Pico Iyer: What ping-pong taught me about life
بيكو إير: البينج بونج وأحجية النصر
Pico Iyer has spent more than 30 years tracking movement and stillness -- and the way criss-crossing cultures have changed the world, our imagination and all our relationships. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
are set up in a studio.
للعبة البينج بونج.
the balls collide in midair
we select partners and play doubles.
لنلعب مباريات زوجية.
tell you who's won,
every five minutes.
of who is winning games.
في المباريات.
of furious exertion,
without competition.
is best followed by watching ping-pong.
السياسة الجغرافية هي بمشاهدة البينج بونج.
were fiercest enemies
الأمريكي في عام 1972
some small green tables,
could breathe more easily.
"a spiritual nuclear weapon."
honorary lifelong member
this win-win situation
the bouncing white ball.
like a cousin of "sing-song,"
that it was invented by high-class Brits
أن نخبة البريطانيين ابتكروها،
over walls of books after dinner.
عبر حوائط من الكتب بعد العشاء.
from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire:
المجرية السابقة على هذه الرياضة:
early world championships
في بطولات العالم الأولى
that was hit at them
the whole sport to a standstill.
in Prague in 1936,
two hours and 12 minutes.
the umpire had to retire with a sore neck
اضطر الحكم للانسحاب برقبة متألمة
the ball back with his left hand
started, of course, filing out,
maybe 12,000 strokes.
the International Table Tennis Association
في رابطة البينج بونج الدولية
longer than 20 minutes.
Japan entered the picture,
watchmaker called Hiroji Satoh
غير معروف اسمه هيروجي ساتوا
in Bombay in 1952.
في بومباي في عام 1952.
he wasn't highly rated,
ولم يكن رفيع المستوى،
that was not pimpled,
secret weapon,
into the streets of Tokyo
was set into motion.
at my regular games in Japan,
أثناء مبارياتي العادية،
the inner sport of global domination,
للسيطرة على العالم،
we change partners every five minutes,
كل خمس دقائق،
you're very likely to win
that as a boy growing up in England,
of a game was to win.
that, really, the point of a game
قائلين بأن أهم شيء في المباراة
around you feel that they are winners.
as an individual might,
steady chorus.
a 9-1 lead for their team
من 9-1 لفريقهم
is intensely involved.
these high, looping lobs
but I think he's thought of as a loser.
أن الآخرين ينظرون إليه كخاسر.
is really like an act of love.
بمثابة تعبير عن الحب.
to take all the fun out of the sport.
كل متعة هذه الرياضة.
victory against our strongest players,
ضد أفضل لاعبينا،
with a new partner,
I never felt disconsolate.
and started playing singles again
مباريات فردية مجددًا،
I was really brokenhearted.
I couldn't sleep either,
only one way to go,
business in Japan,
after four hours,
are based on winning percentage,
can finish ahead
was ever brought over to Japan
رجل أمريكي إلى اليابان
Japanese baseball team,
second-place finish,
quite a lot like that point
مثل شعور تلك النقطة
two hours and 12 minutes,
the daring, the excitement, out of things.
في المباراة.
playing ping-pong in Japan
إن لعب البينج بونج في اليابان
regularly enjoy more fun
your small part perfectly,
a beautiful harmony
than the sum of its parts.
from a child's simple sense of either-ors.
من الحس الطفولي للاختيار.
of winning isn't losing --
for years after it has unfolded.
I owned in the world,
كل ما أملكه في هذا العالم،
that it was that seeming loss
لاحظت أن هذه الخسارة الظاهرية
on the earth more gently,
known as the ping-pong table.
بطاولة البينج بونج.
into the perfect job,
really relieves me of all my anxiety,
من التوتر.
in a more or less equal state of delight.
isn't the same thing as falling behind
is the same thing as being dead.
لا يعني أنك ميت.
are said to offer degrees in ping-pong,
في البينج بونج،
have found that ping-pong
with mild mental disorders
في 2020 في طوكيو،
to tell who's won or who's lost
for two hours and 12 minutes?
ended up, six years later,
بعد ست سنوات
of Auschwitz and Dachau.
his ping-pong playing days.
before even the first point was concluded.
قبل نهاية النقطة الأولى.
كل ليلة من أصل اثنتين،
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Pico Iyer - Global authorPico Iyer has spent more than 30 years tracking movement and stillness -- and the way criss-crossing cultures have changed the world, our imagination and all our relationships.
Why you should listen
In twelve books, covering everything from Revolutionary Cuba to the XIVth Dalai Lama, Islamic mysticism to our lives in airports, Pico Iyer has worked to chronicle the accelerating changes in our outer world, which sometimes make steadiness and rootedness in our inner world more urgent than ever. In his TED Book, The Art of Stillness, he draws upon travels from North Korea to Iran to remind us how to remain focused and sane in an age of frenzied distraction. As he writes in the book, "Almost everybody I know has this sense of overdosing on information and getting dizzy living at post-human speeds ... All of us instinctively feel that something inside us is crying out for more spaciousness and stillness to offset the exhilarations of this movement and the fun and diversion of the modern world."
Pico Iyer | Speaker | TED.com