普林斯顿大学校长2021震撼开学演讲：你曾内心柔弱，亦可至刚至强

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It is so good to see you.

见到你们真好。

It's so good to be together.

非常高兴和大家欢聚一堂。

I've missed these moments of collective joy and excitement over the past year.

在过去的一年里，我很怀念这些集体的欢乐和兴奋的时刻。

There's a lot of excitement during Orientation.

迎新期间有很多兴奋的事情。

Of course, the college experience is not all, or even mostly, about celebrations or parades.

当然，大学的经历并非全部，甚至大部分是令人高兴或庆贺的。

It's first and foremost about learning, growth, and, as Jennifer Morton says in her book, transformation.

它首先是学习、成长，正如珍妮弗莫顿在她的书中所说的”脱胎换骨“。

I hope you will have many happy experiences along the way, but I know there will also be moments of challenge and difficulty as you travel the path that lies ahead.

我希望你们在大学中能有很多快乐的经历，但我知道在你们前进的道路上，也会有挑战和困难。

As you begin that journey today, I'd like to share with you a challenge that I have confronted recently and describe four lessons that I draw from it and that might be relevant to your time at Princeton.

今天，当你们开始这段旅程之时，我想与你们分享我最近面临的一个挑战，并分享我从中得出的四个感悟。这感悟或许与你们在普林斯顿的学习生活有关。

Five years ago, I had a magnetic resonance imaging scan, an MRI for short.

我做了一次核磁共振成像扫描，简称MRI。

The problem that justified the test turned out to be very minor, but the MRI revealed an unrelated issue called an acoustic neuroma.

结果发现让我去做这次检查的症状并无大碍，但核磁共振显示出来另一个问题，我患了听神经瘤。

An acoustic neuroma is a small growth, sort of like the moles that many of us have on our skin.

听神经瘤生长非常缓慢，有点像我们很多人皮肤上的痣。

It is however, in a very tight place, on a nerve deep inside the ear.

然而，它长在一个非常狭窄的地方，位于耳朵深处的神经上。

It is a kind of benign, noncancerous brain tumor.

它是一种良性的、非癌性的脑肿瘤。

When acoustic neuromas grow, they can cause loss of hearing, balance or the ability to control facial muscles.

随着听神经瘤不断变大，它们可能会导致听力、平衡或者面部肌肉控制能力的丧失。

I've experienced some hearing loss.

我的听力已经开始受损了。

I might also have lost a bit of my balance, but I've always been a little clumsy so it's hard to be certain.

我的平衡能力可能也损失了一些，但我一直都略微笨拙，所以很难确定。

I have to be really careful, for example, when I climbed the steep narrow stairs that lead to this lectern.

我必须非常小心，比如当我通过这个陡峭狭窄的楼梯，爬上这个讲台的时候。

Fortunately acoustic neuromas usually grow very slowly, by millimeters, millimeters per year.

幸运的是，听神经瘤经常生长得非常缓慢，每年只增长几毫米。

Sometimes they stop growing.

有时它们会停止生长。

Those of us who have a small one can wait to see if it grows or attack it with radiation or have it surgically removed.

我们这些肿瘤非常小的人，可以观察看看它是否会增长，也可以通过放射治疗，或者通过手术切除它。

So once or twice a year for the last five years, I've lain inside an MRI tube, while the magnets clatter around me taking pictures of my brain.

因此，在过去的五年里，我每年都会躺到核磁共的仪器里，磁铁在我周围发出咔咔声，给我的大脑拍照。

So far I've been lucky.

到目前为止，我一直很幸运。

My neuroma has not grown.

我的神经瘤并没有增长。

So why am I telling you this?

那我为什么要告诉你这些呢？

I said earlier that I draw four lessons from my experience that may be relevant to your own path through Princeton.

我刚才说过，我从这些经历中得出了四个感悟，可能和你们在普林斯顿的生活有关。

The first lesson has to do with how we talk about difficult things.

第一点：我们如何谈论困难的事。

I'll always be grateful to the doctor who first told me about my neuroma.

我将永远感激第一个告诉我，我有神经瘤的医生。

He said that I needed to come back to the hospital because his colleagues had discovered, quote,"A benign growth, that had probably been there for a very long time."He could also have said with equal scientific accuracy that I had a potentially fatal brain tumor.

他说我需要再来医院一趟，因为他的同事发现了”一个可能已经存在了很长时间的良性肿瘤”。他也可以用同样科学的准确说法告诉我，我有一个潜在的致命的脑瘤。

I'm really glad he did not say that.

我真的很高兴他没有这么说。

The news was hard enough to process even when framed more gently.

即使是在比较温和的情况下，这个消息也是很难处理的。

The quality of your Princeton education will depend on your willingness and ability to participate in conversations about sensitive and difficult ideas.

你在普林斯顿接受的教育的质量，将取决于你是否愿意和有能力参与到涉及敏感和困难的想法的对话中。

You might not need to discuss anybody's life altering medical diagnosis, but you will certainly need to talk about profoundly important and emotionally charged topics, such as race, sexuality and justice.

你们不需要讨论任何患者的改变生命的医疗诊断，但你们肯定需要讨论深刻的、重要的、充满情绪负累的话题，比如种族、性别和正义。

I hope that you will embrace those discussions, both inside the classroom and outside of it.

我希望无论是在课堂内还是在课堂外，你们都能接受这些讨论。

And as you do, I hope you will remember that it matters not only what we say, but how we say it.

在你们进行讨论时，我希望你们记住，重要的不仅是我们在说什么，还有我们要怎么说。

We can best learn from one another, if we speak to each other openly, respectfully and compassionately.

如果我们公开地、尊重地、富有同情心地与对方交谈，我们就能最好地相互学习。

Even when we disagree vigorously or when we convey unwelcome ideas.

即使我们有强烈的分歧，或者在表达不受欢迎的想法。

Of course, none of us will get this right all the time.

当然，我们没有人能够一直做到这一点。

We should hope that others will forgive our mistakes and we need to be ready to forgive theirs.

我们应该希望别人能原谅我们的错误，我们也要准备好原谅他们的错误。

The second lesson is about the value of science, institutions and objectivity.

第二点：关于科学、机构和客观性的价值。

To cope with my acoustic neuroma I need to believe a lot of amazing things.

为了应对我的听神经瘤，我需要相信很多神奇的事情。

I need to believe that noisy magnets can safely take an accurate picture of a growth deep inside my head.

我需要相信嘈杂的磁体可以安全地拍下我脑海深处肿瘤的准确图像。

I must believe that doctors know, without testing it, that the tumor is benign, not cancerous, so that we can leave it there.

我必须相信医生不用检测就知道这个肿瘤是良性的，是非癌性的，所以我们可以把它留在那里。

And if it starts to grow, I will need to believe that my doctors can zap it with pinpoint radiation that neutralizes the neuroma without hurting me.

如果它开始生长，我需要相信我的医生，可以在不伤害我的情况下，用精确的放射线中和这个神经瘤。

When I lie inside that MRI tube, I think about how lucky I am to live in an age of such scientific miracles.

当我躺在核磁共振仪器里的时候，我想我是多么地幸运，生活在一个有这种科学奇迹的时代。

I also consider how fortunate I am to be able to understand a bit of the science and to trust the doctors and institutions who produce it and care for me.

我也想到我是多么地幸运，能够理解一些科学知识并相信那些生产设备，和照顾我的医生和机构。

I hope that your Princeton education will increase both your scientific literacy and your capacity to sustain and improve our civic institutions.

我希望你们在普林斯顿接受的教育将提高你们的科学素养，以及你们支持和改善我们公民机制的能力。

Those institutions desperately need our attention.

这些机制亟需我们的关注。

Science, for example, has given us safe and effective vaccines that protect against the COVID-19 virus.

比如，科学已经为我们提供了安全有效的疫苗，可以防止新型冠状病毒。

But people in this country are dying needlessly because they trust neither the science nor their government.

但这个国家的人们正在毫无意义地死去，因为他们既不相信科学，也不相信政府。

The ability to benefit from scientific understanding and participate in civic institutions is a gift.

从科学理解中获益，并参与公民机制的能力是一种天赋。

We should cultivate that gift and share it with others.

我们应该培养这种天赋并于他人分享。

The third lesson is about the hidden challenges in our lives.

第三点是关于我们生活中隐藏的挑战。

Until I wrote this speech, I had only told 10 people about my neuroma.

在我写这篇演讲稿之前，我只告诉过十个人我长了神经瘤。

I kept it secret because I worried about what other people would think, if they knew that I had a brain tumor.

我一直保密是因为我担心，如果其他人知道我有脑瘤，他们会怎么想。

Perhaps you have had a similar experience, wondering what others might think if they discovered something about you.

也许你也有过类似的经历，想知道如果别人发现你的情况会怎么想。

Very few people have acoustic neuromas, but everyone, everyone has vulnerabilities, pain and struggles that they conceal from the world.

很少有人患有听神经瘤，但每个人都有自己不想让别人知道的弱点、痛苦和挣扎。

That is true, no matter how impressive, how authoritative or composed someone may appear.

无论一个人看起来多么地令人印象深刻，多么有权威、多么沉稳，都是如此。

When you are dealing with your own challenges and there will be challenges during your time here, it can be helpful to remember that you are not alone.

当你在应对自己的挑战时——你在普林斯顿求学期间同样会遇到挑战——记住你并不孤单，这可能会有所帮助。

Others on this campus have shared similar struggles, and we want to support you.

这个校园里的其他人也有类似的挣扎，我们想支持你。

Conversely, as you interact with people around you, including not only other students, but also faculty, staff and yes even administrators, I hope you will keep in mind that they may be dealing with troubles that you cannot see or that they are not ready or able to share.

相反，当你与走位的人——不仅包括其他学生，还有教职员工，甚至是管理人员——互动时，我希望你能记住，他们可能正在面临你看不到的，或者还没有准备好或者无法分享的麻烦。

That condition is part of what makes us human.

这种情况是我们成为人类的一部分。

And one of many reasons why we need to treat each other humanely.

也是我们需要善解人意地对待对方的原因之一。

That brings me to the fourth lesson, which is about humility.

这使我想到第四个感悟，那就是谦逊。

I'm keenly aware that however much I have accomplished and however hard I work, I could be laid low by a tiny lesion that I can neither see nor control.

我敏锐地意识到，无论我取得了多大的成就，无论我多么努力工作，我都可能被一个我看不到也无法控制的微小病变所压垮。

Its silent growth could render me unable to stand in front of you or smile as I greet you.

它的无声生长可能使我无法站在你们面前，也无法在问候你们时微笑。

I wish I could tell you that these insights into my own weakness and the blessings of the good luck and medical miracles I have experienced, have enabled me to savor every moment of life or to achieve some profound sympathy for everyone I meet.

这些对我自身弱点的洞察力，以及我所经历的好运和医疗奇迹的庇佑，使我能够品味生命的每一刻，或者对我遇到的每个人，都产生一些深刻的同情心。

I'm not that good.

我没有那么好。

I still become frustrated, irritated, petty and depressed, just like everyone else.

我仍然会像其他人一样，变得沮丧、烦躁、琐碎和抑郁。

In reflective moments though, my diagnosis reminds me that what we do in life, including our ability to reach a special place like this university, depends not only on talent and effort, but also on the care of others and sheer luck.

不过，在反思的时候，我的诊断结果提醒我，我们在生活中所做的一切，包括我们到达，像这所大学这样的特殊地方的能力，不仅取决于天赋和努力，而且还取决于他人的关怀和纯碎的运气。

It depends on luck so tenuous, that the difference between good and bad may come down to a few unseen millimeters.

运气是如此的脆弱，以至于好与坏的区别，可能只在看不见的几毫米之间。

I also find myself with new reason to appreciate human resilience and striving.

我还发现，自己有了新的理由去欣赏人类的韧性和努力。

We are all, all of us fragile and flawed, yet we can reach for the stars and do tremendous good.

我们所有人都是脆弱的，有缺陷的，但我们可以摘星揽月，成就伟业。

That astonishing combination of weakness and courage is a part of what defines the human condition.

这种脆弱和勇气的惊人结合，是定义人类状态的一部分。

We share it.

我们分享它。

We share it without regard to race, national origin, religion, sexual identity or political belief.

我们不分种族、国际、宗教、性别身份或政治信仰，我们共同分享这一切。

We share it across all the wedges that too often pide us.

我们跨越所有经常使我们分裂的因素。

The same combination of frailty and aspiration animates the mission of this university.

同样的脆弱和愿望的结合，激发了这所大学的使命。

Princeton is a community and an institution where flawed and resilient human beings support one another to learn, grow, cope with our limitations and pursue the transcendent through scholarship, service and the arts.

普林斯顿大学是一个社区和机构。在这里，不完美和坚韧的人们相互支持、学习、成长，应对我们的局限性，并通过学术、服务和艺术，追求超越。

That shared, cooperative quest to achieve our highest aspirations is why we bring you together from around the world, to address challenges measured in microns, millimeters, leagues or light years.

这种为实现我们的最高愿望而进行的共同合作的探索，是我们把你们从世界各地聚集在一起，结局以微米、毫米、里格或光年为单位的挑战的原因。

I'm happy.

我很高兴。

Indeed, I'm downright overjoyed and exhilarated that you joined that quest today.

事实上，我简直是欣喜若狂，振奋不已你们今天加入了这一追求。

So to Princeton's great Class of 2025, to the great Class of 2024, that will join us outside for the Pre-rade, and to every undergraduate, graduate student and staff and faculty member returning to campus this year, I say: Welcome to Princeton!

因此，对于普林斯顿大学的2025级学生，对于将在外面和我们一起参加预演的2024级学生，对于今年回到校园的每一位本科生、研究生、教职员工，我要说：欢迎来到普林斯顿！