Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life
Joshua Prager: La sabiduría de los grandes escritores en todas las etapas de la vida
Joshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
is going to be a very good year,
va a ser un año muy bueno,
particular in store for me,
me depara algo particular,
cuarenta y cuatro..."
"Los ejércitos de la noche",
y el sentimiento de ser un hombre,
and sentiment to be a man,
wasn't writing about me.
the subject of his book,
el tema de su libro,
along the same great sequence:
la misma gran secuencia:
y confinamientos de la infancia;
and confinements of childhood;
and frustrations of adolescence;
y frustraciones de la adolescencia;
and millstones of adulthood;
and resignations of old age.
y renuncias de la vejez.
"It will happen to me as to them."
"Me sucederá a mí, como a ellos".
where they become narratives
en los que se vuelven narrativas,
if it passes into anything."
si es que pasa a alguna cosa".
a thought leapt to mind:
un pensamiento a la mente:
there were, somewhere,
hubo, en algún lugar,
assemble them into a narrative.
las ensamblaría en una narrativa.
wrote William Trevor.
escribió William Trevor.
sobre el tiempo y la edad.
and later an injury to me
y más tarde una lesión personal
could not be assumed.
no era algo que podía asumirse.
only postponed the inevitable,
solo postergaba lo inevitable,
what circumstance did not.
lo que la circunstancia no vio.
year by vulnerable year
año tras año vulnerable
what was fleeting,
lo que era fugaz,
a glimpse into the future,
una mirada hacia el futuro,
I was quickly obsessed,
rápidamente me obsesioné,
durante días y días.
for ages and ages.
through our first hundred years.
en nuestros primeros cien años.
of sudden revelations,"
de revelaciones repentinas",
... de disminuciones sutiles".
that such insights were relative.
que tales ideas fueran relativas.
and so age more slowly.
y por eso envejecemos más lentamente.
the phrase "the yellow leaf"
la frase "la hoja amarilla"
used it to describe himself at 36.
la usara para describirse a los 36 años.
can swing wildly and unpredictably
oscilar violenta e impredeciblemente
la misma edad de forma diferente.
the same age differently.
as the reflection in the mirror,
clara como el reflejo en el espejo,
yo había estado viviendo:
and less sure of who one is;"
está menos seguro de lo que es;"
of preparation into active life;"
la preparación a la vida activa";
the doors to rooms
las puertas de las habitaciones,
visualizations you see here,
and an apotheosis," wrote Nabokov --
y una apoteosis", escribió Nabokov,
como el arte y el color,
lo que hemos experimentado.
what we've experienced.
the list with my grandfather,
la lista con mi abuelo,
próximo a morir,
we are sure we will not die,
estamos seguros de que no vamos a morir,
named Edwin Shneidman was right
llamado Edwin Shneidman,
de que lo haremos.
por las que pasar.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Prager - JournalistJoshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own.
Why you should listen
Joshua Prager writes for publications including Vanity Fair, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior writer for eight years. George Will has described his work as "exemplary journalistic sleuthing."
His new book, 100 Years, is a list of literary quotations on every age from birth to one hundred. Designed by Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer who created the I ♥ NY logo, the book moves year by year through the words of our most beloved authors, revealing the great sequence of life.
His first book, The Echoing Green, was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. The New York Times Book Review called it “a revelation and a page turner, a group character study unequaled in baseball writing since Roger Kahn’s Boys of Summer some three decades ago.”
His second book, Half-Life, describes his recovery from a bus crash that broke his neck. Dr. Jerome Groopman, staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, called it “an extraordinary memoir, told with nuance and brimming with wisdom.
Joshua was a Nieman fellow at Harvard in 2011 and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Hebrew University in 2012. He was born in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, grew up in New Jersey, and lives in New York. He is writing a book about Roe v. Wade.
Joshua Prager | Speaker | TED.com