时代周刊:失去毕业典礼意味着什么(1)

What’s lost without commencement

失去毕业典礼意味着什么

By Kristine E. Guillaume and Jeremy Tsai

文/克里斯汀·E.纪尧姆和杰里米·蔡

Guillaume and Tsai are seniors at Harvard University

纪尧姆和蔡均为哈佛大学本届的大四学生

This spring, most graduating college students will not participate in a traditional in-person celebration.

今年春天，大部分面临毕业的大学生都不会参加传统的毕业庆典了。

Universities swiftly acted as coronavirus spread across the country:

全国各地陆续陷入新冠疫情以后，各个大学立即迅速做出了响应：

students went home early, classes moved online, and commencement ceremonies were canceled or postponed¹.

早早将学生放回家，课程转移到线上，毕业典礼要么取消，要么推迟。

Over the next month, former President Barack Obama will deliver multiple commencement speeches,

接下来的一个月，前总统巴奥巴马将会发表多场毕业典礼致辞，

something thousands of students had called for as they looked for guidance and comfort in this unprecedented² time.

请他致辞也是成千上万学子的心声，在这个前所未有的时候，他们需要指导，需要安慰。

But it’s hard not to miss real commencement.

问题是，我们很难不怀念切切实实的毕业典礼。

Days before we evacuated³ campus,

搬离校园的前几天，

many of us had turned in our senior thesis, anticipating graduation and the last days of campus life.

很多人都已经提交了毕业论文，期许着毕业和最后几天的大学生活。

For months, our lives had been confined to libraries and academic meetings.

因为在此之前，我们已经在图书馆和学术讨论会里浸泡了好几个月。

“We’ll hang out after,” we’d said.

我们曾说，“答辩结束一起出去玩呀。”

Instead, we packed our bags, said numb⁴ goodbyes and fled to separate parts of the world.

然而，我们并没有等来那天，取而代之的是收拾行李，麻木的告别然后各自散落天涯。

Though the speeches are often riddled⁵ with trite⁶ remarks (Don’t be afraid to fail! Follow your dreams!),

尽管毕业典礼演讲经常充斥着各种陈词滥调(诸如“不要害怕失败！”，“追随你的梦想！”)，

we admit we find ourselves craving⁷ those clichés and the moments when speeches rise above them.

但我们还是要承认，我们还是渴望能听到那些陈词滥调，渴望那些陈词滥调带来的演讲高潮。

In 2008, J. K. Rowling delivered the Harvard commencement address,

2008年，J.K.罗琳在哈佛大学毕业典礼上发表演讲时

defending the importance of perseverance⁸ and imagination:

就声援了毅力和想象力的重要性：

“We do not need magic to change the world,

“我们不需要依靠魔法来改变世界，

we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better.”

我们的内心就有这种力量，因为我们一直在梦想，把这个世界变得更加美好。”

Rowling’s speech gave a sense of agency over our lives.

罗琳的演讲给人一种自我主宰人生的感觉。

Messages like this, delivered over the years by the likes of John F. Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs,

这些年来，约翰·F.肯尼迪、奥普拉·温弗瑞和史蒂夫·乔布斯等人在毕业典礼致辞时传递的都是这样的信息，

have propelled graduates into the future,

正是这些信息激励着毕业生们拥抱未来，

helping⁹ them recognize who they are becoming and how that squares with who they want to be.

帮助着他们认识到他们会成为什么样的人，以及如何拉近他们会成为的人与他们想要成为的人之间的距离。

1 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

2 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

3 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

4 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

5 riddled   

adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式)

参考例句：

• The beams are riddled with woodworm. 这些木梁被蛀虫蛀得都是洞。
• The bodies of the hostages were found riddled with bullets. 在人质的尸体上发现了很多弹孔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 trite   

adj.陈腐的

参考例句：

• The movie is teeming with obvious and trite ideas.这部电影充斥着平铺直叙的陈腐观点。
• Yesterday,in the restaurant,Lorraine had seemed trite,blurred,worn away.昨天在饭店里，洛兰显得庸俗、堕落、衰老了。

7 craving   

n.渴望,热望

参考例句：

• a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
• She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐，以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。

8 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。