Anne Lamont: Writing Is Its Own Reward
Excerpt from Anne Lamont's book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994)
[Scroll down for the English]
KISWAHILI
"Ninajaribu kuwaonya tu watu wanaotumaini kuchapishwa kuwa kuchapishwa kusiko kila kitu. Lakini kuandika ndiku. Kuandika kuna mengi ya kutoa, mengi ya kufundisha, mshangao mwingi kabisa. Jambo hilo ujilazimisha kufanya—tendo halisi la kuandika—linalotokea kuwa sehemu bora ye yote.
"Ni kama kugundua kwamba ilhali ulikuwa unafikiri kwamba unahitaji hafla ya chai kwa kunywa kafeini, wakati ulichohitaji ya halisi ilikuwa hafla hiyo ya chai. Kitendo cha kuandika ni zawadi yake yenyewe.”
- 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
“I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do—the actual act of writing—turns out to be the best part.
“It’s like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.”
- 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 234 (originally published by Penguin Random House). Kindle Edition.