Ray Bradbury Reads His Poem "If Only We Had Taller Been"
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 08. 2013
- Ray Bradbury reads his classic poem "If Only We Had Taller Been" from November 12, 1971. More space videos at / okrajoe
#RayBradbury #MartianChronicles #Poetry
"Short man, Large dream. I send my rockets forth between my ears,
Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years.
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal Mall:
We’ve reached Alpha Centauri!
We’re tall, O God, we’re tall!"
. - Zábava
Please don't let this video die. I keep coming back to it every half a year or so. thank you very much for uploading.
I´m here, 6 year after your comment. We will never let it die ;)
Same. Hopefully, it cannot die.
I think this is my favorite thing on the internet.
couldn't agree more!
your comment does not have enough likes
Sure is
Throat chakra mastered. Speech Perk Enabled+100
I know, right
As a theoretical physics student, this peom hits my heart. If I had been on that stage with him I would have collapsed into tears, to hear a man describe so accurately and beautifully why I do what I do.
We will reach Alpha Centauri. We will, Mr. Bradbury.
Good to see Ray in his prime, in good voice, forever passionate. Met him a few years later and twice after. Perhaps the greatest influence on my life save my parents and Jesus.
why did this make me cry?
i also cried over this 😢
+somedude84961 same here :'( too deep
I think, in a way, I see all these people working for so many long years... so many long nights... to push us along a path that will ultimately guarantee humanity's future with its success, or ensure our eventual end with it's failure.
These men didn't get to see what they dreamt about become true and real, but they worked tirelessly anyways with a kind of curiosity that is more than almost anything else uniquely human. It's the story of every parent or teacher in a way, where we are just doing our best to make things better for the next even though we may not get to see the full benefit of a life's work.
And I think that is just, incredibly and powerfully, beautiful.
Because you are a good man with a child's heart
It gave you hope.
I'm 60 and had never heard this before. How beautiful and resonant! And what a charming guy.
Earth is our cradle, but we can't forever live in a cradle - Tsiolokovsky
This is indescribable. I get goose-bumps every time I come back to this. It's perfect.
kirisaki me too!
I love seeing the intrigue and appreciation on Carl Sagan’s face. He loved literature and the beauty in written word, once calling it man’s greatest invention, and a way for us to travel backwards in time.
I’ve tried to share this out loud to friends before. I can never quite make to the end before my voice catches.
Man I get the chills everyone I listen to this poem. Ray was such a great author. Love you ray one day I guarantee you we will set foot on another planet and make your wish come true!!
I know it was yesterday but… happy birthday Ray Bradbury❤️❤️
What a wise man and and a lovely poem.
This is a treasure
The fence we walked between the years
Did balance us serene
It was a place half in the sky where
In the green of leaf and promising of peach
We'd reach our hands to touch and almost touch the sky
If we could reach and touch, we said,
'Twould teach us, not to, never to, be dead
We ached and almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
If only we had taller been
And touched God's cuff, His hem,
We would not have to go with them
Who've gone before,
Who, short as us, stood as they could stand
And hoped by stretching tall that they might keep their land
Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.
But they, like us, were standing in a hole
O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall
Across the Void, across the Universe and all?
And, measured out with rocket fire,
At last put Adam's finger forth
As on the Sistine Ceiling,
And God's hand come down the other way
To measure man and find him Good
And Gift him with Forever's Day?
I work for that
Short man, Large dream
I send my rockets forth between my ears
Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal mall:
We've reached Alpha Centauri!
We're tall, O God, we're tall!
Someone said, gives me chills every time. I can concur. Ray was an amazing author. His prose futuristic, and yet spoke to the primal state of a man, or a lost boy in the world of adults. Thank you! Ray you will live forever.
This poem is amazing. Ray was amazing 451 the illustrated man I was first shown the wonder of Ray at 13 with the Maritain Chronicles taking me to the world the universe really. I still look for it in book stores some where in the non fiction/science section and its there. That strange place in another world far away from the troubles of 13 year old boy. The wonder of it all, and the short story of something of rain the name alludes me just now. The defeat we suffer in life and no one can change that. Things we lose of our selves sometimes before we really understand them. Ray you are the best always you are Tall a giant among the best of us because you create dreams and without a dream none of it is worth a single glance upward at those shiny twinkles in the sky.
I think of Ray as he was in this video almost weekly. Thanks for posting.
Oh Dios mío, escuchar un poema narrado por Bradbury, ver conmovido a Clarke y sonriendo a Sagan no tiene precio 🤩🤩🤩🤩
I come back to this post again and again and I am still amazed! People like Bradbury made my childhood summer days come alive with imagination and dreams. Studied the Martian Chronicles in school when I was 13 and I was hooked for life. Thank Mr. B. OH god YOUR are TALL!
Gives me chills every time
This is brilliant!
Brilliant and moving! Thank you so much for sharing!
Bravo.
What's the song that starts at 2:05?
Very moving.
i spy with my little eye carl sagan
flashybaby Actually?
Does anyone know if the full version of the recording of the symposium exists? Or a version of the poetry reading without the music in the background?
Thanks in advance!
I don't know if the full version is out there, but you can find the lyrics at Genius.com. That's where I went. And if this helps, this convention where he gave his poem was to celebrate Mariner 9 finally reaching Mars.
please, add subtitles!
sofia victoria closed captioned is provided, simply click on one of the icons. Turn on caption.
Incidentally this poem also sums up a significant portion of my philosophy. Except that I spell god "nature" or "truth."
I feel the same, but I suspect the references to god and heaven are more a metaphor for something greater than ourselves (space/ science) and striving to reach such an ideal as a mortal human. He's using the language of the times as it were. Also, sorry for replying to an old post like this :)
God is a metaphor for something other than ourselves that can judge humanity and you need to realize that much of this poem is about those who came before and religion basically was science to the vast majority of humanity over the many millenia prior. They were trying to understand the universe but could never reach God no matter how hard they strived.
Alyas Grey To paraphrase Frank Lloyd Wright: I believe in god, only I spell it M-A-T-H.
Why did NASA delete the original video? What a shame
Probably because Ray mentioned God. Unlike other SF authors, Ray's writing was often faith filled and didn't use SF to attack God and belief in Him.
Who owns this video?
One day we'll reach it and we'll feel shorter than ever , humans are never truly satisfied
I dont like poetry. I think poetry is often overly complex or overly simple, filled with a lot of self indulged whining or fantastical and unrealistic musings of men and women who have been dead since long before I was born. But I love this poem, because this poem is not about the author, or not about some petty earthling squabbles. If Only We Had Taller Been is a poem about humanities desire and, at least I believe, our inevitable course to travel out into the stars and spread further from our planet than we can even imagine right now. It is beautiful, but simplistic, a simple story about a mission that Ray Bradbury believes will happen one day when a ship is sent to Alpha Centauri and we as a species, not a religion, not a nationality, not a race, but a entire species realize exactly what we are capable of and what our true destiny is. And it is a vision that I believe in. Not one of violence or conquest or domination, but one of curiosity and bravery and true love for learning about the universe we live in. I know I probably won't ever leave Earth, and I know I will probably have to watch Earth die around me, and that terrifies me. But I also believe that as Earth is dying, the rest of the planets of our solar system will be beginning, as humans arrive on them and we built our settlements and our homes there, and god am I excited to watch my grandchildren go out there and discover and build things that just two generations ago, my own parents, could never have even imagined.
Its a little like that meme I've seen a while ago, where some high school kid in his yearbook photo said "born to early to explore the galaxy, born to late to explore the earth, born just in time to explore dank memes." I'll never explore the earth, I'll never explore the stars, but I will be able to explore all of the fascinating new technologies that are coming out which will one day be able to allow us to do things so incredible and magical that I cant even fully comprehend them.
Tower of Babel. 'Nuff said?
Elon Musk should've been in that panel..
Would have been too distracting as he was only four months old then. :)
@@MsBiggles51 lol
Don’t compare that rapist to these great men you toad
"So I hit him!" Wow. Not funny.
John Smith, perhaps not. But is that really all you have to say about this? Is that really all you got from this?
Oh sorry; I didn't know I was supposed to be making a full report to you.
It's okay, do better next time.
I thought it was hilarious
@@dffdfdfd100 yea it gets me every time ^^