Commencencement Address
at Wellesley College
在韦尔斯利学院毕业典礼上的演讲
Barbara
Bush
芭芭拉.布什
Wellesley, you see, is
not just a place but an idea--an experiment in excellence in which
diversity(差异、多样性) is not
just tolerated, but is embraced. The essence（本质、精髓） of this
spirit was captured（捕捉、夺取） in a
moving speech about tolerance given last year by a student body
president of one of your sister colleges. She related the story by
Robert Fulghum about a young pastor（牧师）, finding himself
in chrge
of（负责）some very energetic children,
hits
upon（偶然发现、碰到）a game called
"Giants,Wizards（巫师）, and Dwarfs(矮子、侏儒)." "You have to
decide now," the pastor instructed the children, "which you are--a
giant, a wizard or a dwarf?" At that, a small girl tugging（拖、拽）at his pants
leg, asked, "But where do the mermaids（美人鱼） stand?" And
the pastor tells her there are no mermaids. And she says,"Oh yes,
there are. I am a mermaid."
你们看，韦尔斯利，不仅是一个地方，还是一种理念--一种对美德的考验。在此其中，多元化不仅得到了包容，而且还受到拥护。一个来自你们姐妹院校学生团体的主席，在去年一个关于宽容的感人演讲中，已经把握住了这种精神的实质。她谈到发生在罗伯特.富尔冈身上的一个故事，一个年轻的牧师带着一群非常活泼好动的孩子。无意中他碰上一个叫做“巨人、巫师和矮子”的游戏。“现在你们要决定啦，”他提醒那些小朋友，“你自己是哪种人：巨人、巫师、还是矮子？”他正要说着，一个小女孩拽着他的裤腿问道：“但是美人鱼呢？”那牧师告诉他没有美人鱼。但是她说：“有啊！有的，我就是一条美人鱼。”
Where do the mermaids stand? All of those who are different, those
who do not fit the boxes and the Pigeonholes(鸽巢、分类架)?
"Answer that question," wrote Fulghum, "and you can build a school,
a nation, or a whole world." As that very wise young woman said,
"Diversity, like anything worth having, requires effort.
Effort to learn about and
respect difference, to be compassionate（有同情心） with
one another, to cherish our own identity, and to accept
unconditionally（无条件的）
the same in other."
美人鱼的位置在哪儿？那些与众不同，不合适常规定位，不合适传统类别的人的位置又在哪儿？“如果你能够回答那个问题."富尔冈写道,"那么你就能以此办一所学校,建立一个国家或者整个世界."正如那个聪明绝顶的女孩子说的,“多样化,如同所有值得存在的东西那样,需要人们付出努力--努力去了解和尊重人之间的差异，互相爱护，珍惜自己的独特个性，同时条件的接纳别人同样具有的独特品质。”
You should all be very pround that this is the welleslesy
spirit.You have a first-class education from a first-class school.
And so you need not, probably cannot, live a "paint-by-numbers" (墨守成规)life. Decisions are not irrevocable(无法挽回). Choices do
come back. And as you set off from Wellesley, I
hope that many of you will consider making three very special
choices.
你们大家都应该以这就是韦尔斯利的精神而自豪.你们拥有来自一流学校的一流教育.所以你们不需要,很可能也不允许,过一种"墨守成规"的生活.决定并非无可挽回;选择确实还可以重来.在你们离开韦尔斯利之际,我希望你们中许多人会考虑作出三个十分特别的选择.
The first is to believe in something larger than yourself, to
get involved
in（参与、介入） some of the big ideas of our time.
I chose literacy because i honestly believe that if more people
could read, write and comprehend, we would be that much closer to
solving so many of the problems that plague (折磨，使苦恼)our nation and our
society.
第一个选择是，信仰某些比你自身更为博大的东西，并参与到我们这个时代一些大的构想中。我之所以选择了读写识字能力，是因为我真诚地信仰，多一些人能读会写，会理解，更利于我们解决诸多滋扰国家和社会的问题。
And early on I made another choice, which I hope you'll make as
well. Whether you are talking about education, career, or service,
you're talking about life--and life really must have joy. It's
supposed to be fun! Find the joy in life, because as Ferris Bueller sad on his day
off, "Life moves pretty fast; and ya don't stop and look around
once in a while, you're gonna miss it!"
早前，我做了另一个选择--我希望你们也同样会这样选择。无论你们谈论的是教育、职业生涯还是其他服务，你们说的都是生活--生活实在是要有乐趣吧，因为就像费里斯.巴勒在自己的假日里说：“人生过得飞快，要是你不偶尔停一停，到处瞧一瞧，就就会错过它啦！”
The third choice that must not be missed is to cherish your human
connections（关系）:
your relationships with family and friends. For several years,
you've had impressed upon you the importance to your career,
dedication（奉献、献身） and hard
work. And, of course, that's true. But as important as your
obligations（义务、责任） as a
doctor, a lawyer, a business leader will be, you are a human being
first. And those human connections--with spouses（配偶）, with children,
with friends--are the most important investment（投资） you will ever
make.
第三个你一定不要错过的选择就是，珍惜你的人际关系--你和家人朋友之间的关系。有好几年，你只记得成就自己的事业以及积极投身工作是何其重要。当然，那是对的。但是，和你作为医生、律师、商界领袖的职责一样重要的还有一样东西，那就是，你首先是人类一员。而那些人际关系--夫妻之间的，父母与孩子之间的，朋友之间的--会是你最重要的投资。
At the end of your life, you will never regret（遗憾、后悔） not having
passed one more test, winning one more verdict（裁定、定论）, or not
closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a
husband, a child, a friend or a parent. Your success as a family,
our success as a society, depends not on what happens in the White
House, but on what happens inside your house.
在人生结束之时，你决定不会因又一次考试不及格，又输了一场官司或是又丢了一桩生意而悔恨；你会为自己没有花时间与丈夫、孩子、朋友和父母在一起而后悔。你家庭的幸福，我们整个社会的幸福并不取决于白宫发生的一切，而在于你自己家里发生的一切。
For over fifty years, it was said that the
winner of Wellsley's annual hoop(圈、球）would be the first
to get married. Now they say, the winner will be the first to
become a CEO. Both of those stereotypes(成规、老套）too little
tolerance for those who want to know where the mermaids stand. So I
want to offer a new legend（传说、传奇）: the winner
of the hoop race will be the first to realize her dream-not
society's dreams--her own personal dream.
有五十多年的时间，人们都说每年韦尔斯利学院携圈赛跑的冠军会是最快嫁出去的人；现在他们说，冠军会最先成为首席执行官。这两种版本的说法，对于那些想知道美人鱼位置的人都过于苛刻了。因此我想提出一个新的说法：携圈赛跑的冠军会是最早意识到自己梦想的人--这个梦想并非社会之梦，而是个人独有之想。
Wellesley college: 韦尔斯利学院。位于美国马萨塞州的著名文理学院，素有“没有男子的常青藤”之称。
Ferris
Bueller ：费里斯.巴勒，美国80年代一部电视剧《今天不是读书天》的导演。
选自《疯狂英语》第42期
加载中，请稍候......
加载中…