Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life
ジョシュア・プレーガー: 100年の人生を1年ずつ綴る ―偉大な作家の叡智から
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,
なる気がします
予感がしています
particular in store for me,
あるわけではなく
本で読んだからです
1968年に書いた本です
自分の年齢を実感した」
一人の人間たるための
and sentiment to be a man,
実体として具現化したかのようだった
wasn't writing about me.
書いたものではありませんが
the subject of his book,
『夜の軍隊』の主人公も 誰もが
along the same great sequence:
同じように経験します
and confinements of childhood;
束縛される子供時代
and frustrations of adolescence;
思い通りにならない思春期
and millstones of adulthood;
責任の重圧がかかる成人期
and resignations of old age.
諦観に至る晩年
"It will happen to me as to them."
「人に起くるが如く我にも起くる」です
生きるだけではなく
where they become narratives
物語が作られ
世に知られるわけです
教えてくれます
if it passes into anything."
本のページである」
a thought leapt to mind:
ふと思いつきました
there were, somewhere,
きっとどこかに
書かれているはず
assemble them into a narrative.
1つの物語が組み立てられるかもしれない
1つの人生になり
年月の全体像を
wrote William Trevor.
ウィリアム・トレヴァーは書きました
よく考えに耽っていました
and later an injury to me
自分が怪我をした経験からも
could not be assumed.
とっくに理解していました
only postponed the inevitable,
不可避である死を延期するに過ぎず
what circumstance did not.
見ていくだけ—
気が滅入りそうでした
後世に残ります
year by vulnerable year
年代記として綴ることで
what was fleeting,
繋ぎとめておくことができ
a glimpse into the future,
かかわらず
I was quickly obsessed,
のめり込んでいき
for ages and ages.
本を何冊も何冊も読み漁りました
through our first hundred years.
全年齢が集まりました
of sudden revelations,"
突然 啓示を受ける歳」
かすかに後退気味になる歳」
that such insights were relative.
相対的であることは承知でした
and so age more slowly.
老化は昔よりもゆっくり起こります
the phrase "the yellow leaf"
「枯れ葉」という言葉で
同じ言葉を
used it to describe himself at 36.
36歳の自身に対して使っていました
can swing wildly and unpredictably
大きく揺れ動き
様変わりしうることや
the same age differently.
人それぞれであることも承知の上でした
as the reflection in the mirror,
鏡に映っているかのように
形になって見えてきました
and less sure of who one is;"
ますますわからなくなる歳」
of preparation into active life;"
人生が活発になる歳」
the doors to rooms
ミルトン・グレイザーは—
visualizations you see here,
作った方ですが—
and an apotheosis," wrote Nabokov --
「熟成され 頂点にある」年齢です
アートや色彩と同じように
what we've experienced.
記憶できるのだとのこと
the list with my grandfather,
祖父に見せたら
頷いていました
死が身近にありましたが
言葉を借りれば
でもあります
we are sure we will not die,
というプルーストの言葉も尤もだが
named Edwin Shneidman was right
エドウィン・シュナイドマンの言葉—
も正しいと
ということ
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