奥斯卡最佳剧作家索尔金雪城大学毕业演讲
in the summer of 1983, after i graduated, i moved to new york to begin mlife aa struggling writer. i got a serieof survival jobthat included bartending, ticket-taking, telemarketing, limo driving, and dressing up aa moose to pasout leafletin a mall. i ran into a woman whod been a senior here when i waa freshman. i asked her how it wagoing and how she felt syracuse had prepared her for the earlstageof her career. she said, "well, the thing is, after three yearyou start to forget everything thetaught you in college. but once youve done that, youll be fine." i laughed because i thought it wafunnand also because i wanted to ask her out, but i also think she wawrong.
1983年毕业后那个夏天，我搬到纽约，开始艰苦的写作生涯。我做过许多赖以糊口的工作，包括酒保、收票员、电话推销员、豪华轿车司机、穿着麋鹿装在商场里发传单。我曾遇见一位雪城大学的学姐，我问她近况如何，她认为雪城大学对她早期职业生涯提供了什么帮助。她说，“嗯，事实上，毕业三年后，你就会开始把学校所教的全都忘光;但一旦到了这个阶段，你就会开始渐入佳境。”我忍不住大笑，因为我觉得这十分荒谬，也有部分原因是我想约她出去。但我还是认为她的想法并不正确。
aa freshman drama student—and thistorinow becoming famous—i had a plaanalysiclass—it wapart of mrequirement. the professor wagerardine clark. if anybodwawondering, the drama studentare sitting over there. the plaanalysiclasmet for 90 minutetwice a week. we read two playa week and we took a 20-question true or false quiz at the beginning of the session that tested little more than whether or not wed read the play. the problem wathat the claswaat 8:30 in the morning, it met all the wadown on east genesee, i lived all the waup at brewster/boland, and i dont know if youve noticed, but from time to time the citof syracuse experienceinclement weather. all thigoing to clasand reading and walking through snow, wind chill thatapparentlpowered bjet engines, wahaving a negative effect on msocial life in general and msleeping in particular. at one point, being quizzed on "death of a salesman," a plai had not read, i gave an answer that indicated that i wasnt aware that at the end of the plathe salesman dies. and i failed the class. i had to repeat it msophomore year; it wadepressing, frustrating and deeplembarrassing. and it wawithout a doubt the single most significant event that occurred in mevolution aa writer. i showed up msophomore year and i went to class, and i paid attention, and we read playand i paid attention, and we discussed structure and tempo and intention and obstacle, possible improbabilities, improbable impossibilities, and i paid attention, and bgod when i got mgradeat the end of the year, id turned that f into a d. im joking: it wapass/fail.
当我身为戏剧系大一新生时-这个故事已越来越出名-我修了一堂戏剧分析课-这是必修课程之一，指导教授是 gerardine clark。如果有人想知道这些欢呼是怎么回事，戏剧系学生坐在那里。戏剧分析课每周上两次，每次九十分钟，每星期得研读两部剧本，每堂课开始时，会举行一场二十题是非题的小考，测验我们是否预习了剧本。问题是，这是早上八点三十分的课，上课地点在east genesee街尾，我住在brewster/boland街 头。不知道你们是否注意到，雪城市的气候经常十分恶劣，我总是得在风雪交加中前往学校上课， 刺骨的寒风简直像从喷射机引擎中喷出似的，这对我的社交生活产生不少负面影响，尤其是睡眠质量。某次小考的内容是关于《推销员之死》，我并未事先预习这出 戏剧，我写出的答案显示，我不知道剧终时那位推销员是不是死了。这门课没有及格。我不得不在大二时重修，这令我十分沮丧、深感羞愧。毫无疑问地，这是我迈向作家之路过程中最刻骨铭心的事。大二时，我孜孜不倦地参与这门课程，用心研读剧本，讨论每一部剧本的架构、节奏、寓意及转折点，反复地 思考探索。我投注了全副心力，确实，当我在期末收到成绩单时，成绩从f进步到d。开个玩笑;这堂课只有过与不过的分别。
but i stood at the back of the eisenhower theater at the kennedcenter in washington watching a pre-broadwatryout of mplays, knowing that when the curtain came down, i could go back to mhotel room and fix the problem in the second act with the toolthat gerrclark gave me. eight yearago, i waintroduced to arthur miller at a dramatistguild function and we spent a good part of the evening talking. a few weeklater when he came down with the flu he called and asked if i could fill in for him aa guest lecturer at nyu. the subject wa"death of a salesman." you made a good decision coming to school here.
但当我站在华盛顿肯尼迪表演艺术中心的eisenhower剧场，观看我的剧作在进驻百老汇之前举行的试演时，心里想着，落幕之后，我就能回酒店房间，使用从gerrclark(其著作曾改编成著名戏剧)作品学到的技巧，修改第二幕的瑕疵。八年前，阿瑟.米勒(美国传奇剧作家)将我引介给美京剧作家协会，当晚我们相谈 甚欢。几星期后，他罹患流行感冒，打电话问我是否能代替他出席纽约大学的客座演讲，演讲主题正是《推销员之死》。来雪城大学念书确实是明智的选择。
ive made some bad decisions. i lost a decade of mlife to cocaine addiction. you know how i got addicted to cocaine? i tried it. the problem with drugithat thework, right up until the moment that thedecimate your life. trcocaine, and youll become addicted to it. become addicted to cocaine, and you will either be dead, or you will wish you were dead, but it will onlbe one or the other. mbig fear wathat i wasnt going to be able to write without it. there wano wai wagoing to be able to write without it. last year i celebrated m11-year anniversarof not using coke. thank you. in that 11 years, ive written three television series, three movies, a broadwaplay, won the academaward and taught mdaughter all the lyricto "pirateof penzance." i have good friends.
我曾误入歧途。因为古柯碱成瘾，浪费了生命中宝贵的十年。你们知道我怎么会染上古柯碱毒瘾吗?我只是试了一口。毒品最大的问题在于它们确实有用，直到摧毁你人生那一刻。只要试一 口，你就万劫不复。一旦染上毒瘾，你不是吸毒而死，就是生不如死，但总是逃不出这两 种悲惨的命运。我最大的恐惧是，没有它我会失去写作灵感，没有它我根本无法写作。上个月我庆祝了戒毒11周年。谢谢。这11年来，我写了三部电视系列影集、三部电影、一出百老汇戏剧、荣获奥斯卡奖，并教会我女儿整出《彭赞斯的海盗》(音乐剧)的歌词。我有许多好朋友。
youll meet a lot of people who, to put it simply, dont know what theyre talking about. in 1970 a cbexecutive famouslsaid that there were four thingthat we would never, ever see on television: a divorced person, a jewish person, a person living in new york citand a man with a moustache. b1980, evershow on television waabout a divorced jew who livein new york citand goeon a blind date with tom selleck.
你会遇见许多人，简单来说，总是满口胡言。1970年代，cbs将一句名言奉为圭臬：有四种角色绝不可能出现 在电视屏幕上-离婚的人、犹太人、纽约居民和蓄胡男子。到了1980年代，每部电视节目的内容都是描写住在纽约市的离婚犹太人，并和汤姆·谢立克(知名演员，蓄胡)进行盲目约会。
develop your own compass, and trust it. take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall alwaygethurt. mjunior and senior yearat syracuse, i shared a five-bedroom apartment at the top of east adamwith four roommates, one of whom waa fellow theater major named chris. chriwaa sweet guwith a slsense of humor and a sunnstage presence. he waborn out of hitime, and would have felt most at home playing mickerooneysidekick in "babeon broadway." i had subscriptionback then to time and newsweek. chriused to enjomaking fun of what he felt waan odd interest in world eventthat had nothing to do with the arts. i lost touch with chriafter we graduated and so im not quite certain when he died. but i remember about a year and a half after the last time i saw him, i read an article in newsweek about a viruthat waburning itwaacrosthe country. the centerfor disease control wacalling it "acquired immune deficiencsyndrome" or aidfor short. and thewere asking the white house for $35 million for research, care and cure. the white house felt that $35 million wawatoo much moneto spend on a disease that waonlaffecting homosexuals, and thepassed. which im sure thewouldnt have done if theyd known that $35 million waa steal compared to the $2 billion it would cost onl10 yearlater.am i saying that chriwould be alive todaif onlhed read newsweek? of course not. but it seemto me that more and more weve come to expect lesand lesof each other, and thatgot to change. your friends, your family, thischool expect more of you than vocational success.
掌握自己的指南针，并相信它;勇于冒险、不怕失败;记住，第一位冲破高墙的人总不免受伤。我大三和大四时，在 east adams街尽头和四位室友分租一栋五间卧室的公寓，其中一位名叫chris的室友主修戏剧。chris是个可爱的家伙，有着狡黠幽默感，总是在舞台上扮阳光男孩角色。他生不逢时，最擅长扮演《百老汇的'小鬼》中mickerooney伙伴那种角色。当时我订阅了《时代杂志》和《新闻周刊》;chris感兴趣的是一些千奇百怪、跟艺术无关的事物。毕业后，我与chris失去联络，所以不确定chris是何时过世的。但我记得，大约在最后一次见到他一年半之后，我在《新闻周刊》上读到一篇文章，关于某种病毒正在全国蔓延的报导，疾病控制与预防中心称它为“获得性免疫缺陷综合症”，简称艾滋病。他们向白宫申请3500万美元的研究、照护和治疗经费，白宫认为，将3500万美元花 在某种只会感染同性恋的疾病上太过昂贵，拒绝了这项申请。我敢肯定，如果他们知道，比起10年后花在治疗上的20亿美元，3500万美元不过是九牛一毛， 当初就不会拒绝。我的意思是，只要chris阅读《新闻周刊》，今天就能好好活着吗?当然不是。但在我看来，当我们期待越多，了解的就越少，这是必须改变 的现象。你的朋友、你的家人、这所学校对你的期待，不仅是职场上的成就。
todaima13th and todayou graduate and the ruleare about to change, and one of them ithis: decisionare made bthose who show up. dont ever forget that youre a citizen of thiworld. dont ever forget that youre a citizen of thiworld, and there are thingyou can do to lift the human spirit, thingthat are easy, thingthat are free, thingthat you can do everday. civility, respect, kindness, character. youre too good for schadenfreude, youre too good for gossip and snark, youre too good for intolerance—and since youre walking into the middle of a presidential election, itworth mentioning that youre too good to think people who disagree with you are your enemy. unlesthewent to georgetown, in which case, thecan go to hell.
今天是5月13日， 你们毕业的日子，代表你必须做出某些改变，其中一个原则如下：挺身而出者才有机会做出改变，别忘了你是这个世界的公民。别忘了你是这个世界的公民，你可以做些提升人类心灵层面的事，这些事并不困难，不过是举手之劳，随时随地都能进行。文明、尊重、善良、品格;你们不会幸灾乐祸;你们不会散播谣言、危言耸听;你们不会心胸狭窄、缺乏宽容。既然你们都可能迈向竞选总统之途，这句话值得 一提：你们不会视反对者为敌人，除非是来自乔治敦大学的人(雪城大学的死对头)。若碰上这种情况，就叫他们下地狱吧!
dont ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world. itthe onlthing that ever has. rehearsalover. youre going out there now, youre going to do thithing. how you live matters. youre going to fall down, but the world doesnt care how mantimeyou fall down, along aitone fewer than the number of timeyou get back up.
别忘了，一群深思熟虑的人可以改变世界，这是唯一的真理。人生的排练已经结束，你们即将走出校门，开创真实人生，重要的是，你如何经营自己的人生。失败在所难免，但这个世界并不在乎你曾经失败过多少次，只要你能一次又一次地重新站起来。
for the clasof 2012, i wish you joy. i wish you health and happinesand success, i wish you a roof, four walls, a floor and someone in your life that you care about more than you care about yourself. someone who makeyou start saying "we" where before you used to sa"i" and "us" where you used to sa"me." i wish you the qualitof friendi have and the qualitof colleaguei work with. baseball playersathedont have to look to see if thehit a home run, thecan feel it. so i wish for you a moment—a moment soon—when you reallput the bat on the ball, when you reallget a hold of one and drive it into the upper deck, when you feel it. when you aim high and hit your target, when just for a moment all else disappears, and you soar with wingaeagles. the moment will end aquicklait came, and so youll have to have it back, and so youll get it back no matter what the obstacles. a loftprediction, to be sure, but i flat out guarantee it.
2012年毕业生，祝福你们常怀喜悦，祝福你们健康、幸福、成功，祝福你们拥有幸福美满的家庭，拥有某个你在 乎他胜过自己的人，某个能与你共享生活中一切喜怒哀乐的人，希望你们拥有跟我朋友和同事一样优秀的伙伴。棒球选手说，他们不需要紧盯着球，就能感觉自己击出了全垒打。我期待有那么一天-在不久的将来-你们真正击中那颗球。掌握这个机会，更上一层楼，真正拥有这份感受。当你拥有崇高目标，并尽力达成时，在一刻，一切艰辛都将烟消云散，你将如鹰般展翅翱翔。这个瞬间稍纵即逝，所以你必须继续往目标迈进，你必须继续往目标迈进，不论途中遭遇多少阻碍。这确实是个崇高的目标，但只要付出努力，必定能够达成。
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