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当地时间2019年5月18日,耶鲁大学举行2019届毕业生校长训诫。校长彼得·沙洛维勉励学生,更多思考并创造自己所支持的立场,而不是自己反对的观点。他还委婉批评了社交媒体,在相当程度上增加了这个社会的“戾气”。批评容易,建设性意见不易!
耶鲁大学校长2019年毕业演讲稿双语版
Graduates of the Class of 2019, family members, and friends:
诸位2019届的毕业生们、家长们和朋友们:
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 is hard to imagine you’ll have an experience quite like this again. 
今天大家在这里共聚一堂,我感到十分荣幸。每年的毕业典礼既是起点也是尾声,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,此时此刻百感交集;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。好好享受此刻的心情吧,因为这样的日子一生中很难再有一次了。
So, there is a wonderful Yale tradition that I would like to honor right now:
下面请允许我先按例进行耶鲁的宝贵传统:
May I ask all of the families and friends 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届的全体毕业生们感念所有曾支持你们走到今天的人们,请你们起立向他们致敬。
Thank you!
谢谢各位!
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,时任耶鲁大学校长的Kingman Brewster, Jr.在开学典礼上对1978届学生发表演讲,他们就坐在你们现在的位置上。校长对他们说:“在座的许多人刚刚经历了道义上极其不满的十年:反华莱士、反战、反水门事件。我们对所反对的事物深信不疑,几乎忘记了我们要支持什么,以及如何实现。”
Does this sound familiar? Today, perhaps more than ever, it is easy to know what you’re against. Far more difficult to say what you’re for.
这话听起来是否感到熟悉?今天,可能比以往任何时代,都更容易知道你反对什么,也比任何时代都更难以说出你追求什么。
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,而你的堂兄反对堕胎。有些人认为资本主义才是问题所在,而另一些人担心的则是社会主义。但此刻,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 have a weakness for his humor.
有多少人看过喜剧演员马克斯兄弟(Marx Brothers)的电影?自从我刮掉上唇的胡子后,虽不再像以前那样经常被误认为是格劳乔·马克斯(Groucho Marx),但我仍然对他的幽默风趣情有独钟。
One of Groucho’s best performances, of course, is when he plays a college president. (Now that is a funny role!) 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:
格劳乔最精彩的一段表演是扮演一位大学校长。在电影《趾高气扬》(Horse Feathers)的开场中,这位赫胥黎学院的新校长被告知学校的校董们对他有“一些建议”,于是他就唱起了这首歌曲:
“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.”
我不知道他们要说些什么
但说什么也都无所谓
不管说什么,我都将反对
不管说什么,不管谁说的
我都将通通反对
你们的建议也或许不错
但让我们明确一点:
不管说什么,我都将反对。
I encourage you to look up the scene on YouTube—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.
大家可以去Youtube上看一看这段视频——不是现在就看,谢谢——因为它仍然让人捧腹。它的好笑,不仅因为它很荒谬,也因为它有那么一点道理,而且不仅体现在这位大学校长身上,也表现在我们每一个人身上。
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?在我们还不清楚某件事之前,我们就已经决定反对这件事了,这样的错误我们是否犯过?
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,我们反对什么取决于它是谁说出来的。如果出自某个公众人物或政治家之口,或某家媒体,那么我们已经对这个言论有想法了。其中部分缘由是今天的公开话语太可预测了,我们已经丧失了被震撼和被启示的能力。
Speaking of predictable, here is the moment when an ambassador of an older generation—that’s me—tells millennials—most of you—about the evils of social media! But please hear me out…
谈到可预测,这一刻我想代表老一代,向千禧一代的你们提一下社交媒体的“罪与恶”。请听我把话说完……
Social media has transformed our lives and our relationships. It has many advantages, of course, 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.
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,它让我们可以和世界各地的人们快速分享新闻和信息;但它也剥夺了我们深思的时间与空间,导致我们的愤怒感加剧,争论加速发生。
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.
社交媒体的信息接连不断,你必须在某个热点过气前发表言论,于是我们用几秒钟就打出了自己支持(或反对)的立场。用280个字的推文来反对一件事是容易的,相反要快速讲出你支持什么则要困难得多。
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.
请大家不要误会:愤怒的理由当然有很多,无论是我们这一代,还是在座的诸位这一代——不仅面临着严峻的道德挑战,更有生存威胁,比如全球海平面上升,美国不平等加剧,世界各地的暴力冲突,以及社会组织涣散等等。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,我有时也会对我们面临的挑战和需要谴责的不义感到应接不暇。然而,正是因为我们面临的挑战如此艰巨,只有愤怒是远远不够的。指出错误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(Ivan Klima)曾写道,“破坏比创造更容易,所以才有那么多人公然表示自己反对某一件事。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?你追求什么?
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。1931年出生于布拉格,童年时被关进纳粹集中营,他有幸存活下来,后来成为捷克斯洛伐克的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 manuscripts 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.
但在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。本可以逃出来的他,却选择返回家乡继续工作。他成立地下作家组织,秘密传阅彼此的手稿。在18年的时间里,他们创作出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。他们想象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.
在座诸位会有怎样的想象呢?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?无论你反对什么,现在是时候创造你所追求的事物了。
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,你们既学想象又学创造;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、精彩的社区。
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 secondhand 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。记住在耶鲁的点点滴滴,哪怕是一堂让你惊奇的课,一次有启发的谈话,或者一位信任你的教授。要留心避免作家托妮·莫里森(Toni Morrison)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,” 莫里森曾写道。“但如果我们把这个世界看作一场漫长而残酷的游戏,我们就会碰到另一个谜,那是美和光的谜,是在骷髅(skull)上歌唱的金丝雀(canary )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.
追求一件事便是寻找这谜和光: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,坚信我们能够努力建成它。
What are you for?
那么,在座诸位都追求什么呢?
You may well turn that question back to me. What are you for, Peter Salovey?
你们也可能会反问我:苏必德校长,你追求什么呢?
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——它要求你高瞻远瞩、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,而不是少数人的专利。
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,因为一所伟大学府的核心使命和我们的民主政体的良性运转都需要它。
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,而不是把他们拒之门外或封住他们的口;在那里,表现出同理心和理解才是成功和美好生活的真正标志 。
That is what I am for.
这些都是我所追求的。
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”。这个承诺不应在毕业时终止。
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.”
诸位即将离开耶鲁,正如曾在耶鲁学习和授课的文学家罗伯特·佩恩·沃伦(Robert Penn Warren)所说,“进入这个痉挛中的世界,走出历史,又走进了历史。”
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,环顾四周,让我想起那些在诸位之前的耶鲁毕业生们,一个个有所追求的人。
There are many names we know and others that would be less familiar—presidents and world leaders, artists and business executives, scholars and scientists.
许多名字我们都知道,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.
和他们一样,我知道诸位也将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.
而这正是耶鲁的使命——正是耶鲁所追求的。
As members of the Yale community, what do we believe?
作为耶鲁的成员,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,只要我们齐心协力,就能解决那些巨大的挑战,把光明和真理带到一个亟需它们的世界。
On Monday 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.
在星期一的学位授予典礼上,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。
What are you for?
你们的追求是什么?
“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(Eleanor Roosevelt,罗斯福总统夫人)曾说过:“从历史的角度来看,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.
耶鲁已经为诸位努力成为学者那样的人做了准备;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.
运用你们被馈赠的天赋和才能,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(Bob Dylan)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,想象生存在这个世界的新方式,寻找恼人问题的新答案。
Now is the time.

现在时机已到。
Members of the Class of 2019 (please rise):
2019届毕业生们(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, voices, and hands to imagine and create the new worlds you wish to see.
我们心怀喜悦为你们所取得的成就致敬,也为你们感到自豪。请记得感谢所有帮你们走到今天的人们。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?
请问你们的追求是什么?
Congratulations, Class of 2019!
祝贺你们,2019届的毕业生们!
双语 | 一把从耶鲁偷来的椅子
法学院食堂的椅子与这把十分相像,这足以让我怀疑这把椅子的来历。但是,当我有一天跑到耶鲁的公共食堂吃午饭的时候,我的所有疑问都有了答案:我看到几百把和“我的”椅子一模一样的椅子。毫无疑问,这东西就是偷来的了。
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After 20 years, it’s time to come clean. As I write these words, I’m sitting on a chair stolen from Yale.
20年过去了,是时候把真相和盘托出了。在写这句话的时候,我正坐在一把从耶鲁大学偷来的椅子上。
I didn’t steal it—at least not at first. The chair came with the apartment that I rented as a second-year law student in the fall of 1990. Left by some Yalie who lived there before me, it’s a sturdy piece, with a hardwood frame, a dark leather (or leather-like) seat, and a firm back secured by twin rows of brass tacks.

椅子并不是我偷的——至少一开始不是这样。1990年秋天我在耶鲁法学院读二年级的时候,租了一间公寓,租来时这把椅子就在那间公寓里。它是在我之前住在那儿的耶鲁学生留下来的。椅子很结实,硬木框架,黑色真皮(或是仿真皮)椅座,坚固的靠背还钉了两排黄铜平头钉加固。
The Law School dining hall had chairs that were similar enough to rouse my suspicions. But when I ventured over to Commons for lunch one day, any doubt was erased: I saw hundreds of exact replicas of “my” chair. It was definitely stolen property.

法学院食堂的椅子与这把十分相像,这足以让我怀疑这把椅子的来历。但是,当我有一天跑到耶鲁的公共食堂吃午饭的时候,我的所有疑问都有了答案:我看到几百把和“我的”椅子一模一样的椅子。毫无疑问,这东西就是偷来的了。
输入
在我精神饱满时,它能让我保持优雅的坐姿;在我感到疲倦时,它也足够坚固,大可以让我耷拉着脑袋懒洋洋地靠着,或是盘腿蜷缩起来。
Being short of cash and needing a solid desk chair, I decided to use it just for the year. And while the chair had seen better days—the wood was scuffed, the seat had started to peel and crinkle—I found it was perfectly designed for long hours of study. It invited good posture when I was fresh and was stable enough to handle slouching and crossed-leg hunching when I grew tired. I liked the chair so much that I broke my silent pledge to bring it back to campus at the end of the year. Instead, I took it with me to my new apartment. When I leave New Haven, I thought to myself. That’s when I’ll return it.

由于当时手头紧,又正需要一把结实耐用的书桌椅,于是我决定自己留着用,就用这一年。这把椅子早已“风光不再”,木框架已经磨损,椅座也开始脱皮起皱,但我发现它的设计非常适合长时间学习。在我精神饱满时,它能让我保持优雅的坐姿;在我感到疲倦时,它也足够坚固,大可以让我耷拉着脑袋懒洋洋地靠着,或是盘腿蜷缩起来。我曾经暗自许诺要在这一年结束时把椅子还给学校,可是我太喜欢它了,于是没有兑现诺言。相反,我把它带到了我的新公寓。我心里盘算着,等离开纽黑文(注:耶鲁大学所在地)时,我就把它归还回去。
But by the time graduation rolled around in May 1992, I felt too attached to the chair to let it go. After all, I’d largely earned my JD sitting on it. So I loaded it into a small U-Haul and drove off to my new job in Washington, D.C. I used the chair at my home desk in Washington for 14 years, and when I moved to New York City in 2006, I again took it along. 
可是到了1992年5月临近毕业的时候,我又感觉自己太留恋这把椅子了,实在是割舍不下。毕竟,我攻读法学博士的大部分时光都是在它上面度过的。于是,我把它装进一辆从U-Haul汽车租赁公司租来的小卡车上,然后驾车前往华盛顿——我的新工作单位所在地。在华盛顿,我把这把椅子放在了家中的书桌旁,一用就用了14年。2006年,我搬往纽约的时候,我再一次把它带在了身边。 
The irony of all this hasn’t escaped me: I’m a Yale law graduate breaking the law. At least, I think I’m breaking it. The truth is, I’m not really sure what the law of Connecticut says about possession of stolen property (which should only reinforce my alma mater11)’s reputation for teaching Big Ideas, not black-letter rules). Of course, there’s the old chestnut that possession is nine-tenths of the law. But my gut15) tells me that this isn’t really my chair.
我深知这一切所蕴含的讽刺意味:身为一名耶鲁法学院的毕业生,我却知法犯法。至少,我觉得自己是犯了法。事实上,我并不十分清楚康涅狄格州的法律对占有被盗财产有什么规定(这也更好地诠释出我母校的在外声名,那就是只传授“重要理念”,不讲授既定的“法律条文”)。当然,古谚有云:现实占有,败一胜九。可是我的内心明白,这的确不是我的椅子。
在写作的过程中,我受到的一大挑战就是重现法学院的氛围,而每天都坐在我上大学时曾坐过的那把椅子上,这对我的写作无疑颇有助益。
输12
So why have I kept it so long? Initially, I guess, the chair somehow connected me to the things I missed about Yale—Friday afternoon football games with my classmates, late nights at Yorkside Pizza, doughnuts at the Doodle. Over the years, though, my stolen chair has accreted much greater meaning, and the truth is that today, parting with it would be very difficult. The chair has literally supported me for my entire writing career—a career that began during law school, when I realized I wasn’t a lawyer at heart.

那我为什么把它保留了这么久呢?最初,我想,是因为这把椅子能够勾多多少少让我回想起耶鲁生活中那些让我思念的往事:星期五下午与同学一起参加的橄榄球赛,约克赛德比萨店的深夜,还有涂鸦大会上的炸面圈。但随着一年年过去,我这把偷来的椅子所附着的意义却与日俱增,事实上,现在我与它已经难舍难分了。在我的整个写作生涯里,这把椅子一直名副其实地支撑着我。我的写作生涯始于法学院其间,那时我就认识到自己实际上不是当律师的料。
I was sitting on this chair while I wrote my first short story, my first screenplay, and my first chapters of a novel; while I read my first rejection letters; and, perhaps most important, while I struggled to finish my first book. Fittingly, that book was, in large part, about Yale—the story of how my classmates took the U.S. government to court to free innocent refugees held at Guantánamo in the early 1990s. Part of my challenge was to recreate the atmosphere of the Law School—and sitting every day on the same chair I’d used back then surely must have helped me.

我坐在这把椅子上完成了自己的第一则短篇小说、第一个电影剧本和第一部长篇小说的前几个章节;我坐在这把椅子上,品读了最初的几封退稿信;而也许最为重要的是,我坐在这把椅子上艰难地写完了自己的第一本书。这本书大部分内容都与耶鲁有关,讲述的是在20世纪90年代初我的同学们如何将美国政府诉诸法庭,从而使关押在关塔那摩的无辜难民得以释放的故事。在写作的过程中,我受到的一大挑战就是重现法学院的氛围,而每天都坐在我上大学时曾坐过的那把椅子上,这对我的写作无疑颇有助益。
Today, my old Yale chair is in bad shape. The legs are splintered and the varnish21) is wearing away. The seat upholstery is shredded, and I’ve covered the loose spring coils with a couple of cloth napkins from IKEA. Friends say it looks like something I retrieved from a dumpster. But when I sit down to work each day, I don’t see an object for the trash heap. I see an old friend, a constant companion that has been with me through the ups and downs of what is a terribly solitary profession.

如今,我这把老旧的耶鲁椅状况很糟糕:椅子腿裂了,油漆的光泽已渐渐褪去,椅座外饰碎成一片一片的,弹簧圈也松弛了,我用从宜家买来的几块餐布把它们盖了起来。朋友们说,它看上去真像是从大垃圾桶里捡回来的。可每天当我坐下来工作的时候,我所看到的可不是什么垃圾废品,而是一位老朋友,一个陪我在极其孤独的职业生活中起起伏伏的忠实伴侣。
输入
把我的名字留在耶鲁的椅子上,这应该是件不错的事情。
As part of a recent Law School fund-raising campaign, I pledged an amount that I thought would cover several new chairs. Even so, for the punishment to fit the crime, I guess I should donate a few copies of each book I write to the Yale library.

法学院最近开展了一项募资活动,我承诺捐一笔钱,我想这笔钱够买好几把新椅子了。即便如此,按照罚罪相当的原则,我估计我还得把自己写的每一本书都捐几本给耶鲁图书馆才行。
And maybe one day, many years from now, I could get the chair properly fixed up, carve “Brandt Goldstein” in some hidden place, and drop it off in the Law School library. It would be nice to have my name on a chair at Yale. 
也许许多年后的某一天,我会找人把这把椅子修理妥当,再在某个隐蔽的地方刻上我的名字“勃兰特·戈尔茨坦”,然后放进法学院的图书馆。把我的名字留在耶鲁的椅子上,这应该是件不错的事情。
By Brandt Goldstein 译 / 陈继龙
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