قصصًا مختصرة أو ناقصة.
however briefly or imperfectly.
other people's experiences
حيوات كاملة
that there were entire lives
about everything that I was missing.
were never gonna get to experience
in New York city.
after your first kiss feels like,
بعد تساقط الثلوج.
I wanted to tell them.
أردت أن أخبرهم.
and sharing stories and collecting them.
I can't always rush poetry.
أن أتعجّل في كتابة الشعر.
there's this challenge
هناك تحدّي
community participate in,
for the entire month of April.
for the first time
في إنتاج الشعر.
at which I was able to produce poetry.
back at these 30 poems I had written
تفحّصت القصائد الثلاثين التي كتبتها
all trying to tell the same story,
لاكتشاف أفضل طريقة لسردها
out the way that it wanted to be told.
وحتى على نطاق أوسع.
of other stories on an even larger scale.
tried to tell for years,
وأبحث باستمرار عن الكلمات المناسبة.
searching for the right words.
by the name of Paul Valéry
finished, it is only abandoned.
وإعادة الصياغة للأبد
re-editing and rewriting forever
when a poem is finished
متي تنتهي القصيدة
my very obsessive nature
المثالية، والصياغة المناسبة.
and the perfect words and the right form.
وفهم الأشياء.
and work through things.
doesn't mean that I've solved
أنني قد حللت
where I was at that moment
over for years and years
قد وجدت الصياغة المثالية،
the prefect form,
كي أبحث عن طريقة أفضل لسردها.
in search of a better way to tell it.
this is where I was at this moment
في هذه اللحظة،
في هذه الغرفة، معكم.
in this room, with you.
to get your hands dirty.
for most of it, fumbling was a given.
ففي أغلب الأحيان يكون التعثر مؤكدًا.
contrast, more saturation,
والمزيد من التشبّع،
امتدت حتى معصمك.
chemicals, longer up to your wrist.
with his sleeves rolled up,
the sailor man come to life.
بابتسامة متكلفة وهواية.
with a smirk and a hobby.
much about photography,
Europe like a map,
من ارتفاع طائرة مقاتلة،
of a fighter plane,
read his way home.
they would put their weapons out to rest,
معه إلى المنزل.
and the cameras home with him.
into a family affair.
المطلي بالأبيض والأسود.
world of black and white.
والحركات الدقيقة
the tiny clicks and slides
والفيلم في الكاميرا،
but not the art.
لكنه لم يعرف الفن.
وأمضي وقته في تتبّع الضوء.
spent his time following light.
ليتتبّع حريقًا في الغابة،
to follow a forest fire,
إلا من خلال الصوَر.
I only recognize from photographs.
الذي تصدر ممراته صريرًا،
with the creaky hallways,
حوائط بيضاء وأرضيات باردة.
white walls and cold floors.
before she was mother.
all the way up to the ceiling,
an 8x10 bed enlarger
مصنّعة حسب الطلب ومكبّر 10x8
by a giant hand crank,
in and out from the wall.
with basketball hands,
ببالونات حمراء ومثلّجات صفراء.
with red balloons and yellow icing.
without freckles,
في منازل أصدقائها،
did not have darkrooms in their houses,
hair and bubble gum cheeks.
in that house near the park.
the sweet potato boy,
والأم ذات الغرفة المعتمة
and said their prayers,
منزلًا تحت الرماد؛ لذا هربوا
became a house under ash, so they escaped
إلى غرف التحميض،
قد بُني لفنّان،
was built for an artist,
لا تحجب الصراخ،
do not hold in the yelling
put his weapons out to rest.
قد نحّي أسلحته جانبًا.
ولا خرائط ترشده إلى المنزل.
and no maps pointed home.
his fists into his mouth
went treasure hunting on her own.
للبحث عن الكنز بمفردها.
في مبني تصدر ممراته صريرًا،
with the creaky hallways
she found a note,
متروكة منذ زمن ما قبل الأبراج،
left over from a time before towers,
فتاة تعمل في الغرفة المعتمة".
the girl who works in the darkroom."
picked up a camera again.
من استخدام الكاميرا ثانيةً.
تتبّع أضواء عيد الميلاد،
the Christmas lights,
New York City's trees,
from out of the darkest darks.
تومض له من عمق أحلك الظلال.
ليتتبّع حريقًا في الغابة،
across the country to follow a forest fire
it with his camera,
in the margins of my notebook.
وكتبت قصيدةً في هوامش دفتري.
the art of embracing.
the art of letting go.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sarah Kay - PoetA performing poet since she was 14 years old, Sarah Kay is the founder of Project VOICE, an organization that uses spoken word poetry as a literacy and empowerment tool.
Why you should listen
Plenty of 14-year-old girls write poetry. But few hide under the bar of the famous Bowery Poetry Club in Manhattan’s East Village absorbing the talents of New York’s most exciting poets. Not only did Sarah Kay do that -- she also had the guts to take its stage and hold her own against performers at least a decade her senior. Her talent for weaving words into poignant, funny, and powerful performances paid off.
Sarah holds a Masters degree in the art of teaching from Brown University and an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Grinnell College. Her first book, B, was ranked the number one poetry book on Amazon.com. Her second book, No Matter the Wreckage, is available from Write Bloody Publishing.
Sarah also founded Project VOICE, an organization that uses spoken word poetry as a literacy and empowerment tool. Project VOICE runs performances and workshops to encourage people to engage in creative self-expression in schools and communities around the world.
Sarah Kay | Speaker | TED.com