A word to the wise ...

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding that you've said it all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried when you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an uderstanding ear.

-- Stephen King, The Body, 1982

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In še prevod, ki si ga je zaželela moja redna bralka Ana Balantič:

Najpomembnejše stvari je najtežje povedati. To so stvari, zaradi katerih te postane sram, ker jim besede odvzamejo pomembnost – stvari, ki so se v tvoji glavi zdele brezmejne, besede skrčijo na nič več kot življenjsko velikost, ko jih izrečeš. Ampak to ni vse, kajne? Najpomembnejše stvari ležijo preblizu kraja, kjer je zakopano tvoje skrito srce, kot znamenja do zaklada, ki bi ga tvoji sovražniki z veseljem odtujili. In zgodi se, da žrtvuješ razodetja, ki te zelo drago stanejo, samo za to, da te ljudje topo gledajo in ne razumejo, da si povedal vse ali zakaj si mislil, da je nekaj tako pomembno, da si skoraj jokal, ko si to izrekel. Zdi se mi, da je to najhujše. Ko skrivnost ostane zakopana globoko v tebi ne zato, ker bi ti tako hotel, ampak zato, ker ni razumevajočega ušesa, ki bi ti prisluhnilo.

-- Stephen King, Truplo, 1982

OK, prevod sem sicer naredil bolj ad hoc in na hitro, tako da - ja, seveda bi bil lahko boljši, ampak mislim, da mi je bistvo tega čudovitega odlomka, ki res da misliti, le uspelo ujeti.