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We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Toni Morrison, Nobel Lecture

LiteratureLanguage

The story behind the card

Toni Morrison gave her Nobel lecture in Stockholm on 7 December 1993, as the first Black woman to win the literature prize. These four sentences come from the heart of the speech, which is built on a fable: young people ask a wise, blind old woman whether the bird in their hands is alive or dead, hoping to catch her out. She answers that she cannot know, only that it is in their hands. Morrison reads the bird as language, kept alive or killed by how we use it. Here she sets death, our one certainty, against what we make while we live.

Türkçe oku
Ölürüz. Hayatın anlamı belki budur. Ama dil kurarız. Hayatlarımızın ölçüsü belki de budur.
Toni Morrison, Nobel konuşması

Toni Morrison Nobel konuşmasını 7 Aralık 1993'te Stockholm'de yaptı; edebiyat ödülünü kazanan ilk siyah kadındı. Bu dört cümle konuşmanın tam ortasından gelir. Konuşma bir mesel üzerine kuruludur: Birkaç genç, bilge ve kör yaşlı bir kadını sınamak için ellerindeki kuşun ölü mü diri mi olduğunu sorar. Kadın bunu bilemeyeceğini, bildiği tek şeyin kuşun onların elinde olduğunu söyler. Morrison kuşu dil olarak okur: Onu nasıl kullandığımıza göre ya yaşatırız ya öldürürüz. Burada da tek kesin şeyimiz olan ölümün karşısına, yaşarken ortaya koyduğumuz dili koyar.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Nobel Prize in Literature
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