Joseph Brodsky. Try to respect life. From "On Grief and Reason."

- Speech at the stadium
Speech at the stadium
Author: Joseph Brodsky
Source: Internet resource remarka.lv

"Life is a game with many rules, but without the referee. We learn how to play it, rather watching her, rather than coping in a book, including the Holy Scriptures. It is therefore not surprising that so many people play fair, so few win, so many lose.

In any case, if this place is the University of Michigan, Ann arbor, Michigan, that I remember, one can safely assume that you, its graduates, even fewer are familiar with the Scripture, than those who was sitting at the stands, say, sixteen years ago, when I dared to tread on this field for the first time.

For my eyes, ears and nose, and this place still Ann arbor; it is blue - or seems to be blue - as Ann arbor; it smells like Ann arbor (though I must admit that in the air now less of marijuana than it did before, and this for a moment plunges into embarrassed by their old annarbortsa). Thus, it looks Ann Arborom, where I spent part of my life - the best of, I think, of where sixteen years ago, your predecessors knew almost nothing about the Bible.

When I think of my colleagues as I am aware of what is happening with the University's educational programs throughout the country, when I am aware of the pressure that the so-called modern world has on the people, I feel nostalgic for those who were sitting in your chairs dozen or so years ago, because some of them at least could quote the ten commandments, and some even remember the names of the seven deadly sins. But stewardship of these precious knowledge and subsequently how succeeded in the game, I have no idea. I can only hope that eventually people richer, if he follows the rules and taboos, established someone completely inaccessible to touch, and not only criminal code.

As you likely early to summarize and because prosperity and a decent environment - something that you seem to strive, to you it wouldn't hurt to learn these commandments and the list of sins. A total of seventeen, and some of them overlap. Of course, you can argue that they belong to a creed, with a significant tradition of violence. All the same, if we talk about beliefs, this seems to be the most tolerant; she deserves your consideration if only because that has spawned a society in which you have a right to question or deny it all value.

But I'm not here to extol the virtues of a particular faith or philosophy, and I don't get pleasure, as, probably, many of the opportunities subjected modern education system, or you, the alleged victims. First, I don't think of you as such. Secondly, in certain areas of your knowledge immeasurably more than I or any member of my generation. I see you as a group of young rationally selfish shower on the eve of the very long journey. I shudder at the thought of his length and ask myself than I could be useful to you. Whether I know something about life that could help you or have meaning to you, and if I know something, is there a way to pass this information to you?

The answer to the first question, I think, «Yes» - not so much because of the person of my age are supposed to be more crafty than any of you in chess existence, but because it is likely tired from the mass of things to which you only want. (One this fatigue is something that the young should be warned as the concomitant precincts and their complete success, and their destruction; this kind of knowledge can increase the pleasure from the first, and brighten up the latter.) Regarding the second issue, I, to tell the truth, in a quandary. An example of the above commandments may be confused about any naputstvuyuschego speaker, for they themselves were the ten commandments commencement speech, literally - zapovedaniem. But between generations there is a transparent wall, the iron curtain irony, if you will, visible through the veil, do not transmit almost no experience. In the best case, separate councils.

So consider what you are about to hear, just as tips tops of several of the iceberg, so to say, not to mount Sinai. I don't Moses, you're also not the old Testament Jews; these are some random sketches, scrawled in a yellow Notepad somewhere in California, not tablets. Ignore them, if you like, put them to a question if you want, forget them, if otherwise may not: there is nothing in them mandatory. If some of them now or in the future is useful to you, I'll be happy. If not, my anger will overtake you.

Старайтесь уважать жизнь. Joseph Brodsky.

- Старайтесь уважать жизнь - MediaPort:
...я отдаю себе отчёт в давлении, которое так называемый современный мир оказывает на молодёжь, я чувствую ностальгию по тем, кто сидел на ваших стульях десяток или около того лет назад, потому что некоторые из них по крайней мере могли процитировать десять заповедей, а иные даже помнили названия семи смертных грехов. Но как они распорядились этими драгоценными знаниями впоследствии и насколько преуспели в игре, я не имею никакого понятия. Я лишь могу надеяться, что в итоге человек богаче, если он руководствуется правилами и табу, установленными кем-то совершенно неосязаемым, а не только Уголовным кодексом.
...вам было бы невредно познакомиться с этими заповедями и перечнем грехов.
Их в общей сложности 17, и некоторые из них частично совпадают. Конечно, вы можете возразить, что они принадлежат вероучению со значительной традицией насилия. Всё же, если говорить о верах, эта представляется наиболее терпимой; она заслуживает вашего рассмотрения хотя бы потому, что породила общество, в котором у вас есть право подвергать сомнению или отрицать её ценность.
Пример вышеупомянутых заповедей может озадачить любого напутствующего оратора, ибо сами десять заповедей были напутственной речью, буквально — заповеданием. Но между поколениями существует прозрачная стена, железный занавес иронии, если угодно, видимая насквозь завеса, не пропускающая почти никакой опыт. В лучшем случае, отдельные советы.

Поэтому рассматривайте то, что вы сейчас услышите, просто как советы верхушки нескольких айсбергов, если так можно сказать, а не горы Синай. Я не Моисей, вы тоже не ветхозаветные евреи; эти немного беспорядочные наброски, нацарапанные в жёлтом блокноте где-то в Калифорнии, — не скрижали. Проигнорируйте их, если угодно, подвергните их сомнению, если необходимо, забудьте их, если иначе не можете: в них нет ничего обязательного. Если кое-что из них сейчас или в будущем вам пригодится, я буду рад. Если нет, мой гнев не настигнет вас.

Joseph Brodsky. Speech at the stadium.

Speech at the stadium
Author: Joseph Brodsky

Life is a game with many rules, but without the referee. We learn how to play it, rather watching her, rather than coping in a book, including the Holy Scriptures. It is therefore not surprising that so many people play fair, so few win, so many lose.

Joseph Brodsky.

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