Tajna papira / The Secret of Paper

List bijelog papira može se činiti kao sasvim običan predmet. Ni po čemu poseban, niti veličinom niti bojom niti težinom, baš ničime. Lako je zgužvati ga, poderati, smočiti, vjetar ga blagim udarom nosi, a vatra ga lako zahvati i zapali. Nije proziran pa da čovjek kroz njega vidi svijet i nije ogledalo da se čovjek u njemu promatra. Ima ga u tolikom broju da ga nitko ne bi mogao pobrojati, a ktome je i vrlo jeftin, možda jeftiniji od bilo čega što se može kupiti.

Ipak, usprkos svoj toj neuglednosti, jednostavnosti i broju, papir je po nečemu značajniji od mnogo vrjednijih i skupljih stvari. Papir, naime, na sebe prima sve i dozvoljava čovjeku da kroz njega otkriva beskonačne svjetove. Kada se na papiru napiše samo jedna riječ, recimo “ljubav”, u čovjekovoj se glavi rode tolike misli da ne bi mogle stati na jedan papir, a možda ni na stotinu. Ako je tako samo s jednom riječi, zamislite koliko je s dvije, tri, deset ili tisuću! A zamislite koliki se svjetovi onda kriju u milijunima knjiga koje postoje i koje se sve sastoje od jednog običnog papira.

Idemo dalje. Kada se na papiru nacrta kuća i u njoj ljudi, netko tko ju promatra može se toliko uživjeti da zamisli cijelu priču oko ljudi koji u njoj žive. Poznat je i slučaj gdje su se ptice, misleći da se radi o pravome grožđu, zalijetale na grožđe nacrtano na običnom papiru s namjerom da ga zobaju. Toliko je slika bila vjerna.

Kažu da je papir promijenio svijet, da se svijet dijeli na razdoblje prije nego što je postojao papir i na razdoblje nakon što je papir otkriven. Jer ljudi su s papirom dobili beskrajne mogućnosti - mogli su bilježiti svoje misli, svoje osjećaje, svoje znanje, baš sve, i čuvati to za svoju djecu i svoje unuke. Svijet je postao toliko bogat pričama da ih nijedna biblioteka danas ne bi mogla okupiti. Mnoge priče, pa tako ni ova, bez papira ne bi mogle biti ispričane. I to je tajna papira - iako na početku prazan, u sebi krije neiscrpno bogatstvo.

Autor: Matej Čolig

Foto: Pixabay

Tekst je izvorno pisan za dječju emisiju "Pričaonica" na Radiju Kali Sara (https://phralipen.hr/radio-kali-sara-hrvatska/)

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A sheet of white paper may seem like an entirely ordinary object—nothing special in its size, color, or weight, nothing remarkable at all. It can easily be crumpled, torn, soaked; a gentle gust of wind can carry it away, and fire can quickly catch and burn it. It is not transparent, so one cannot see the world through it, nor is it a mirror in which one can observe oneself. There is so much of it that no one could count it all, and moreover it is very cheap—perhaps cheaper than anything else one can buy.

And yet, despite all its plainness, simplicity, and abundance, paper is in some way more significant than many things far more valuable and expensive. Paper, after all, accepts everything, and allows a person to discover infinite worlds through it. When just a single word is written on it—for instance, “love”—so many thoughts are born in a person’s mind that they could never fit on one sheet of paper, perhaps not even on a hundred. If that happens with just one word, imagine how much happens with two, three, ten, or a thousand! And imagine how many worlds are hidden in the millions of books that exist, all made from this ordinary paper.

Let’s go further. When one draws a house on paper, with people inside it, an observer can immerse themselves so deeply that they imagine an entire story about the people living there. There is even a well-known case of birds mistaking painted grapes on an ordinary sheet of paper for real grapes, flying toward them in an attempt to peck at them. The picture was that lifelike.

They say paper changed the world—that the world is divided into the time before paper existed and the time after it was discovered. With paper, people gained endless possibilities: they could record their thoughts, their feelings, their knowledge—everything—and preserve it for their children and grandchildren. The world became so rich with stories that no library today could contain them all. Many stories, including this one, could not be told without paper. And that is the secret of paper: although empty at first, it holds within itself an inexhaustible wealth.

Author: Matej Čolig

Photo: Pixabay

The text was initially written for the children's show "Story Room" on Radio Kali Sara (https://phralipen.hr/radio-kali-sara-hrvatska/).