ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Pico Iyer - Global author
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.

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."

More profile about the speaker
Pico Iyer | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2013

Pico Iyer: Where is home?

Pico Iyer: Ku eshte shtepia?

Filmed:
3,367,035 views

Gjithnjë e më shumë njerëz në mbarë botën janë duke jetuar në vende që nuk konsiderohen të tyret. Shkrimtari Pico Iyer - i cili ka tre ose katër "origjina" - mediton mbi kuptimin e shtëpisë, gëzimin e udhëtimit dhe qetësine qe te jep te qendruarit ne nje vend.
- Global author
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.

00:12
Where do you come from?
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Nga je me origjine?
00:14
It's such a simple question,
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Eshte nje pyetje shume e thjeshte,
00:16
but these days, of course, simple questions
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por ne ditet tona, pyetjet e thjeshta
00:18
bring ever more complicated answers.
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kerkojne pergjigje gjithnje e me te komplikuara.
00:21
People are always asking me where I come from,
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Njerezit gjithnje me pyesin se nga e kam origjinen,
00:24
and they're expecting me to say India,
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dhe presin qe une te them India,
00:28
and they're absolutely right insofar as 100 percent
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dhe kane te drejte, pasi 100 perqind
00:31
of my blood and ancestry does come from India.
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e gjakut dhe rrenjeve te mia jane Indiane.
00:34
Except, I've never lived one day of my life there.
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Perjashtuar faktin, qe une nuk kam jetuar as edhe nje dite ne Indi.
00:38
I can't speak even one word
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Nuk flas as edhe nje fjale
00:41
of its more than 22,000 dialects.
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prej me shume se 22,000 dialekteve indiane.
00:44
So I don't think I've really earned the right
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Pra, nuk mendoj se e kam fituar te drejten
00:46
to call myself an Indian.
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per ta quajtur veten time Indian.
00:48
And if "Where do you come from?"
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Po sikur "Nga vjen?"
00:50
means "Where were you born and raised and educated?"
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te nenkuptoje "Ku je lindur, rritur dhe edukuar?"
00:53
then I'm entirely of that funny little country
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atehere, une i bie te jem plotesisht prej atij vendi te vogel dhe shakaxhi
00:55
known as England,
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qe njihet si Anglia,
00:57
except I left England as soon as I completed
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perpos faktit qe u largova nga Anglia sapo perfundova
00:59
my undergraduate education,
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studimet e mia universitare,
01:01
and all the time I was growing up,
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dhe gjate gjithe kohes qe u rrita,
01:03
I was the only kid in all my classes
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isha i vetmi femije ne klase
01:06
who didn't begin to look like the classic English heroes
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qe nuk shembellente aspak si heronjte klasike angleze
01:09
represented in our textbooks.
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qe sheh neper tekstet shkollore.
01:11
And if "Where do you come from?"
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Dhe, nese "Nga vjen?"
01:13
means "Where do you pay your taxes?
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nenkupton "Ku i paguan taksat?"
01:14
Where do you see your doctor and your dentist?"
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"Ku shkon te doktori dhe dentisti?"
01:17
then I'm very much of the United States,
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atehere jam nga Shtetet e Bashkuara,
01:19
and I have been for 48 years now,
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ku jetoj prej 48 vitesh tashme,
01:22
since I was a really small child.
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qe kur isha kalama.
01:24
Except, for many of those years,
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Perjashtuar, ato shume vite,
01:26
I've had to carry around this funny little pink card
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kur me eshte dashur te mbaj me vete kete karten e vogel roze
01:28
with green lines running through my face
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me shirita jeshile qe pershkruajne fytyren time
01:30
identifying me as a permanent alien.
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qe me identifikonte si rezident i huaj.
01:33
I do actually feel more alien the longer I live there.
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Ne fakt, sa me shume qendroj ketu aq me teper i huaj ndihem.
01:37
(Laughter)
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(Te qeshura)
01:39
And if "Where do you come from?"
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Dhe, nese "Nga vjen?"
01:41
means "Which place goes deepest inside you
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do te thote "Cili vend i ka rrenjet me te thella brenda teje
01:44
and where do you try to spend most of your time?"
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dhe ku perpiqesh te kalosh me te shumten e kohes tende?"
01:47
then I'm Japanese,
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atehere jam Japonez,
01:48
because I've been living as much as I can
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sepse jam perpjekur te jetoj sa me shume te mundem
01:50
for the last 25 years in Japan.
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keto 25 vitet e fundit ne Japoni.
01:53
Except, all of those years I've been there on a tourist visa,
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Perjashtuar, ato vite ku kam qene atje me nje vize turisti,
01:57
and I'm fairly sure not many Japanese
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dhe nuk jam shume i sigurt qe shume Japoneze
01:59
would want to consider me one of them.
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do deshironin te me konsideronin njerin prej tyre.
02:02
And I say all this just to stress
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I thashe te gjitha keto thjesht per ti meshuar faktit
02:05
how very old-fashioned and straightforward
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qe sa demode dhe i drejtperdrejte
02:08
my background is,
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eshte origjina ime,
02:09
because when I go to Hong Kong or Sydney or Vancouver,
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pasi kur shkoj ne Hong Kong ose Sidnei ose Vankuver,
02:13
most of the kids I meet
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pjesa me e madhe e atyre qe njoh
02:14
are much more international and multi-cultured than I am.
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jane shume me internacional dhe multi-kulturor sesa une.
02:18
And they have one home associated with their parents,
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Ato kane nje shtepi qe lidhet me prinderit e tyre,
02:21
but another associated with their partners,
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nje tjeter qe lidhet me partnerin e tyre,
02:24
a third connected maybe with the place where they happen to be,
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nje tjeter qe eshte ajo e vendit ku jetojne,
02:28
a fourth connected with the place they dream of being,
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nje e katert lidhur me vendin ku ato enderrojne te jetojne,
02:30
and many more besides.
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dhe shume e shume te tjera.
02:33
And their whole life will be spent taking pieces
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Dhe te gjithe jeten do ta shpenzojne duke marre copeza
02:36
of many different places and putting them together
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nga shume vende te ndryshme dhe ngjitur te gjitha bashke
02:40
into a stained glass whole.
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si nje e plote qelqi te ngjyrosur.
02:42
Home for them is really a work in progress.
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Shtepia per ta eshte ne te vertete nje pune e vazhdueshme.
02:45
It's like a project on which they're constantly adding
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Eshte si nje projekt ku ato shtojne vazhdimisht
02:47
upgrades and improvements and corrections.
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permiresime dhe korigjime.
02:51
And for more and more of us,
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Dhe per gjithnje me shume prej nesh,
02:52
home has really less to do with a piece of soil
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toka ka pak te beje me nje grusht dhe'
02:57
than, you could say, with a piece of soul.
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sesa, mund te thuash, me nje copez shpirt.
03:00
If somebody suddenly asks me, "Where's your home?"
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Nese dikush papritur me pyet, "Ku eshte shtepia jote?"
03:02
I think about my sweetheart or my closest friends
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Mendja me shkon tek e dashura ose shoku im i ngushte
03:05
or the songs that travel with me wherever I happen to be.
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ose kenget qe udhetojne me mua ngado qe une shkoj.
03:09
And I'd always felt this way,
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Keshtu jam ndjere perhera,
03:11
but it really came home to me, as it were,
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Por shtepia erdhi tek une,
03:14
some years ago when I was climbing up the stairs
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disa vite me pare tek po ngjisja shkallet
03:17
in my parents' house in California,
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e shtepise se prinderve ne Kaliforni,
03:19
and I looked through the living room windows
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dhe teksa veshtrova jashte dritareve te dhomes se ndenjes
03:22
and I saw that we were encircled by 70-foot flames,
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vura re qe ishim rrethuar nga flake 20 metra te larta,
03:27
one of those wildfires that regularly tear through
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te njerit prej zjarreve qe shpesh formohen ne kodrat
03:30
the hills of California and many other such places.
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e Kalifornise dhe vende te tjera te ketilla.
03:34
And three hours later, that fire had reduced
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Dhe pas tre oresh, zjarri e kish kthyer shtepine time
03:37
my home and every last thing in it
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dhe gjithcka tjeter ne te,
03:39
except for me to ash.
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pervec meje, ne hi.
03:42
And when I woke up the next morning,
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Kur u zgjova te nesermen,
03:45
I was sleeping on a friend's floor,
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po flija ne dyshemene e nje miku,
03:47
the only thing I had in the world was a toothbrush
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e vetmja gje qe kisha ne ato momente ishte nje furce dhembesh
03:49
I had just bought from an all-night supermarket.
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qe sapo kisha blere ne nje supermarket 24 oresh.
03:52
Of course, if anybody asked me then,
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Patjeter, nqse dikush do te me pyeste atehere,
03:54
"Where is your home?"
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"Ku eshte shtepia jote?"
03:55
I literally couldn't point to any physical construction.
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do ta kisha te pamundur te tregoja ndonje objekt fizik.
03:59
My home would have to be whatever I carried around inside me.
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Shtepia ime do te ishte gjithcka kisha brenda meje.
04:04
And in so many ways, I think this is a terrific liberation.
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Dhe ne nje fare menyre, mendoj se kjo eshte nje liri e mrekullueshme.
04:08
Because when my grandparents were born,
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Sepse, kur gjysherit e mi erdhen ne jete,
04:10
they pretty much had their sense of home,
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ato e kishin sensin e shtepise,
04:12
their sense of community, even their sense of enmity,
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sensin e komunitetit, sikunder dhe ate te armiqesise,
04:16
assigned to them at birth,
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e trasheguar qe ne lindje,
04:18
and didn't have much chance of stepping outside of that.
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pa shume mundesi per ti shpetuar kesaj.
04:21
And nowadays, at least some of us can choose our sense of home,
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Sot, te pakten disa nga ne mund ta zgjedhim ku ndihemi ne shtepi,
04:25
create our sense of community,
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te krijojme ndjenjen e perkatesise ne komunitet,
04:27
fashion our sense of self, and in so doing
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te formojme identitetin tone, dhe duke bere keshtu,
04:30
maybe step a little beyond
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ndoshta mund te shkojme pertej
04:32
some of the black and white divisions
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disa prej ndarjeve bardhe e zi
04:34
of our grandparents' age.
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te koherave te gjysherve tone.
04:36
No coincidence that the president
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Nuk eshte rastesore qe presidenti
04:38
of the strongest nation on Earth is half-Kenyan,
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i vendit me te fuqishem ne bote eshte gjysem Kenian,
04:41
partly raised in Indonesia,
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nje pjese te jetes kaluar ne Indonezi,
04:42
has a Chinese-Canadian brother-in-law.
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me nje kunat Kinezo-Kanadez.
04:46
The number of people living in countries not their own
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Numri i njerezve qe jetojne ne vende qe nuk jane te tyret
04:49
now comes to 220 million,
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tashme ka arritur ne 220 milion,
04:54
and that's an almost unimaginable number,
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nje numer ky pothuajse i paimagjinueshem,
04:57
but it means that if you took the whole population of Canada
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por qe sa e gjithe popullsia e Kanadase
05:00
and the whole population of Australia
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dhe ajo e Australise
05:02
and then the whole population of Australia again
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dhe me pas popullsine e Australise serish
05:05
and the whole population of Canada again
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dhe ate te Kanadase
05:07
and doubled that number,
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dhe me pas ta dyfishosh ate numer,
05:09
you would still have fewer people than belong
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serish do te kesh me pak njerez se sa ato
05:11
to this great floating tribe.
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qe i perkasin ketij tribu levizes.
05:13
And the number of us who live outside
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Dhe numri i atyre qe jetojne jashte vendit te tyre
05:15
the old nation-state categories is increasing so quickly,
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po rritet gjithnje e me shume,
05:19
by 64 million just in the last 12 years,
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me 64 milion vetem ne 12 vitet e fundit,
05:23
that soon there will be more of us than there are Americans.
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shume shpejt do kete me shume njerez si ne sesa Amerikane.
05:26
Already, we represent the fifth-largest nation on Earth.
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Tashme ne jemi kombi i peste ne bote per nga madhesia.
05:31
And in fact, in Canada's largest city, Toronto,
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Dhe ne fakt, ne qytetin me te madh ne Kanadase, Toronto,
05:34
the average resident today is what used to be called
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rezidenti kryesor aty eshte ai qe ne te shkuaren quhej
05:38
a foreigner, somebody born in a very different country.
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i huaj, dikush i lindur ne nje vend tjeter.
05:42
And I've always felt that the beauty of being surrounded by the foreign
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Dhe une mendoj se bukuria e te qenit i rrethuar me te huaj
05:46
is that it slaps you awake.
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eshte qe te mban zgjuar.
05:47
You can't take anything for granted.
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Nuk mund te marresh asgje te mireqene.
05:50
Travel, for me, is a little bit like being in love,
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Te udhetuarit per mua, eshte paksa si te qenit ne dashuri,
05:53
because suddenly all your senses are at the setting marked "on."
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sepse ne menyre te papritur te gjithe senset te ndizen.
05:57
Suddenly you're alert to the secret patterns of the world.
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Papritur ndjehesh sikur i ke zbuluar modelet sekrete te botes.
06:01
The real voyage of discovery, as Marcel Proust famously said,
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Udhetimi i vertete i zbulimit, sikunder e ka cilesuar Marcel Proust,
06:05
consists not in seeing new sights,
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nuk ka te beje me vizitimin e vendeve te reja,
06:08
but in looking with new eyes.
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por ne te parit me sy te rinj.
06:10
And of course, once you have new eyes,
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Dhe padyshim, tek ke sy te rinj,
06:12
even the old sights, even your home
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edhe rrethinat e vjetra, edhe shtepia jote
06:15
become something different.
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behet dicka ndryshe.
06:17
Many of the people living in countries not their own
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Shume prej njerezve qe jetojne ne vende te tjera nga ato ku kane lindur
06:20
are refugees who never wanted to leave home
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jane refugjate te cilet nuk kane dashur kurre te largohen nga shtepia
06:23
and ache to go back home.
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dhe te cilet vuajne per tu kthyer ne shtepite e tyre.
06:26
But for the fortunate among us,
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Por, per fatlumet mes nesh,
06:28
I think the age of movement brings exhilarating new possibilities.
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mendoj se koha e levizshmerise sjell mundesi te reja.
06:32
Certainly when I'm traveling,
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Padyshim, teksa jam duke udhetuar
06:33
especially to the major cities of the world,
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vecanerisht ne qytetet me te medha te botes,
06:35
the typical person I meet today
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njeriu i zakonshem qe takoj sot
06:38
will be, let's say, a half-Korean, half-German young woman
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eshte nje grua e re, gjysem Koreane e gjysem Gjermane
06:42
living in Paris.
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qe jeton ne Paris.
06:44
And as soon as she meets a half-Thai,
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Dhe sapo ajo takohet me nje djale te ri nga Edinburgu,
06:47
half-Canadian young guy from Edinburgh,
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gjysem Tajlandez, gjysem Kanadez,
06:50
she recognizes him as kin.
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ajo e pranon ate si te llojit te saj.
06:53
She realizes that she probably has much more in common with him
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Ajo kupton se ka me shume gjera te perbashketa me te
06:57
than with anybody entirely of Korea or entirely of Germany.
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sesa me dike plotesisht Korean ose Gjerman.
07:00
So they become friends. They fall in love.
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Ndaj ata behen miq. Bien ne dashuri.
07:03
They move to New York City.
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Levizin ne New York City.
07:05
(Laughter)
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(Te qeshura)
07:08
Or Edinburgh.
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ose Edinburgh.
07:09
And the little girl who arises out of their union
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Dhe vajza e vogel qe lind nga bashkimi i tyre
07:12
will of course be not Korean or German
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nuk do te jete as Koreane, Gjermane
07:14
or French or Thai or Scotch or Canadian
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Franceze apo Tajlandeze, a Skoceze a Kanadeze
07:17
or even American, but a wonderful
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as Amerikane, por nje perzierje e mrekullueshme, ne ndryshim
07:19
and constantly evolving mix of all those places.
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te vazhdueshem, e gjithe ketyre vendeve.
07:23
And potentially, everything about the way
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Dhe si rrjedhoje, gjithcka
07:26
that young woman dreams about the world,
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ajo vajze e vogel enderron rreth kesaj bote,
07:29
writes about the world, thinks about the world,
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shkruan rreth kesaj bote, mendon rreth kesaj bote,
07:32
could be something different,
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mund te jete dicka ndryshe,
07:34
because it comes out of this almost unprecedented
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sepse vjen nga kjo perzierje e paprecedent
07:37
blend of cultures.
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kulturash.
07:39
Where you come from now is much less important
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Pra, me e rendesishmja tani nuk eshte se nga vime
07:42
than where you're going.
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por se ku po shkojme.
07:44
More and more of us are rooted in the future
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Gjithnje e me shume ne jemi duke u fokusuar ne te ardhmen
07:46
or the present tense as much as in the past.
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ose te tashmen, sesa te shkuaren.
07:49
And home, we know, is not just the place
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Dhe shtepia, sic e dime, nuk eshte thjesht vendi
07:52
where you happen to be born.
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ku kemi lindur.
07:54
It's the place where you become yourself.
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Eshte vendi ku ne behemi vetvetja.
07:58
And yet,
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Dhe ende,
08:01
there is one great problem with movement,
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ka nje problem te madh me levizshmerine,
08:04
and that is that it's really hard to get your bearings
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sepse eshte shume e veshtire te marresh kuzhinetat e tua
08:07
when you're in midair.
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kur ndodhesh ne ajer.
08:08
Some years ago, I noticed that I had accumulated
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Disa vite me pare, vura re se kisha grumbulluar
08:12
one million miles on United Airlines alone.
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nje milion milje vetem ne United Airlines.
08:15
You all know that crazy system,
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Te gjithe e njihni ate sistem,
08:17
six days in hell, you get the seventh day free.
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ku gjashte dite ne ferr, sherbehen me nje dite qendrim falas.
08:21
(Laughter)
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(Te qeshura)
08:24
And I began to think that really,
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Dhe nisa te mendoj se ne te vertete,
08:27
movement was only as good as the sense of stillness
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levizshmeria eshte po aq e mire sa edhe sensi i jolevizshmerise
08:30
that you could bring to it to put it into perspective.
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po te perpiqemi ta sjellim ne nje perspektive te re.
08:34
And eight months after my house burned down,
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Dhe pas tete muajsh pasi mu dogj shtepia,
08:37
I ran into a friend who taught at a local high school,
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takova rastesisht nje mikun tim mesues ne nje gjimnaz te qytetit,
08:39
and he said, "I've got the perfect place for you."
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dhe me tha, "Kam gjetur vendin e persosur per ty."
08:43
"Really?" I said. I'm always a bit skeptical
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"Me te vertete?" I thashe. Jam si natyre gjithnje disi dyshues
08:45
when people say things like that.
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tek degjoj fjale te tilla.
08:46
"No, honestly," he went on,
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"Jo, e kam me gjithe mend", vazhdoi ai,
08:48
"it's only three hours away by car,
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"Eshte vetem tre ore larg me makine,
08:50
and it's not very expensive,
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dhe nuk eshte shume e shtrenjte,
08:51
and it's probably not like anywhere you've stayed before."
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dhe jam i sigurt qe nuk i ngjason asnje vendi ku ke qene me pare."
08:55
"Hmm." I was beginning to get slightly intrigued. "What is it?"
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"Hmm." Kish filluar te me intrigonte idea. "C'eshte kjo?"
08:59
"Well —" Here my friend hemmed and hawed —
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"Epo-" Ketu miku im nisi te sikletosej pak-
09:02
"Well, actually it's a Catholic hermitage."
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"Ne fakt eshte nje vend i vetmuar Katolik."
09:05
This was the wrong answer.
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Kjo ishte pergjigja e gabuar.
09:07
I had spent 15 years in Anglican schools,
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Kisha kaluar 15 vite ne nje shkolle Anglikane,
09:10
so I had had enough hymnals and crosses to last me a lifetime.
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dhe kisha lexuar mjaft libra fetare dhe pare boll kryqe sa te me zgjasnin per gjithe jeten.
09:15
Several lifetimes, actually.
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Disa jete ne fakt.
09:17
But my friend assured me that he wasn't Catholic,
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Por miku im me bindi qe ai nuk ish Katolik,
09:19
nor were most of his students,
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ashtu si dhe nuk qene shumica e studenteve te tij,
09:21
but he took his classes there every spring.
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por ai i bente atje klasat e tij cdo pranvere.
09:24
And as he had it, even the most restless, distractible,
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Dhe sikunder me tha, edhe me te levizshmit, shkaterruesit,
09:28
testosterone-addled 15-year-old Californian boy
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15 vjecaret Kaliforniane totalisht nen trysnin e testosteronit
09:32
only had to spend three days in silence
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duhej te kalonin tre dite ne heshtje
09:36
and something in him cooled down and cleared out.
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dhe dicka brenda tyre zbardhej dhe qetesohej.
09:40
He found himself.
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Ai gjeti veten.
09:42
And I thought, "Anything that works for a 15-year-old boy
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Mendova, "Gjithcka qe mund te funksionoje per nje 15 vjecar
09:45
ought to work for me."
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duhet te bej pune dhe per mua."
09:46
So I got in my car, and I drove three hours north
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Mora makinen, dhe ngava per tre ore ne veri te Kalifornise
09:50
along the coast,
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pergjate bregdetit,
09:51
and the roads grew emptier and narrower,
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dhe rruget sa vinin e beheshin me te zbrazta e te ngushta,
09:54
and then I turned onto an even narrower path,
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dhe me pas u ktheva ne nje rruge edhe me te ngushte,
09:57
barely paved, that snaked for two miles
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shume pak e shtruaar, qe gjarperoi per 3 km
10:00
up to the top of a mountain.
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deri ne maje te malit.
10:03
And when I got out of my car,
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Kur zbrita nga makina,
10:06
the air was pulsing.
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ajri jashte pulsonte.
10:08
The whole place was absolutely silent,
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I gjithe vendi ishte absolutisht i heshtur,
10:10
but the silence wasn't an absence of noise.
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por heshtja nuk ish mungese zhurme.
10:13
It was really a presence of a kind of energy or quickening.
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Ishte nje prezence energjie qe te gjalleronte.
10:17
And at my feet was the great, still blue plate
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Dhe nen kembet e mia qendronte, e palevizshmja pllake blu
10:21
of the Pacific Ocean.
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e Oqeanit Paqesor.
10:23
All around me were 800 acres of wild dry brush.
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Perqark meje ishin 300 hektare shkurresh te egra te thara.
10:28
And I went down to the room in which I was to be sleeping.
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Shkova ne dhomen qe me kishin caktuar per te fjetur.
10:30
Small but eminently comfortable,
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1865
E vogel, por jashtezakonisht e rehatshme,
10:32
it had a bed and a rocking chair
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kish nje krevat, nje karrike lekundese
10:34
and a long desk and even longer picture windows
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nje tavoline e gjate dhe nje dritare edhe me te gjate
10:38
looking out on a small, private, walled garden,
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qe shihte jashte ne nje kopesht te vogel, privat
10:42
and then 1,200 feet of golden pampas grass
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dhe me pas rreth 350 metra bari te verdhe te larte
10:45
running down to the sea.
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qe shtrihej gjer ne det.
10:48
And I sat down, and I began to write,
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U ula, e nisa te shkruaj,
10:51
and write, and write,
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te shkruaj, e te shkruaj,
10:53
even though I'd gone there really to get away from my desk.
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ndonese kisha shkuar atje per tu larguar nga tavolina ime e shkrimit.
10:56
And by the time I got up, four hours had passed.
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Dhe nga momenti qe u cova, kishin kaluar kater ore.
11:01
Night had fallen,
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Nata kish zbritur,
11:03
and I went out under this great overturned saltshaker of stars,
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dhe dola jashte nen kete qiell qe ngjante si kripore e permbysur plot me yje
11:08
and I could see the tail lights of cars
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e mund te dalloja ate bisht te gjate dritash makine
11:10
disappearing around the headlands 12 miles to the south.
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qe zhdukeshin ne kthesat e largeta prej 20 km ne jug.
11:14
And it really seemed like my concerns of the previous day
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Tashme dukej se shqetesimet e nje dite me pare
11:18
vanishing.
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ishin zhdukur.
11:20
And the next day, when I woke up
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1812
Dhe diten tjeter, kur u zgjova
11:22
in the absence of telephones and TVs and laptops,
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3468
ne mungese te telefonave, televizoreve dhe laptop-ve,
11:25
the days seemed to stretch for a thousand hours.
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ditet dukej sikur zgjateshin me 1000 ore.
11:29
It was really all the freedom I know when I'm traveling,
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Eshte e gjithe liria qe ndjeja sa here udhetoja,
11:33
but it also profoundly felt like coming home.
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4614
por njekohesisht thelle brenda meje ndjeja sikur isha kthyer ne shtepi.
11:38
And I'm not a religious person,
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Duke mos qene nje njeri fetar,
11:39
so I didn't go to the services.
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nuk ndiqja sherbesat fetare.
11:41
I didn't consult the monks for guidance.
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Nuk i konsultova murgjit per udhezime.
11:43
I just took walks along the monastery road
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Beja ecje pergjate rruges se manastirit
11:46
and sent postcards to loved ones.
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dhe i dergoja kartolina njerezve te dashur.
11:48
I looked at the clouds,
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Shihja rete,
11:50
and I did what is hardest of all for me to do usually,
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dhe beja ate qe per mua eshte shume e veshtire te bej zakonisht,
11:55
which is nothing at all.
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te mos berit asgje.
11:57
And I started to go back to this place,
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Nisa te shkoj shpesh ne kete vend,
11:59
and I noticed that I was doing my most important work there
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dhe vura re se pjesen me te madhe te punes sime e beja aty
12:03
invisibly just by sitting still,
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ne menyre te padukshme, duke qendruar ulur,
12:06
and certainly coming to my most critical decisions
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dhe merrja vendime shume te rendesishme
12:10
the way I never could when I was racing
255
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2282
ne nje menyre qe nuk kisha mundur ta beja kurre tek vrapoja
12:12
from the last email to the next appointment.
256
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2573
nga nje email te nje takim.
12:14
And I began to think that something in me
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2629
Dhe nisa te mendoj se dicka brenda meje
12:17
had really been crying out for stillness,
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1989
kish kohe qe qante per pak jolevizshmeri,
12:19
but of course I couldn't hear it
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por padyshim qe nuk mundja ta degjoja
12:20
because I was running around so much.
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sepse isha duke u turrur kaq shume perreth.
12:22
I was like some crazy guy who puts on a blindfold
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Isha si nje djale i cmendur qe kish lidhur syte
12:25
and then complains that he can't see a thing.
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dhe ankohej se nuk mund te shihte asgje.
12:28
And I thought back to that wonderful phrase
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2541
Dhe mendova pas tek ajo fjali e mrekullueshme e Senekes
12:31
I had learned as a boy from Seneca,
264
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qe kisha mesuar si nje djalosh,
12:33
in which he says, "That man is poor
265
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ne te cilen thuhej, " Ai njeri eshte i varfer
12:37
not who has little but who hankers after more."
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jo kur ka pak, por kur ka etje per me shume."
12:42
And, of course, I'm not suggesting
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Dhe patjeter, nuk jam duke sugjeruar qe gjithkush ketu te cohet
12:44
that anybody here go into a monastery.
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e te mbyllet ne nje manastir.
12:46
That's not the point.
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Ky nuk eshte qellimi.
12:48
But I do think it's only by stopping movement
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Por eshte vetem kur ti ndalon se levizuri
12:51
that you can see where to go.
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qe mund te shohesh drejt ku deshiron te shkosh.
12:54
And it's only by stepping out of your life and the world
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Dhe vetem kur largohesh pakez nga jeta jote dhe bota
12:57
that you can see what you most deeply care about
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mund te dallosh ato gjera qe te interesojne me thellesisht
13:01
and find a home.
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dhe te gjesh shtepine.
13:03
And I've noticed so many people now
275
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2043
Shoh kaq shume njerez ditet tona
13:05
take conscious measures to sit quietly for 30 minutes
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qe ne menyre koshiente ulen ne heshtje per 30 minuta
13:08
every morning just collecting themselves
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2533
cdo mengjes thjesht per te mbledhur vehten
13:11
in one corner of the room without their devices,
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ne nje cep te dhomes larg aparateve te tyre,
13:14
or go running every evening,
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2073
ose te shkojne te vrapojne cdo mengjes,
13:16
or leave their cell phones behind
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1956
ose ti lene pas celularet
13:18
when they go to have a long conversation with a friend.
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kur dalin per kafe me nje mik.
13:21
Movement is a fantastic privilege,
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Levizshmeria eshte nje privilegj fantastik,
13:25
and it allows us to do so much that our grandparents
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qe na lejon te bejme kaq me shume nga se mund te imagjinonin
13:28
could never have dreamed of doing.
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2121
paraardhesit tone.
13:30
But movement, ultimately,
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1905
Por levizshmeria, ne fund te dites,
13:32
only has a meaning if you have a home to go back to.
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4541
ka kuptim vetem nese ne fund te dites e ke nje shtepi ku te kthehesh.
13:37
And home, in the end, is of course
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Dhe shtepia, eshte padyshim
13:39
not just the place where you sleep.
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jo thjesht vendi ku ti fle.
13:42
It's the place where you stand.
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Eshte vendi ku ti qendron.
13:45
Thank you.
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Faleminderit.
13:46
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
Translated by Iris Xholi
Reviewed by Helena Bedalli

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Pico Iyer - Global author
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.

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."

More profile about the speaker
Pico Iyer | Speaker | TED.com