It all started with a crazy idea in November of 2004.

こんにちは フランクと言います

I printed up 3,000 self-addressed postcards, just like this.

秘密を集めています

They were blank on one side, and on the other side I listed some simple instructions.

2004年11月に

I asked people to anonymously share an artful secret they'd never told anyone before.

クレージーなアイデアを思い付いたのが始まりで

And I handed out these postcards randomly on the streets of Washington, D.C., not knowing what to expect.

返信用葉書を３千枚印刷しました

But soon the idea began spreading virally.

ちょうどこんな感じのです

People began to buy their own postcards and make their own postcards.

片面は空白で

I started receiving secrets in my home mailbox

反対側に

not just with postmarks from Washington, D.C.,

簡単な説明を書いて

but from Texas, California, Vancouver, New Zealand, Iraq

誰にも話したことのない面白い秘密を

Soon my crazy idea didn't seem so crazy

匿名で教えてくれるようにお願いしたんです

PostSecret.com is the most visited advertisement-free blog in the world

それをワシントンDCの通りで

And this is my postcard collection today

手当たり次第に人々に手渡しました

You can see my wife struggling to stack a brick of postcards on a pyramid of over a half-million secrets.

どうなるか見当も付きませんでした

What I'd like to do now is share with you a very special handful of secrets from that collection

でも そのアイデアは すぐに口コミで広まり始めました

starting with this one.

みんな葉書を自分で買ったり

I found these stamps as a child, and I have been waiting all my life to have someone to send them to. I never did have someone.

自分で作ったりするようになりました

Secrets can take many forms

うちの郵便受けには ワシントンDCだけでなく

They can be shocking or silly or soulful

様々な消印の葉書が届くようになりました

They can connect us to our deepest humanity or with people we'll never meet.

テキサスに カリフォルニア

(Laughter)

バンクーバー 果てはニュジーランドやイラクまで

Maybe one of you sent this one in. I don't know.

クレージーだった私のアイデアは そんなにクレージーには見えなくなりました

This one does a great job of demonstrating the creativity that people have when they make and mail me a postcard

PostSecret.com は

This one obviously was made out of half a Starbucks cup with a stamp and my home address written on the other side.

広告なしのブログとして 世界で最も訪問者の多いサイトになりました

Dear Birthmother, I have great parents. I've found love. I'm happy

これが現在の葉書のコレクションです

Secrets can remind us of the countless human dramas

50万通の秘密のピラミッドの上に

of frailty and heroism, playing out silently in the lives of people all around us even now

葉書の束を積もうと

Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I'm dead

妻が苦心しているところです

I used to work with a bunch of uptight religious people,

このコレクションの中から

so sometimes I didn't wear panties, and just had a big smile and chuckled to myself

選りすぐった秘密を

(Laughter)

いくつかご紹介します

This next one takes a little explanation before I share it with you

まずはこれです

I love to speak on college campuses and share secrets and the stories with students

“この切手は子どものときに見つけて

And sometimes afterwards I'll stick around and sign books and take photos with students

それを送る相手が現れるのを

And this next postcard was made out of one of those photos

ずっと待っていましたが

And I should also mention that, just like today

結局誰も現れませんでした”

at that PostSecret event, I was using a wireless microphone

秘密は様々な形を取り得ます

Your mic wasn't off during sound check. We all heard you pee (Laughter)

ショッキングなもの

This was really embarrassing when it happened,

馬鹿みたいなものもあれば 深い感情を伴っているものもあります

until I realized it couldn't been worse. Right. You know what I'm saying.

秘密は私達を深い人間性に触れさせ

Inside this envelope is the ripped up remains of a suicide note I didn't use

あるいは決して会うことのない人と結び合わせてくれるのです

I feel like the happiest person on Earth (now.)

“すごい感じ悪い客のを カフェイン抜きにしてやった！” (笑)

One of these men is the father of my son. He pays me a lot to keep it a secret (Laughter)

もしかしたら送ってくれた人が

That Saturday when you wondered where I was, well, I was getting your ring

この中にいるのかもしれませんね

It's in my pocket right now

これには 葉書を書いて送るときに

I had this postcard posted on the PostSecret blog two years ago on Valentine's Day

発揮される 人々の創造性が

It was the very bottom, the last secret in the long column.

見事に現れています

And it hadn't been up for more than a couple hours before I received this exuberant email from the guy who mailed me this postcard

見ての通り スタバの紙コップから作ってあって

And he said,

反対側には切手と私の宛名があります

Frank, I've got to share with you this story that just played out in my life,He said

“私を産んでくれたお母さんへ 私には素晴らしい—

My knees are still shaking

両親がいます 愛を見つけました とても幸せです”

He said, For three years, my girlfriend and I, we've made it this Sunday morning ritual

今この瞬間にも 私達の周りの人々の生活の中で

to visit the PostSecret blog together and read the secrets out loud

静かに起きている 数え切れない人間のドラマ

I read some to her, she reads some to me

もろさ 勇敢さを

He says, It's really brought us closer together through the years.

秘密は私達に

And so when I discovered that you had posted my surprise proposal to my girlfriend at the very bottom,

思い起こさせてくれるのです

I was beside myself

“9/11以前に僕のことを知っていた人はみんな

And I tried to act calm, not to give anything away

僕が死んだと思っている”

And just like every Sunday, we started reading the secrets out loud to each other

“以前堅苦しくて敬虔な人ばかりの中で働いていたので

He said, But this time it seemed like it was taking her forever to get through each one.

時々パンティを履かずに行って

But she finally did. She got to that bottom secret, his proposal to her

ひとりほくそ笑んでいました”

And he said, She read it once and then she read it again

(笑)

And she turned to him and said, Is that our cat? (Laughter)

次のはお見せする前に少し説明が必要でしょう

And when she saw him, he was down on one knee, he had the ring out.

私は大学のキャンパスに行って講演し

He popped the question, she said yes. It was a very happy ending.

学生に秘密や逸話について話すのが好きです

So I emailed him back and I said,

終わった後もよくその場に残って

Please share with me an image, something that I can share with the whole PostSecret community and let everyone know your fairy tale ending

本にサインしたり 学生と記念写真を撮ったりしています

And he emailed me this picture.(Laughter)

次の葉書はそういった写真の

I found your camera at Lollapalooza this summer

一枚から作られています

I finally got the pictures developed and I'd love to give them to you

それから そのPostSecretの

This picture never got returned back to the people who lost it

イベントでは 今と同じように

but this secret has impacted many lives, starting with a student up in Canada named Matty

ワイヤレスマイクを使っていました

Matty was inspired by that secret to start his own website,

“音声チェックのとき マイクが

a website called IFoundYourCamera.

切れてませんでしたよ みんなあなたが

Matty invites people to mail him digital cameras that they've found

おしっこする音を聞いていました” (笑)

memory sticks that have been lost with orphan photos

これを見て すごく恥ずかしく—

And Matty takes the pictures off these cameras and posts them on his website every week

なりましたが もっとひどいことになっていたかも知れないと気付きました

And people come to visit to see if they can identify a picture they've lost

お分かりでしょう？

or help somebody else get the photos back to them that they might be desperately searching for.

(笑)

This one's my favorite. (Laughter)

“この封筒の中には

Matty has found this ingenious way to leverage the kindness of strangers

使わずに破った

And it might seem like a simple idea, and it is,

自殺の遺書が入っています

but the impact it can have on people's lives can be huge

私は地上で一番幸福な人間だと感じています(今では)”

Matty shared with me an emotional email he received from the mother in that picture.

“この中に息子の父親がいます

That's me, my husband and son. The other pictures are of my very ill grandmother

それを秘密にしておくために お金をたくさん出してくれます”

Thank you for making your site.

(笑)

These pictures mean more to me than you know

“土曜日に僕がどこに行っていたのか訝しんでいたけど

My son's birth is on this camera. He turns four tomorrow

君の指輪を買いに行っていたんだ

Every picture that you see there and thousands of others have been returned back to the person who lost it --

今 それが僕のポケットに入っている”

sometimes crossing oceans, sometimes going through language barriers.

これは２年前のバレンタインデーに

This is the last postcard I have to share with you today

PostSecretに載せたものです

When people I love leave voicemails on my phone I always save them in case they die tomorrow

たくさんの秘密の中の一番下にありました

and I have no other way of hearing their voice ever again

２時間もしないうちに

When I posted this secret, dozens of people sent voicemail messages from their phones,

この葉書をくれた人から

sometimes ones they'd been keeping for years, messages from family or friends who had died

歓喜に満ちたメールが届きました

They said that by preserving those voices and sharing them,

“フランクさん 今僕に起きたばかりのことを

it helped them keep the spirit of their loved ones alive.

あなたに話さずにはいられません

One young girl posted the last message she ever heard from her grandmother.

膝がまだ震えています

Secrets can take many forms

３年間 僕と彼女は一緒に

They can be shocking or silly or soulful

PostSecretで秘密を読むのを

They can connect us with our deepest humanity or with people we'll never meet again.

日曜の朝の

Voicemail recording: First saved voice message

決まりのようにしていました

Grandma：♫ It's somebody's birthday today ♫ ♫

僕が彼女にいくつか読み 彼女が僕にいくつか読むという具合です

Somebody's birthday today ♫ ♫

それが僕たちをぐっと

The candles are lighted ♫ ♫ on somebody's cake ♫

近づけてくれたのだと思います

♫ And we're all invited ♫ ♫ for somebody's sake

だから 僕のプロポーズ作戦の葉書が

♫ You're 21 years old today

一番下にあるのを

Have a real happy birthday, and I love you. I'll say bye for now.

見つけたときには

FW: Thank you.(Applause)

もう心臓がバクバクしていました

June Cohen: Frank, that was beautiful, so touching.

ばれないよう平静を装いながら

Have you ever sent yourself a postcard? Have you ever sent in a secret to PostSecret?

いつもの日曜のように

I have one of my own secrets in every book

秘密を交互に読んでいきました

I think in some ways, the reason I started the project, even though I didn't know it at the time,

でも今回は １つひとつ読み進むのが

was because I was struggling with my own secrets.

永遠にも等しく感じられました”

And it was through crowd-sourcing, it was through the kindness that strangers were showing me,

そして彼女はついに最後の秘密—

that I could uncover parts of my past that were haunting me.

彼のプロポーズにたどり着きます

JC: And has anyone ever discovered which secret was yours in the book?

“彼女は一度読み上げ それからもう一度読み返しました”

Has anyone in your life been able to tell?

そして彼女は彼に向かって言いました

FW: Sometimes I share that information, yeah.

“これうちの猫ちゃんじゃない！”

(Laughter)

(笑)

(Applause)

彼女が彼を見ると