各位当下求学于此，将如生命本身一样意义深远、庄严肃穆。
"Your studies here and now are going to be as meaningful and as deadly serious as life ever gets."
一个多世纪里我们严格建立的整套体系，有赖于法官和领导者的决心。即便对言论内容表示强烈谴责，他们仍坚持“保护”并“容忍”它的存在。
The entire system we have built up over a century critically depends upon judges and leaders condemning the content of the speech at the same time we insist on "protecting" or "tolerating" it.
哥大校长李·布林格：在思想的洪流里捍卫我们的价值观
President Bollinger: We Must Grapple With Complex Ideas and Defend Our Values
很荣幸能够在这里欢迎各位——我们的新同学——来到哥伦比亚大学。在你们人生的关键时刻，在这样一个值得欢庆的场合，我们将倍加珍惜与你们现在共同开启的、长达一生的情谊。
It is a very great pleasure to welcome you, our newest students, to Columbia University in the City of New York. We cherish the life-long, enduring relationship we now begin with you, at this critical time in your lives and with this celebratory occasion. 
同时，我们的心也与你们的父母家人连在一起，因为我们知道，对于他们来说这是一个多么令人感动的时刻。诚挚的欢迎今晚到场的每一位来宾。
We also feel a deep connection with your parents and families, for whom we know this is a very poignant moment. We welcome everyone who is attending this evening.
向初入校门的新生发表演讲，于我是莫大的荣幸，而且我有幸讲了很多年。从这一刻开始，你们的人生发生了从完成时向将来时的转变。这个转变对各位意义非凡，它不仅意味着独立自主、承担责任，更重要的是，你们将身处于绝无仅有的学术环境，在这里，人们全然为了推进人类知识进步和追求真理而努力。
I regard it as a privilege to speak to entering students, which to my good fortune I have been doing for many years now. The transition from what your life has been to what it will be from this moment on could not be more profound. Not only will you be on your own and bear the primary responsibility for your life from here on out, but, most importantly, you are about to become immersed in a unique and probably never-to-be-repeated-in-your-lifetime intellectual environment completely dedicated to advancing human knowledge and pursuing truth.
一所一流大学的价值是无与伦比的，而我坚定地认为，在世界所有的一流大学中，哥伦比亚大学首屈一指：这里有卓尔不群的人杰俊彦；这里兼容并包，思想共荣；这里有放眼全球的视野和敏锐入微的感受力；这里有以核心课程（Core Curriculum）为特色的独特课程体系；这里身处的城市，是美国也是全球的中心，我们每日都受到这个城市的独特气质所带来的给养。
There really is nothing like a great university, and I strongly believe that among the great universities in the world there is nothing like Columbia University. Columbia is made up of an unmatched array of intellectual talent; it is more diverse in its composition, in every respect, and truly believing in the virtues of diversity; it is more international and global in its sensitivities and outlook; it has a unique curriculum, notably with the Core; and it resides in a national and global capital city and draws every day upon the riches of that special urbanity.
今时今日也是来哥伦比亚大学读书的最佳时机。优秀的学术和教学基础欣欣向荣，激动人心的倡议和耳目一新的实验一直在起步、成形；西哈林区的新校区即将开放，——一个多世纪以来哥大校园首次（扩张）——校区由建筑师伦佐·皮亚诺（Renzo Piano）进行总体规划，并负责所有房屋建筑的原创设计，即将迎来数以千计的学生及教职工；同时，哥大全球中心（Columbia Global Centers）正在世界范围内铺开网络，便于师生亲身体验并研究全球化现象。我们不仅在大数据科学、精密医学和全球化方面推行了新的举措，而且在去年春天大胆地推出了“哥伦比亚大学世界项目”（Columbia World Projects），目的是以哥大为腹地，引进学术知识和人才，联合外部诸如政府和民间机构等合作者，解决具有重大意义的世界性难题。
Moreover, I would also say this is the right moment to be at Columbia. The fundamentals of great scholarship and teaching are thriving, but there are also many enormously exciting initiatives underway and new experiments taking shape all the time. There's a new campus opening in West Harlem – the first at Columbia in over a century; with a master plan and the initial buildings designed by the architect Renzo Piano. While you are here the new campus will become populated with thousands of students, faculty and staff. We have an evolving network of Columbia Global Centers spread all across the world that are helping our faculty and students experience first-hand and to study the phenomena of globalization. We have new University initiatives in Data Science, Precision Medicine, and Globalization, and last spring we announced a major venture called Columbia World Projects, which is currently being designed to help make Columbia the home for bringing academic knowledge and capacities together with outside partners—from governments to institutions of civil society— to help solve significant world problems.
在将来的几周到几个月里，你将听到很多关于这个项目的介绍，包括一些已经开放的项目。而这只是哥大魅力的一隅，我确信，哥大丰富多彩的活动，能让你像身处在这座城市一样，惊叹充实到无法呼吸。因此，我需要给各位一些建议。
You will hear much about this in the coming weeks and months, including several opening projects. These are all just a few of the activities that may attract and engage your interest while you're here. I can assure you there is enough going on at Columbia to make you as breathless as the city does all on its own, which leads me to make a brief comment about you personally.  
你的学业以及这所大学和这座城市里发生的一切，很容易让你不知所措，这令人振奋，也会带来高强度的压力。但请记住两件事，第一，我们或多或少都会感受到生活的紧迫，你不是一个人；第二，也是最重要的，我们都在这里，（给你们）提供帮助。从朋友到教授再到工作人员，我们都要承担帮助彼此克服困难的角色，也都有从这里获得非凡体验的机会。因此，请在需要的时候寻求帮助。你可以轻松的与这里的每个人取得联系，包括我，只要伸出手，我们一定会助你一臂之力。
It is easy, very easy, to feel utterly overwhelmed by all of this – Your studies, happenings at the University and the City. It is exhilarating, but it can also be stressful, highly stressful. Please know two things. First, we all feel the intensity of life here, more or less. You are not alone. And, second and most of all, we are all here to help. From friends to faculty to professional staff, we all have a role to play in helping one another work through issues, no matter how large or small, and to get the most out of the extraordinary experiences offered in this environment. So, let us help. Everyone is easily reachable, including me, so do reach out and we promise we will respond.
就在刚刚，我谈及自己能够欢迎新同学是莫大的荣幸。当今时代，我们急需思考并探讨大学生活与社会重大议题的关系。当然，任何时代都会有关键性的问题，聚焦于这些问题可以帮助一个人从更大的背景下观照自身的教育。但我认为，这个时代似乎不太一样，基本问题的不确定引发的困难比我能记起的任何时期都更加严重，使之愈为吉凶莫测，令人惴惴不安。这种情况在美国和全世界都存在，随着专制政体与相关政治倾向的抬头，各个国家的民主和多边主义似乎日渐式微。面对突如其来、接二连三的冲击，我们的准备显得捉襟见肘。
Just a moment ago I spoke about the privilege of welcoming new students. It is a time to think about and speak to the combination of a student's new life in a university and its relation to the great issues of the day. There are, of course, always critically important issues on the horizon, and drawing attention to them can help one see one's education in a larger context. But, I have to say, this moment feels different, more portentous, more fraught with basic uncertainties about basic matters, than at any recent time I can remember. This is true both in the United States and across the world, as authoritarian regimes and attitudes are on the rise and democracies and multilateralism among nations appear to be in decline. All this seems to have come on suddenly, and our lack of preparation is revealed as we experience one shock after another. 
我并不希望我的观点受到政治化或党派化的解读。大学，就其本身而论，应当在政治辩论中保持中立。我们在贸易、税收或卫生政策上没有任何官方立场，但这不意味着哥大同外界没有任何利害关系，也不意味着我们在研究和教学以外没有作为社会一份子的合法权益。这的确是一个复杂的问题，也超出了本次演讲的范围。但我必须申明，当社会出现对真相、真理与理性的蔑视，对言论自由、新闻自由与法治原则的鄙薄，对歧视任何个人与集体的纵容时，长久以来建立的制度可能土崩瓦解；当大学面临社会崩塌的潜在危险时，我们有权利、也有责任对此发声，甚至挺身而出，用行动谋求改变。
I do not wish to be political or partisan here. The University, as such, must remain a neutral institution on matters of political debate. Generally speaking, we have no official position on trade, tax or health policies. But this does not mean the University has no stake in anything outside these gates or no legitimate interest in being a participant in the society beyond our research and teaching. This is a complex matter, to be sure, and beyond the scope of this talk. But I would say this: When the University is faced with a potential breakdown of the societal conditions that make possible what we do – for example, the loss of respect for facts, truth, and reason or the loss of respect for fundamental values such as freedom of speech and press and the rule of law, or the loss of respect for the rights of individuals and groups to be protected against invidious discrimination – then the University has both the right and the responsibility to speak out and even to act to bring about change.
最近发生在弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔和弗吉尼亚大学令人不安的事件，以及当局对事件的后续定性，都昭告着（社会）崩塌的可能性。毫无疑问，美国内部及其他地区的极端组织仿佛得到了某种默许或肯定，而这一系列事件的发生使这种肯定的危险气息弥漫开来。由于语言暴力、包括移民政策在内的新政策以及在仇视与不公横行时的噤声，许多市民和团体如今正被强烈的无力感裹挟着。
The recent highly disturbing events in Charlottesville, Virginia, and at the University of Virginia, and the subsequent characterization of those events by the Administration, are among the most recent episodes indicating a breakdown.There is no question extremist groups in America and elsewhere are feeling empowered. And this has only added to that dangerous sense of empowerment. Many citizens and groups among us are experiencing a greater sense of vulnerability these days, because of verbal attacks, because of new policies such as those regarding immigration, and because of silences when hatred and prejudice manifests itself.
与此同时，言论自由正在悄然衰退。宪法第一修正案颁布的时间并不久远，它在上个世纪才逐渐形成我们眼前的样子。从大约50年前开始，最高法院通过一系列决议确立了对言论自由的保护，这在其他任何社会都前所未有。因此，在一些时候，三K党、新纳粹分子和白人至上主义者们极端邪恶的言论同样受到了保护。这种姿态绝非顺理成章，它在经历了几十年的苦痛后破茧而出，以美国政治与律法系统中自由派与保守派的支持为翼振翅而飞，最终成为两党达成的特有共识。
From the standpoint of freedom of speech, there is a kind of slow process of degradation happening. The First Amendment is relatively young, having only been formulated as we know it today over the last century. Beginning about 50 years ago, the Supreme Court in a series of decisions established a degree of protection for speech beyond any seen before or since in any society. So, with some conditions, speech of the Klan, neo-Nazis and White Supremacists among others is protected, even though their messages are evil. This posture is not self-evidently right (it is certainly contestable), but it is one born of painful experiences and over many decades, and one around which there has emerged a unique supportive consensus from both the liberal and conservative wings of American political and legal system.
我们有很多理由来拥护这个共识。我的观点是，我们的国家在此方面做出了异乎寻常的努力——通过展现非凡的气度，强调并满足了所有社会互动中对宽容的广泛需求，使我们超越人性，求同存异。但无论理由是什么，这一个多世纪里我们严格建立的整套体系，有赖于法官和领导者的决心。即便对言论内容表示强烈谴责，他们仍坚持“保护”并“容忍”它的存在。社会舆论对这类言论的模棱两可，破坏的不是对不同见解的尊重，而是宽容忍让的本质。这样的谴责到现在还总是出现。问题的关键在于，最近发生在夏洛茨维尔的事件已经从各方面威胁到了这个国家的核心价值和社会体系。
There are many rationales supporting this approach; for me it's a remarkable effort by the nation to practice extraordinary tolerance in order to highlight and address abroad need across all social interactions to be more tolerant to differences than we are naturally inclined to be. But, whatever the rationale, the entire system we have built up over a century critically depends upon judges and leaders condemning the content of the speech at the same time we insist on "protecting" or "tolerating" it. Ambiguity about how the society "thinks" about these messages undermines what is supposed to be an act of tolerance, of magnanimity, not respect for the viewpoints proffered. Until now, such condemnation has always occurred. The point is that there are many ways in which this most recent episode in Charlottesville threatens core values and systems in the nation.
现在，摆在你我面前的问题是：各位在此时进入哥大意味着什么。我的答案是，这使你们和你们在这里所受的教育对我们的国家和整个世界都至关重要，我已许久未有如此强烈的感觉。我希望你们能很快发现，于此所学不止于先贤着力攻克的抽象概念、理论与思想，我们应该站在巨人的肩膀上。尽管在今天看来已经过时，但这些思想本身以及你与之“斗智斗勇”时的思辨过程和学术气质，会充满活力、经久不衰。换句话说，各位当下求学于此，将如生命本身一样意义深远、庄严肃穆。
Now, the important question for us here tonight is what does this mean for you as you enter your studies at Columbia. And my answer to that question is that it makes you and your education here more important, more vital to the future of this country and the world, than I have felt in a long time. I hope and expect that you will very quickly discover that what you are learning here is not just some abstractions, or theories, or ideas about which great minds long ago have worked on and worked out and which you and we can take for granted and move on. These ideas, and more importantly the intellectual process and scholarly temperament by which you will grapple with these ideas, are absolutely and inherently very much alive and well, or not so well, today. In other words, what all this means is that your studies here and now are going to be as meaningful and as deadly serious as life ever gets.
演讲结束之际，我想谈谈这个校园里的言论自由。特别是在过去一年里，大学校园里许多高级别的发言都被拒之门外，或因其言论的攻击性倾向，或因对破坏乃至暴力的隐忧，或因回避争议的祈望。哥伦比亚大学作为一所私立学校，并不在宪法的言论自由范围之内。第一修正案只适用于“国家”行为，包括各州的公立大学，但不涵盖私立的大学。尽管如此，我们依然同其他多数高等院校一样，自愿拥护宪法第一修正案的一般法理框架。
Let me close with a word about freedom of speech on this campus. Over the past year especially, there have been many high profile instances of speech being denied on college campuses, because it was deemed offensive, or because of feared disruptions and even potential violence, or because there was a wish to avoid controversy. Here at Columbia we are a private institution and therefore not covered by the constitutional right of free speech. The First Amendment only applies to "state" action, which includes state, but not private, universities. That being said, we – like most other colleges and universities – have voluntarily embraced the general framework of First Amendment jurisprudence for ourselves.
实际情况当然比此声明复杂的多，但不可或缺的是：我们提供同外界社会一样的“公共场域”，师生可以就公共问题发表看法，也可以从外面邀请嘉宾进行演说。但未经邀请的社会人士无权利用我们的校园，各类情况中提出独立申请的人，我都会毫不犹豫的拒绝。与第一修正案的准则保持一致，哥大允许表达的观点非常之广，以致其中一些观点在我看来有极强的攻击性，是错误甚至危险的。对此，哥大的选择并非一纸禁令，而是坚持通过合理的方式面对不同的声音。对于某些言论，我们可以据理抗辩，但必须接受它的存在，这也是我们维护言论自由的责任与代价。我们应该做的，是保护这个体系并使之更高效地运转。
It is, of course, much more complicated than that statement might imply, but the essential elements are these: We, like the broader society, have a "public forum", in which students and faculty speak about public issues and often invite outside speakers in. Outside speakers have no "right", as it were, to use our campus absent an invitation, and I would not hesitate to deny an independent request to do so under various conditions. But, like the First Amendment itself, the scope of ideas that can be expressed here is very, very wide and encompasses many viewpoints and perspectives that certainly I, at least, regard as deeply offensive, dangerous and wrong-headed. Our choice has been and is to deal with that disagreement by means other than stopping the speech from occurring, which primarily means by accepting our responsibility to confront speech we dislike and to state our reasons for rejecting it. It is my– and our – job to see that this system is preserved and operates in the most productive way possible.
关于你们及你们此刻所想，我思忖已久。正如对我们国家与制度的自信一样，我相信这所大学能在各位开启人生新阶段的时刻提供价值观与社会实践的坚实基础，它由我们共同珍视，也因我们发展壮大。当然，要做的工作可能多到超出想象，但想到与各位相携而往，实为生之所幸，已欣欣然不知其浩繁矣。
I have been thinking a great deal about you and what you might be thinking at this moment. I am confident in this University, just as I am in the nation and our institutions, that we will make it possible for you to start your lives on a secure foundation of the values and practices we both treasure and on which we have prospered. Certainly, we have much work to do, even if more than we might have thought. But it is a genuine pleasure to think of doing it with you.
最后，衷心的祝贺你们完成了人生的转变，欢迎来到哥伦比亚大学。
Congratulations on making this transition in your lives and welcome to Columbia University. 
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编译：南心
校对：忆念
责编：慎之
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