Anne Lamont: Lighthouses Just Stand There Shining
Excerpt from Anne Lamont's book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994)
[Scroll down for the English]
KISWAHILI
“…kama ukiandika maneno yaliyo wazi zaidi na ya kweli zaidi, unayoweza kupata na ukifanya uwezekanavyo hiyo kwa kiwango bora cha kuelewa na kuwasiliana. Maneno yatang’aa kwenye karatasi kama mnara wake wa taa ndogo. Minara ya taa haiendi kukimbia huko na huko kisiwa kote kutafuta boti zinazohitajika kuokowa; hii inasimama kwa thabiti pale tu, inang'aa.”
- Anne Lamott ni mwalimu wa uandishi anayejulikana kwa ucheshi wake na mbinu upendo wenye kali, mwandishi wa riwaya wa Marekani na wa vitabu visivyo vya kubuniwa [non-fiction] kujumulisha vitabu vitabu zaidi ya ishirini—na anajulikana kwa uchangamfu kama "Mwandishi wa Watu." Ted Talk yake mnamo 2017 kwenye YouTube iko hapa: "Ukweli wa 12 niliojifunza kutoka kwa maisha na uandishi."
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
“…if you are writing the clearest, truest words you can find and doing the best you can to understand and communicate, this will shine on paper like its own little lighthouse. Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”
- Anne Lamott is a writing teacher known for her humor and tough-love approach; American novelist and non-fiction author of over twenty books; she is known warmly as “the People’s Author.” Her Ted Talk on Youtube is here: “12 truths I learned from life and writing.”
Asante na tutaonana tena (Thank you and may we see each other again),
Mmerikani
Chanzo (source): Anne Lamont. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1994, page 218 (originally published by Penguin Random House). Kindle Edition.