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本帖最后由 网海一声笑 于 2018-5-8 10:55 编辑
2017年芝加哥大学毕业演讲《思维与亲密》
作者:向杨
厌倦了哈佛耶鲁、斯坦福式的毕业鸡汤;厌倦了万金油的主题:遵从你的心声,做真实的自己,追逐自己的激情,未来无限可能云云;厌倦了喧嚣与躁动,焦虑与鸡血。全美第一“修道院高校”芝加哥大学,毕业演讲风格迥异,给教育界带来了一股清流。
大卫·布鲁克斯(David Brooks)毕业于芝加哥大学历史系,系《纽约时报》专栏作家,美国知名公共知识分子。2017年毕业典礼,芝加哥大学第一次邀请非本校教职员工做毕业致辞,布鲁克斯接受邀请,演讲颇具芝大风。他回忆当年芝大的学习生活,探讨芝大给予自己与未能给予自己的精神财富,集中体现了全美“第一修道院”内的精神世界。我在芝大现场聆听了演讲,印象深刻,一度打算翻译全文,直至本期翻译制作。
2017芝加哥大学毕业演讲 大卫·布鲁克斯
01 I was so honored to be invited to be the inaugural Class Day Speaker. But obviously since I’m a graduate of the University of Chicago, I couldn’t just accept the invitation I had to overanalyze it. 很荣幸能受邀来开放日作毕业典礼演讲。但我是芝加哥大学毕业的,我不能简单地接受邀请,我还要过度分析一下这次邀请。
My first thought was that since this is Chicago it couldn’t just be class day; maybe it was class conflict day with special appearances by Marx and Engels and Race, Class and Gender day with Betty Friedan T-Shirts. 我首先想到的是,既然这是芝大,所以这肯定不是简单的开放日;也许这应该是阶级斗争开放日,有打扮成马克思和恩格斯的人出没,或者有穿着贝蒂·弗里德曼的T-恤,庆祝种族、阶级、性别自由的学生。
Then I began wondering why the University of Chicago class is asking me of all people to be a speaker at this big event. I remembered the major addresses of my own time here and how intellectually rigorous they were. 然后我又开始想,为什么芝大偏偏请我来这个重要的场合当致辞嘉宾。我还记得我上学那时候的致辞嘉宾,他们个个严谨治学、富有洞见。
I remembered that Freshman year a noted philosopher gave an uplifting Aims of Education Address called “Death, Despair, Desolation and the Futility of Human Existence.” 我记得新生入学年,一位有名的哲学家发表了振奋人心的《教育宗旨》演讲,题为:“死亡、绝望、孤独以及人类存在的虚无”。
Then senior year at commencement our speaker was a noted biologist. I found myself tremendously inspired by his uplifting talk, “The Sixteen Qualities of Nucleic Acid.” 然后到了高年级的毕业典礼上,致辞嘉宾是位知名的生物学家。我发觉自己被他激情四射的演讲深深打动:《核酸的十六个特性》。
Eventually I realized that I am being invited because Chicago is trying to be like a normal school with a celebrity commencement speaker. But of course they couldn’t go for a big time celebrity right off the bat. Chicago is a place where you lose your virginity slowly. 最终我意识到,我之所以受邀,是因为芝大想努力地表现出,它是所“正常”的学校,有名人来做毕业典礼致辞嘉宾。当然,校方不能一下子就请一个大牌的明星。毕竟,在芝加哥就连失去自己的第一次都要很晚才实现。
For the first class day speaker, they wanted someone on TV, but only on PBS. Then, after everybody is acclimated to the outside speaker thing, they could go ahead and invite someone big. 因此,选开放日致辞嘉宾时,他们希望是在电视能看到的人,但是仅限PBS电台。当所有人都习惯了致辞嘉宾来自外界时,校方就可以请点大人物了。
That’s when the truth came to me. I am University of Chicago’s gateway drug to Stephen Colbert. You, the class of 2017 will have to suffer through me so that future classes can enjoy Matt Damon. That’s what I call living for something larger than self. 我就是这么领悟到了玄机。我呢,是芝大请来的“入门级”的扣扣熊(注:美国知名脱口秀主持人Stephen Colbert,被粉丝称为扣叔,扣扣熊等,以毒辣幽默的评论而为人称道。诱导性毒品可以是酒精、大麻等等,被认为是毒品的入门级。)。你们2017级的新生呢,要先过我这一关,然后才能在将来享受马特·达蒙(注:美国著名演员,代表组作《谍影重重》、《拯救大兵瑞恩》、《火星救援》等)。我管这叫做为了更大的目标而活着。
When I realized what was going on, I confess I was tempted to do what you millennials are always doing. I decided I would feel triggered and unsafe and lead a campaign to get myself disinvited. All the historical traumas of being a lower-middle range celebrity came down on me and I retreated to my safe space, which is under the bar at Jimmy’s. 当我意识到我为什么受邀时,我其实差点儿没忍住做了你们千禧年一代爱做的事。我得觉得自己受到高能预警,没有安全感,要发起一场运动,抵制这次自己的受邀。之前作为一名中低端名人的种种伤痛记忆都向我袭来,我退回了自己的安全区,就是吉米酒吧那里。(注:千禧年一代指在1981-2000年出生的人)
But since none of you did your generational duty and got me blocked from this gig, I’ve decided to go ahead. 但既然你们没有履行你们这一代的义务,像之前那样抵制致辞嘉宾,我决定继续说下去。
Since Chicago is new to this game I should note that there are certain traditions involved in these kinds of occasions. 既然芝加哥大学对于“正常”的毕业致辞还不熟悉,我需要指出在这种场合下一般有的传统元素。
At occasions like this major universities ask a person who has achieved a fantastic career success to give you a speech telling you that career success is not important. 像今天这个场合,知名大学会请一位功成名就知名人士来给你们致辞,告诉你们,成功并不重要。
At occasions like this major universities often ask billionaires to give speeches telling you how much you can learn from failure. From this you can take away the lesson that failure seems really great if you happen to be Steve Jobs or J.K. Rowling. 像今天这样,知名大学常常会邀请亿万富翁来致辞,告诉你们能从失败中学到什么。从这种讲话中将领略到失败是多么了不起的事情,当然,你得恰好是乔布斯或者J.K.罗琳才行。
Then we speakers are supposed to give you a few minutes of completely garbage advice: Listen to your inner voice. Be true to yourself. Follow your passion. Your future is limitless. 然后我们这种嘉宾就该有模有样得给你们一些烂大街的建议:遵从你的心声呀,做真实的自己呀。追逐自己的激情呀,你的未来无限可能呀之类的。
First, my generation gives you a mountain of debt; then we give you career-derailing guidelines that will prevent you from ever paying it off. 事实上,我们这一代人让你欠下一屁股债(即美国国债),然后给你一些绝对会搞砸事业的建议,让你以后连债务都还不清。
That’s why when I’m asked to speak at these things I always try to tell graduates is that since you haven’t graduated from college before you may not know the etiquette. When you get your degree, it’s always nice to tip President Zimmer 10 or 20 bucks just to show he did a good job. It’s also nice to slip the class day speaker a few bills—maybe two or three thousand. Five thousand for the economy majors. 正因如此,轮到我讲这些的时候,我总是试着向毕业生传达,由于你们之前没有经历过大学毕业这事,可能就不知道这里面的套路。当你接过毕业证书时,最好打赏校长齐默10到20美元,等于是为他的工作点个赞。当然最好也能给开放日致辞嘉宾塞些钱——塞个两三千美元什么的。经济系的就给五千吧。
On these occasions I also always try to inspire students by telling them about the glittering possibilities in front of them. Within just a few short years many you will be sleeping on your parent’s couches while working for a completely dysfunctional NGO. Others of you will have soul crushing jobs as corporate consultants, working on power points presentations past midnight at the Topeka Comfort Inn. 在这种场合,我通常会试着鼓励一下学子,告诉他们未来一些闪光般的机遇。过不了几年,你们中就会有不少人躺在父母的沙发上呼呼大睡,平时也就是去些办不下去的非政府组织里打打酱油。还有一些会被企业咨询一类的工作磨掉心智,天天为了 PPT 在 Topeka Comfort Inn熬到半夜。 (注:Topeka Comfort Inn是那种几十美金一晚的廉价旅店,名字里面带“舒适”,略讽刺)
I’m here to help you navigate these exciting possibilities. I’m here to help you take advantage of the skills you learned at the University of Chicago. You learned how to dominate classroom discussion after having done none of the reading. You learned how to stare at professors with looks of complete rapt attention even though secretly you were completely asleep. 我今天来就是给你们说说该怎么应对这类鸡冻人心的未来。我过来是帮你利用好在芝大学到的技能。你学会了在不做任何阅读的情况下,依然在课堂讨论中称霸一方。你学会了假装全神贯注地盯着台上的教授,实际上你早已昏昏欲睡。
I’m here to urge (you to) lives of public service, working on Capitol Hill for congressmen, while bringing the nation’s top leaders coffee and sexual tension. I’m here to urge you to serve the world’s poorest people in ways that will look really good on your resume, like organizing an anti-malarial bed net drives while rocking Jimmy Choos at Goldman Sachs. I’m here because, as someone who now teachers at Yale, you should have some sense of what it would have been like if you’d been accepted there. 你们要尽早从政为民,去国会山给众议员工作,给政界高层人物端个咖啡、带来性焦虑。(注:讽刺办公室性骚扰以及指控性骚扰带来的冲突)去帮助那些穷困潦倒之人,让自己的简历看起来漂亮。比如组织个反疟疾蚊帐推广运动什么的,同时自己拎着吉米·周的包包在高盛晃悠。我今天来是因为,由于我现在在耶鲁教书,所以你应该能大概知道如果你去那儿的话,你感受到的氛围是怎样的。
But ultimately, I’m not here to give you some standard speech. This is Chicago. This is the only time in my life that I will get to address the graduating class at my own school, at the place that formed me down to my bones. 但话说回来,我来这儿不是为了熬一锅程式化的鸡汤。这里是芝加哥。这是我人生中唯一一次能给我的母校毕业生致辞的机会。芝大给我打上了深深的烙印。
I confess I didn’t enjoy every day I spent here. I majored in History and Celibacy. I learned how to walk through campus while awkwardly averting my eyes from anybody I might know. But like all of you, I was changed fundamentally in this place. 说实话,我当时并非每天都很开心。我主修历史也主修禁欲。我学会了如何在穿过校园的同时又假装没看到任何一个我可能认识的人。但和你们一样,芝大彻底改变了我。
The older I get the more I become aware of how it shaped me. I’m 34 years out of college and I feel more influenced by the University of Chicago today than I did on the day I graduated. 随着年岁的增长,我越发体会到芝大对我的影响。我毕业都34年了,可我感觉如今芝大对我的影响甚至比我毕业时还明显。
So today I’d really like to talk to you about two things: The things Chicago gave me, which I’ve carried through life, and the things Chicago failed to give me, which I had to learn on my own. 所以今天我想给你们讲两点:芝大教给我让我受用至今的东西,以及它没有教给我从而我必须自己学习的东西。
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