'To Make Use of Water' by Safia Elhillo

An animated interpretation of Safia Elhillo's poem "To Make Use of Water"

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Poem by Safia Elhillo, directed by Jeffig Le Bars and Jérémie Balais.

#poetry

[TEDEd]

Bereavement. Homesickness. A first kiss. Experiences like these transcend our rational understanding of the world. In such moments, we need poetry.

That's why we're excited to have paired contemporary and classical poems with award-winning animators to help us all better understand the most inexplicable parts of life.


Let us know in the comments which poems you'd love to see animated as part of this series.

[rohandhar]

“Do you even understand what was lost to bring you here.”
Beautiful.

[Vas]

I hardly ever understand poetry with my ears. But my heart somehow translate feelings

[papafranku]

First of all the poet describes how she had forgotten some words like(sandwich, honey, pharmacy, etc..)
Which is a metaphor used to describe how much dose she lack in her environment .

Further more she talks a bit about her country and the bad situation she is in
and she said that "her father became a smoke" which is also a metaphor for death in in the battle field and how war leads to nothing but death deprivation destruction.

Then she talks about the white water and the atlantic in which she described how harsh is it to get to the other side and that almost half of the ship members often die.

at the end she finally arrive to the land of dreams and opportunity, the united states
And start to try to advice it people to be happy with what they got and remind them how hard is it for other people "the unlucky" to afford what an average American gets daily.

[jasmineorianaful]

Beautiful poem. I hate to feel guilty simply for being born, but I know that this poem isn't about me - it's about other people and how we can't forget them. This poem isn't supposed to make me/us feel guilty, but to remind me to be grateful and appreciate what I have and to remember to help others when I can. Thank you for writing this Safia and thank you for publishing this here Ted-Ed <3

[lovelylittlegirl]

"Do you even know what was lost to bring you here?" Those words hit me straight in the heart. Wow. The atmosphere created by this video really complements the poem and that which it entails. !مشا الله

[Future_Pheonix]

The use of shapes and colors and transitions in this video was brilliant and I loved all the little details and the symbolism of the shoe, floating aimlessly and without control from one place to another, passive, sticking out with its tacky, artificial color and design and not quite fitting anywhere (carrying the word "love" with it).
Beautiful, creative and touching piece of animation and poem. Kudos to all artists involved and to Ted-Ed for creating this. ♥️

[bluemik]

Due to the blessing of TED-ED, and the team behind it, I finally understand the amazing world we live, and how we can do so many more things than we think we can do. Thank you so much. Keep this channel Forever great as it always was

[shreyanshsuvin]

This is one of the best ..sorry *THE* *BEST* *THING* to happen in YouTube in a very long Time. Mesmerizing.

[vminshi]

I just watched this thrice and can't still get enough of the message this poem brings. Within 2mins I've felt what an immigrant would feel in a foreign country they never wanted to go to but was forced to do so in exchange to their safety.

[jellyfish]

6 videos at the same time!? TED-Ed is spoiling us!

[tueinhcao]

When the scenes are still depicting her home country, there will always be a triangle shape in the middle of the frame. When the scenes are depicting her journey across the sea (symbolized by he slipper), a circle shape is in the middle of the frame instead.

[laffy_taffa]

I love that the animations can really bring poetry even further to life. I noticed there were more lines to this poem on Birdsthumb.org (in-between "dilute" and "blur" was "quench" and in-between "blur" and "swim" was "wash"). I hope others look further into this poem, reading it all was incredible!

[sharank]

I am currently suffering from depression due to loneliness caused by living in a foreign country for work. That last line hit me so hard that it made me cry.

[layeelat]

I keep coming back to this. Timeless. Impactful, beautiful

[clandestino]

Amazing. Really one of the defining poets of my generation.

[sweetcheeses]

I think about this poem so often, it’s extremely beautiful

[hambos]

I love how at the end of the poem it looks like the beginning of a story; the music, the person picking up the slipper, and the titles ("A poem by Safia Elhillo", like "A movie from ..")

[serene]

I learnt Arabic from my school for 6 years and I kid you not, Arabic language is so beautiful to learn

[DrGhiouzy]

It's really surprising how arabic captions can deliver such feelings... thx for whoever helped translating this poem ♡♡♡