英文演讲 | 2019年耶鲁大学校长毕业致辞：你的追求是什么？（含视频）

2019年5月17日，耶鲁大学举行了2019届本科生毕业典礼，校长苏必德（Peter Salovey）发表名为“What Are You For?”的演讲，在这篇演讲中，校长告诉学生们耶鲁的学位所承载的“权利和责任”，鼓励耶鲁的毕业生们不只是批评，更要去创造，去思考自己所追求的是什么，在这个世界承担起属于自己的责任。也许也能让你有所思考：

“It is precisely because our challenges are so great that outrage is not enough. Pointing out what is wrong is merely the beginning, not the end, of our work...by serving others and our communities with the many gifts you have been given, you will live a life that is for something, a life of meaning and purpose.”

“正因为我们面临的挑战如此艰巨，只有愤怒远远不够。指出问题所在只是我们工作的开始，而不是结束......运用你们诸多的天赋才能去服务他人和社会，你们的人生必将有所为、有意义、有目标。”

——苏必德 (Peter Salovey)

▲ 演讲视频（全程）

Graduates of the Class of 2019, family members, and friends:

2019届的毕业生、家长和朋友们：

Good morning. It is a privilege to be here with you today. Commencement is a time of beginnings and endings: of looking to the future with hope while saying farewell with both joy and, perhaps, nostalgia. It is a jumble of emotions for all of us and a field day for a psychologist! Enjoy all those feelings: it's hard to imagine you’ll have an experience quite like this again.

早上好！很荣幸今天能和大家共聚一堂。每年的毕业典礼既是起点也是终点，既可以满怀希望地憧憬未来，也难免悲喜交加地依依惜别。对我们所有人而言，这是一个百感交集的时刻；而对于像我这样的心理学家来说，这绝对是一个值得研究考察的日子。好好享受此刻的所有情感吧，这样的体验一生中很难再有了。

So, there is a wonderful Yale tradition that I would like to honor right now:

耶鲁有一个很好的传统，下面，请允许我遵循这一传统……

And so may I ask all of the families and friends were here today to rise and recognize the outstanding and graduating members of the Class of 2019?

请今天在座的所有毕业生家属和朋友们起立，向2019届杰出的毕业生们表示祝贺。

And now, may I ask the Class of 2019 to consider all those who have supported your arrival at this milestone, and to please rise and recognize them.

现在，请2019届的全体毕业生感念所有支持你们走到今天的人，请起立向他们致敬。

Thank you!

In September 1974, Kingman Brewster, Jr., then president of Yale, spoke to members of the Class of 1978, seated right where you are now. He told them, “Many of us have just been on a ten-year trip of moral outrage: anti-Wallace, anti-War, anti-Watergate. We have been so sure about what we were against that we have almost forgotten how difficult it is to know what we are for and how to achieve it.”

1974年9月，时任耶鲁大学校长（小）金曼·布鲁斯特在开学典礼上对1978届学生发表演讲，他们就坐在你们现在坐的位置上。校长对他们说：“我们许多人在道义上刚刚经历了长达十年的愤怒宣泄：反华莱士、反战、反水门事件。我们对所反对的事物深信不疑，以至于几乎忘记了我们在追求什么以及如何实现它。”

Does this sound familiar? Today, perhaps more than ever, it is easy to know what you’re against and far more difficult to say what you’re for.

这听起来是否有点儿耳熟？今天，可能比以往任何时候都更容易知道你反对什么，也比任何时候都更难说明你追求什么。

What we’re against is going to be different for each of us. Maybe you’re against border walls and I’m against guns; your neighbor is against trade wars and your cousin is against abortion. For some, capitalism is the problem, while others fear the specter of socialism. By this point, I bet all of you are against sitting in old buildings with no air conditioning, listening to a long speech! So, I’ll get to the point…

每个人反对的事物并不相同。也许你反对边境筑墙，而我反对枪支；你的邻居可能反对贸易战，而你的表亲反对堕胎。有些人认为资本主义是问题所在，而另一些人担心的则是社会主义。不过此刻，我敢肯定，你们所有人都反对坐在这个没有空调的旧礼堂里听我的长篇大论！所以，我打算开门见山……

How many of you have seen a Marx Brothers movie? Although I’m not mistaken for Groucho Marx as often since I shaved my moustache, I still do have a weakness for his humor.

在座有多少人看过喜剧演员马克斯兄弟的电影？自从我刮掉上唇的胡子后，就不再像以前那样经常被人误认作格劳乔·马克斯了，虽然如此，我仍然对他的幽默风趣情有独钟。

One of Groucho’s best performances is when he plays a college president. It is a funny role. So in the opening scene of the movie Horse Feathers, Groucho, the new president of Huxley College, is told that the trustees have “a few suggestions” for him. Then he breaks into this song:

格劳乔最精彩的表演之一是在电影《趾高气扬》中扮演一位大学校长。这个角色很有趣。影片开场，这位赫胥黎学院的新校长被告知，校董们对他有“一些建议”，于是他就唱起了这首歌：

“I don’t know what they have to say

It makes no difference anyway

Whatever it is, I’m against it

No matter what it is or who commenced it

I’m against it

Your proposition may be good

But let’s have one thing understood:

Whatever it is, I’m against it.”

我不知道他们要说什么

但说什么都无所谓

不管说什么，我都将反对

我都将通通反对

你们的建议或许不错

但让我们明确一点：

I encourage you to look up the scene on YouTube—but not right now, please—because it’s still a very funny piece. It’s funny because it’s ridiculous, but also because it contains a kernel of truth. And the truth applies not only to college presidents, but to all of us.

建议大家去优兔找这段视频看看——可不是现在就找啊，谢谢——因为它今天仍然让人捧腹。它的好笑，不仅因为荒谬，还因为有其道理所在。这个道理不仅针对大学校长，也针对我们所有人。

How many times have we decided we’re against an idea before we’ve even heard it? How guilty are we of deciding “I’m against it” without even knowing what “it” is?

有多少次我们尚未听到一个想法就已经决定反对它了？在还不清楚“某件事物”是什么就已经下决心说“我反对”——对此我们该有多愧疚？

Many times we know what we’re against based on who is saying it. If an idea comes from a certain public figure, politician, or media outlet, we already know how we feel. Partly this is because our public discourse has become so predictable. We’ve lost the capacity for surprise, for revelation.

很多时候，我们知道自己反对什么取决于它是谁说的。如果出自某个公众人物、政治家或某家媒体，那我们就已经知道该怎么想了。一部分原因是我们的公共话语变得太容易预测。我们已经丧失了被震撼和被启迪的能力。

Speaking of predictable, here is the moment where an ambassador of an older generation—that will be me—tells millennials—most of you—about the evils of social media! But hear me out…

谈到可预测性，这一刻，我想代表老一代跟大多属于千禧一代的你们谈谈社交媒体的“罪恶”。请听我把话说完……

Obviously social media has transformed our lives and our relationships. And obviously it has many advantages, allowing us to share news and information quickly with people around the world. But it also heightens our sense of outrage and speeds up arguments, depriving us of the time and space for careful reflection.

显然，社交媒体彻底改变了我们的生活和人际关系。诚然，它有很多优点，让我们可以跟世界各地的人快速分享新闻和信息。但同时，它也剥夺了我们深思的时间与空间，导致我们愤怒加剧，争论也加速发生。

Bombarded with notifications, pressured to respond before the media cycle turns over, we tap out our position—our opposition—in seconds. It is easy to be against something in fewer than 280 characters. It is far more difficult to articulate what you are for and to do it at warp speed.

社交媒体上的信息让人应接不暇，我们必须在某个热点过气前发表言论，于是我们几秒钟就打出了自己支持或反对的立场。用不超过280个单词的表述反对一件事是容易的，要快速讲出你追求什么以及打算怎么做则困难得多。

Make no mistake: There are plenty of reasons to be outraged. My generation, your generation—we face not only grave moral challenges but existential threats: rising ocean levels globally and rising inequality in America; violence around the world and in our own backyards; the fraying of the social fabric. “The falcon cannot hear the falconer,” and we wonder if the center can hold.

请不要误会：愤怒的理由当然有很多。无论是我们这一代，还是在座的你们这一代——我们不仅面临严峻的道德挑战，更有生存威胁，比如全球海平面上升、美国不平等加剧、世界各地包括我们自己的后院暴力频发，以及社会组织涣散等。正如叶芝的诗句“猎鹰再听不见驯鹰人的呼声”，我们想知道中心是否还能维系得住。

I understand the impulse toward negativity. Like many of you, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face, by the injustices that call out for our condemnation. Yet it is precisely because our challenges are so great that outrage is not enough. Pointing out what is wrong is merely the beginning, not the end, of our work.

我理解奔向否定的冲动。和你们中的许多人一样，我有时也会对面临的挑战和需要谴责的不平感到应接不暇。然而，正因为我们面临的挑战如此艰巨，只有愤怒远远不够。指出问题所在只是我们工作的开始，而不是结束。

The Czech author Ivan Klima wrote, “To destroy is easier than to create, and that is why so many people are ready to demonstrate against what they reject. But what would they say if one asked them what they wanted instead?”

捷克作家伊凡·克里玛曾写道：“破坏比创造容易，所以才有那么多人公然表示自己反对某事。可如果你问他们想要什么，他们又会怎样作答呢？”

What would you say? What would I say? What are you for?

你们会怎么回答？我会怎么回答？你们追求的又是什么？

Klima’s life story is one of both criticism and creation. Born in Prague in 1931, he was sent to a Nazi concentration camp as a child. He survived and became an outspoken voice for democracy in Czechoslovakia.

克里玛自己的一生既有批判也有创造。他1931年出生于布拉格，童年时被关进纳粹集中营。他幸存下来，后来成为捷克斯洛伐克一位敢于直言的民主倡导者。

But in 1968, with the Soviet invasion and crackdown, Klima’s ideas became dangerous. He could have fled, but he chose to return home and continue his work in defiance of the Communist regime. He organized an underground meeting of writers who circulated manus in secret. Over the course of 18 years, those writers produced three hundred different works of art. They were critics, of course: critics of tyranny, critics of violence. But they were creators, too, of plays, novels, and poetry. They imagined, and helped create, a new and better world.

但是，1968年，随着苏联的入侵和镇压，克里玛的言论被当局视为危险思想。本可以逃离的他却选择返回家乡继续工作。他成立了地下作家组织，秘密传阅彼此的手稿。在18年的时间里，他们创作了300件不同的文艺作品。他们是批评者，没错，他们痛批专制、暴力，但他们也是戏剧、小说和诗歌的创作者。他们构想并帮助创造了一个新的、更加美好的世界。

What will you imagine? A better business, a smarter school, a stronger community? Whatever you are against, it is time to create something you are for.

在座的你们会有怎样的构想呢？一个更好的企业、一所更优质的学校，还是一个更强大的社区？无论你们反对什么，现在是时候创造你们所追求的事物了。

At Yale you have learned to do both: to imagine and create. You have studied and explored new ideas; made art and music; excelled in athletics; launched companies; and served your neighbors and the world. You have created a vibrant, diverse, and exciting community.

在耶鲁，你们既学会了想象，也学会了创造。你们研思想，创文艺，竞体育，办公司，近则服务邻里，远则奉献世界。你们创造了一个活泼、多元、精彩的社团。

Take these experiences with you and draw on them when you need encouragement. Remember a class that surprised you; a conversation that inspired you; a professor who believed in you. And take care to avoid what Toni Morrison calls “second-rate goals and second-hand ideas.

请把这些经历装入行囊，当你们需要鼓励的时候，可以从中汲取力量。记住曾让你惊喜的一节课，启发过你的一次谈话，或是一位给予你信任的教授。要留心避免作家托妮·莫里森所说的“二流目标和二手思想”。

“Our past is bleak. Our future dim,” Morrison writes. “But if we see the world as one long brutal game, then we bump into another mystery, the mystery of beauty, of light, of the canary that sings on the skulls.”

“我们的过去黯然惨淡，我们的未来阴暗朦胧。”莫里森写道，“但如果我们把这个世界看作一场漫长而残酷的游戏，那我们就会碰到另一个谜，那是美的谜、光的谜，是在骷髅上歌唱的金丝雀的谜。”

Being for something is a search for those mysteries, for that light: it is an act of radical optimism, a belief that a more perfect world is within reach and that we can help build it.

追求某件事便是寻找那些谜，寻找那束光：这是一种激进的乐观主义行为，是一种信念——坚信一个更完美的世界触手可及，坚信我们能够为它的建成做出贡献。

What are you for?

You may well turn that question back to me. What are you for, Peter Salovey?

你们可能会反问我：苏必德校长，你追求的是什么呢？

I am for the transformative power of a liberal education—one that asks you to think broadly, question everything, and embrace the joy of learning.

我追求博雅教育的重塑力量——它要求我们高瞻远瞩、质疑一切，且拥抱学习的快乐。

I am for the American Dream in all its rich promise—the idea that opportunities are shared widely and that access to education is within reach for the many, not the few.

我追求真正意义上的“美国梦”——机会广泛共享，接受教育是多数人的权利，而非少数人的特权。

I am for the robust and free exchange of ideas, as essential to the mission of a great university as it is to the health of our democracy.

我追求活跃且自由的思想交锋，因为这对一所伟大学府和我们民主政体的良好运转都至关重要。

I am for a world where we welcome the immigrant, the poor, and the forgotten; we do not shut them out or silence them; a world where showing empathy and understanding is considered the true hallmark of success, of a life well-lived.

我追求这样一个世界，那里欢迎移民、穷人和被遗忘的人，不会把他们拒之门外或封住他们的口；在那里，同理心和理解的展现才是成功和美好生活的真正标志。

That is what I am for.

Yale’s mission says, in part, that we are “committed to improving the world today and for future generations.” That commitment does not end at graduation.

耶鲁的使命包含这样一句话：致力于改善世界，为今天也为后人。这个承诺不会在毕业时终止。

Soon you will leave Yale and, as Robert Penn Warren, who studied and taught at Yale, wrote, “Go into the convulsion of the world, out of history and into history.”

你们即将离开耶鲁，正如曾在耶鲁学习和授课的文学家罗伯特·佩恩·沃伦所说：“进入那个动乱的世界，走出历史，也走进历史。”

Indeed, you will go into history and make history.

的确，你们即将走进历史，并创造历史。

Looking around me today, I think of the generations of Yale graduates who have come before you. Individuals who have been for something.

今天，我环顾四周，想起了诸位之前的那一代代耶鲁毕业生。那些有所追求的人。

There are many names we know and others that would be less familiar—presidents and world leaders, artists and business executives, scholars and scientists.

许多名字我们都很熟悉，有总统和世界领袖，有艺术家和企业高管，有学者和科学家，还有很多我们不那么熟知的名字。

Like them, I know you will heed the call to leadership and service and leave your mark on every realm of human endeavor.

我相信你们也将像他们一样，听从召唤成为领导者和服务者，在人类开拓的每一处疆域留下你们的印迹。

That is Yale’s mission—that is what Yale is for.

As members of the Yale community, what do we believe?

作为耶鲁的一员，我们相信什么呢？

We believe that facts and expertise, applied with creativity and wisdom, can transform the world.

我们相信，事实和专业再加上创造力和智慧，可以改变世界。

We believe that education and research save lives and make life more meaningful.

我们相信，教育和研究可以拯救生命，让生活更有意义。

We believe that diversity of thought and diversity in deed are essential to human progress.

我们相信，思想和行为的多样性对人类的进步至关重要。

We believe, most of all, in the boundless potential of human ingenuity; that together, we can solve great challenges and bring light and truth to a world in great need of it.

最重要的是，我们相信人类无限的创造潜力；我们相信，只要齐心协力，我们就能战胜巨大的挑战，把光明和真理带到亟需它们的那个世界。

On Monday during, tomorrow, during your commencement ceremonies, I will confer on you all the “rights and responsibilities” of a Yale degree. Yours is a great responsibility. You will have to know what you are for. What are you for?

在星期一也就是明天的学位授予典礼上，我会授予诸位耶鲁学位所承载的“权利和责任”。诸位任重道远，因此必须清楚你们所追求的是什么。

“Surely in the light of history,” Eleanor Roosevelt said, “it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.”

埃莉诺·罗斯福（罗斯福总统夫人）曾说过：“从历史的角度看，明智者总是怀抱希望而非心存恐惧，勇于尝试而非望而却步。”

Yale has prepared you, as a scholar and a human being, to try; to face challenges with courage and determination. And I trust you are leaving Yale with a sense of your own responsibilities to one another, to the planet, and to our shared future.

耶鲁已经为你们成为学者和这样的人做好准备；拿出勇气和决心去面对挑战吧。我相信，在座诸位离开耶鲁时，一定怀着一份对彼此、对世界、对人类共同未来的责任感。

By serving others and our communities with the many gifts you have been given, you will live a life that is for something, a life of meaning and purpose.

运用你们诸多的天赋才能去服务他人和社会，你们的人生必将有所为、有意义、有目标。

There is no time to waste; there are no words to waste: As a young Bob Dylan sang in 1965, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” We must give life to new ideas, imagine new ways of being in the world, new answers to the problems that vex us and our neighbors.

没有时间可以浪费；也没有语言可以浪费：正如1965年青春年少的鲍勃•迪伦所唱的那样：“不忙于生，必忙于死。”我们必须给予生命以新思想，想象在这个世界上生存的新方式，寻找恼人问题的新答案。

Now is the time.

Members of the Class of 2019 (please rise):

2019届的毕业生们（请起立）：

We are delighted to salute your accomplishments, and we are proud of your achievements. Remember to give thanks for all that has brought you to this day. And go forth from this place with grateful hearts, paying back the gifts you have received here by using your minds, your voices, and your hands to imagine and create the new worlds you wish to see.

我们心怀喜悦向你们所取得的成就致敬，也为你们感到自豪。请记得感谢所有帮助你们走到今天的人。请带着感恩的心离开这里，用你们的思想、声音和双手去想象、去创造你们希望看到的新世界，以此来回报你们在这里所得到的馈赠。

What are you for?

你们的追求是什么？

Congratulations, Class of 2019!

祝贺你们，2019届的毕业生们！

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