每年毕业季，国内外各大高校的毕业典礼演讲都备受网友关注。
当地时间5月24日，华人影星、2023年奥斯卡最佳女主角获得者杨紫琼（Michelle Yeoh）作为演讲嘉宾，出席了哈佛大学法学院（Harvard Law School）的毕业典礼。
哈佛法学院官网报道
据哈佛法学院官网，当天，杨紫琼表示，毕业生们正准备进入一个“可能光明但不可预测的未来”，并为他们提供了三条人生建议：保持轻松（stay loose），知道自己的极限（know your limits），找到自己的同伴（find your people）。↓
Michelle Yeoh, Academy-award winning actress, advocate, and United Nations Development Programme Goodwill ambassador, offered the Class of 2023 some advice during the Class Day celebration on Wednesday as they were poised to dive into “a presumably bright but unpredictable future.”
保持轻松（stay loose）
出生于马来西亚的杨紫琼说，自己最初的爱好是跳舞，而不是演戏。她从4岁开始学习芭蕾舞，夜以继日地训练，还考上了英国的一所芭蕾舞名校。然而，一次脊椎受伤后，她不得不放弃了这个梦想。
杨紫琼说，感谢舞蹈学校的校长给了她鼓励，“是她鼓励我对未来保持轻松的态度”, 最终让她走上了“一份超出我想象的事业”，
Her first piece of advice was to stay loose. Yeoh, who was born in Malaysia, described her first love as being dance rather than acting.
But after she enrolled in a ballet school in England and began to live her dream, all that changed after a spinal injury. Yeoh credits the principal of her school for giving her the encouragement that ultimately led her, she said, to “a career beyond my imagination. It was she who encouraged me to stay loose about my future.”
演讲视频截图
“当遭遇挫折时，人们倾向于变得紧张，以应对冲击。但事实上，一个人能做的最安全的方式就是保持轻松，甚至对周围不断变化的世界充满好奇。”杨紫琼说。
“When falling, the tendency is to tighten up, to brace for impact. But in truth, the safest thing one can do is remain calm, even curious, about the shifting world around you.” She said.
她讲到，自己毕业时获得了创意艺术学士（Bachelor in Creative Arts）。回到家乡后，她更加开放地面对一切可能性。她来到中国香港，开始接拍商业广告，最终进入电影行业成为了一名演员。
She described graduating with a degree in creative arts, and returning home, “more open to other possibilities outside the box,” including to doing a commercial in Hong Kong, and to acting roles, and the start of her life in film.
知道自己的极限（know your limits）
在香港从事演艺工作时，杨紫琼发现，“虽然知道自己能做什么很关键，但知道自己不能做什么也很重要。”
This led to her second piece of advice: Know your limits. “Although understanding what you can do is essential,” she said, “understanding what you can’t do is pretty important too.”
“知道自己的极限在哪里，能让你保持谦逊、充满动力，并专注于自己的目标。知道别人为你设定的限制，会让你有机会指出问题。”她说，“知道自己的极限能让你学会尊重，而别人设定的限制则是了为了打破的。”
“Knowing your limits keeps you humble, motivated, and focused on a goal to point your finger toward. Knowing the limits that are set for you by others gives you a place to point a different finger,” she said.
“Limitations set by yourself give you boundaries to respect, but limitations set by others give you boundaries to bust through,” said Yeoh.
作为一名试图进入香港电影界的年轻女性，杨紫琼在每一个转折点都面临着“别人设定的限制”。
她回忆说，在职业生涯开始时，她得到了一个又一个刻板印象中的亚洲女性角色——“温顺端庄、等着被救的落难少女”。她很快意识到，自己真正想要扮演的是动作片里的英雄人物。
As a young woman trying to break into film in Hong Kong, Yeoh was confronted with limitations at every turn. Initially cast in stereotypical roles — “the demure, docile damsel in distress,” she said she soon realized she wanted to play the action roles, the heroes.
“当然，这些通常都是为男演员设定的角色，”她说，“但我能看到他们的打斗镜头是经过精心编排的，我打心眼里清楚，我有舞蹈方面的训练基础，只要给我机会，我就能轻松驾驭这些武打编排。”
“Of course, these were then reserved exclusively for men,” she recalled, “but I could see that their fight sequences were highly choreographed, and I knew in my bones that my training in dance would allow me to excel at them, if only I were given the chance.”
于是，杨紫琼去找她的制片人，说她想要一个武打角色，准备好了做男演员所做的一切，“动作编排、特技、承受被打、威亚，所有的一切。“怎么，这很难吗?”她幽默反问道，引发台下听众一片笑声。
She went to her producer and said that she wanted an action role, and she was prepared to do everything the men were doing, “the choreography, the stunts, taking the blows, all of it. What, like it’s hard?”
当机会终于来临时，她知道成败在此一举（make or break），于是立即抓住了这个机会。她说，事实证明，“值得庆幸的是，观众们比预料中更能接受女演员出演武打片。” 1985年，杨紫琼出演的第一部电影《皇家师姐》（Yes ，Madam！）广受好评，从此开启了她的演艺生涯。
When the chance finally came, she knew it was make-or-break, and she seized the moment. “As it turned out, she said, “thankfully, audiences were more than ready for a female star in action comedies.” The film, “Yes Madam,” was well received and launched her career.
“我知道我成功了，”她说，“不久之后，我成为了除李连杰和成龙外，香港保险公司拒绝承保的第三个人。他们只看了一眼我们要拍摄的动作场面就跑了。我把这视作一种荣誉。”
“I knew I had made it,” she said, “when, soon after, I joined Jet Li and Jackie Chan as the three people who Hong Kong insurers refused to cover. They took one look at the scenes we were shooting and ran for the hills. I wore that as a badge of honor.
“正如你们所想，会有受伤。但经历过所有这些划伤、擦伤、淤青还有脊椎骨折之后，我都变得强大、更勇敢了。”
There were injuries, as you can imagine, but with every nick, scratch, and bruise, and fractured vertebra, I came back better and braver,” she said.
“学会跌倒教会你如何平稳落地；学会平稳落地，能给你跳的更高的勇气。”杨紫琼说。
“Learning how to fall teaches you how to land. And learning to land gives you the courage to jump higher,” she added.
后来，杨紫琼出演了《007之明日帝国》（Tomorrow Never Dies）、《卧虎藏龙》（Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon）等大制作，在影坛赤手空拳打出了自己“东方侠女”的知名度。
《007：明日帝国》剧照
她说，这些例子说明了限制的重要性。“因为我们的限制变成了挑战，没有什么比挑战更能让你工作、努力和进步。对于每一个贬低我的角色，每一个收到的拒绝，每一次有人低估我，我都找到了能量和新的动力。"
These examples illustrate the importance of limitations, she said. “Because our limitations become our challenges, and there is nothing like a challenge to keep you working, striving, and pushing for more. Every demeaning role I was offered, every rejection I was handed, and every time someone underestimated me … I found energy and renewed motivation.”
找到自己的同伴（find your people）
杨紫琼说，自己不可能一个人完成所有的事情。“我的成就是我和我周围的人共同努力的结果，他们一直给予我，并继续给予我支持和信念。有时候，我不想让自己失望，但我更不想让他们失望。”
This brought Yeoh to her third piece of advice: “Find your people.” She said she could not have done any of what she has alone. “My achievements are the results of those around me who offered, and continue to offer, support and belief. There are times where, as much as I don’t want to let myself down, I don’t want to let them down even more.”
她对群体的定义很宽泛，包括家人和朋友，以及与她共事过或有过交集的各种个人。她心中的群体也超越了时间：“我站在前人的肩膀上，我被后人激励和鼓舞。”
Yeoh said her definition of community is vast, including family and friends and a wide range of individuals she has worked with or crossed paths with. Her community also transcends time: “I stand on the shoulders of those who have come before me, and I am energized and inspired by those who come after me.”
“每一个成功者，未必都不曾失败”，她提醒即将毕业的学生说，“事实上，大多数成功故事与其说是关于竞争，不如说是关于合作。”
“For every winner, there doesn’t have to be a loser,” she reminded the soon-to-be graduates. “In fact, most success stories are less about competition and more about collaboration.”
她认为，这种集体意识需要表现出来，尤其是在娱乐领域：“当我们照亮我们周围丰富多彩的世界时，我们赋予了我们整个人类以力量。我觉得没有比这更好的理由让我早上起来工作了。”
For her, this sense of community requires representation, particularly in entertainment: “When we shine a light on the rich and varied world around us, we empower the whole of our humanity. I can see no better reason to wake up in the morning and get to work.”
除了电影生涯，杨紫琼还担任联合国开发计划署的亲善大使，也是昂山素季基金会董事会副主席（该基金会在缅甸促进教育和健康）。
Beyond her film career, Yeoh is known as a fierce advocate for human rights and environmental causes, both as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme and as the vice-president of the board of the Suu Foundation (which promotes education and health in Myanmar).
“我目睹了继续困扰世界各地的社会严重不平等现象，我更清楚地看到，妇女和女童往往是最后获得清洁水和疫苗等基本服务的人，特别是在危机中。为此，我决心始终站在他们一边，为消除他们的苦难而奋斗。”
It also includes people she is serving around the globe through her role as UNDP ambassador. “I have witnessed the deep inequalities that continue to plague societies around the world, and I have seen up close how women and girls are often the last to get essential services, like clean water and vaccines, especially in crises. For this reason, I have committed myself to walking in lockstep with their struggle.”
“改变的先决条件是同理心，”她说。同理心能“激活我们的同情心，它成为现实世界中可证明的行动的驱动力。”
“The prerequisite to change is empathy,” she said. Empathy “activates our compassion, which becomes the driving force for real-world demonstrable action.”
在演讲最后，杨紫琼对2023届毕业生说：“今天，你们就要毕业，跃入社会。保持轻松，保持机敏，与爱同行。跳跃吧，然后一次又一次的跳跃吧！”她说：“我期待着生活在你们共同创建的世界里。我也很荣幸能够在你们启程之际提供一点建议。”
To the Class of 2023, she concluded: “Today, you graduate and today you leap. Stay loose, be smart and go with love and then leap, and then leap again and leap again. I look forward to living in the world you'll all help build and I am honored to have been one small voice at the beginning of your journey.”
来源：21世纪英文报综合哈佛大学网站、沪江英语 编辑：韩辉