首席大法官 约翰·罗伯茨 在儿子毕业典礼上的致词 [反鸡汤]

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美国最高法院首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨，在他的儿子Jack就读的新罕布什尔州的卡迪根山中学（Cardigan Mountain School）毕业典礼上的致辞中，希望这些来自上层社会的孩子们多一点坏运气，希望他们经历风雨，从而正视生活中的不公正和人生可能面临的失败。

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Rain, somebody said, is like confetti from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning, joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement ceremony.

人们说，雨就像从天上而来的五彩纸屑。在今天这个毕业典礼美好的早上，上天也在和我们一起庆祝。

Congratulations, class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone. An important stage of your life is behind you. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you it is the easiest stage of your life, but it is in the books. While you’ve been at Cardigan, you have all been a part of an important international community as well. And I think that needs to be particularly recognized.

恭喜你们，2017届的毕业生们。这是你们人生的一个重要的里程碑。你们走过了生命的一个重要阶段。对不起，我要告诉你们，这只是你们生命中最简单的一段路程。希望你们记得，你们也属于一个重要的全球社区。

And as far as the confidence goes, I think you will appreciate that it is not because you succeeded at everything you did, but because with the help of your friends, you were not afraid to fail. And if you did fail, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, it might be time to think about doing something else. But it was not just success, but not being afraid to fail that brought you to this point.

关于自信心，我相信你们会明白，你们的成功不仅仅是因为你们自己所做的一切，而是因为在朋友的帮助下，你们不害怕失败。如果失败了，爬起来再试一次。如果再次失败，就再爬起来，再试一次。如果最后还是失败，那也许该考虑做别的事情了。你们之所以站在这里，不仅是因为你们的成功，而且还因为你们不害怕失败。

Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. 

通常毕业典礼的演讲嘉宾都会祝你们好运，送上满满的祝福。我不会这样做，接下来我会告诉你们为什么。

From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. 

在未来的人生中，我希望你们不时地受到不公正的待遇，你们会因此而明白公正的价值。我希望你们会遭受背叛，因为它将教会你们忠诚的重要性。

Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. 

很抱歉，但我会希望你们不时地感到孤独，这样你们就不会认为朋友是理所当然。

I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. 

我祝福你们不时会有坏运气，你们会因此意识到概率和运气在人生中扮演的角色，你们会明白你的成功并不完全是你应得的，而其他人的失败也并不完全是他们所应得的。

And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. 

相信你们会不时地遭遇失败，而当你们失败的时候，我希望你们的对手会因为你们的失败而幸灾乐祸，这会让你们意识到有风度的竞争精神的重要性。

I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. 

我希望你们会被忽视，你们会因此而意识到倾听他人的重要性，我也希望你们遭受刚刚好的痛苦，这能让你们学会同理心。

Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes. 

无论我是否祝福你们这些，它们都会发生。而你们是否从中获益，取决于你们是否能从自己的不幸中看明白它们想要传递的信息。

Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice, and they give some useful tips. The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. It is an odd piece of advice to give people dressed identically, but you should — you should be yourself. But you should understand what that means. 

通常毕业典礼的演讲者会给予大家一些有价值的建议。他们给予的最常见的建议是让你们做自己。这听上去有点奇怪，似乎人们给予的都是一样的建议，但希望你们明白，你们就应该做自己。

Unless you are perfect, it does not mean don’t make any changes. In a certain sense, you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better. People say ‘be yourself’ because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be. But you can’t be yourself if you don't learn who are, and you can’t learn who you are unless you think about it.

除非你们是完美的，这就意味着你们必须要作出改变。在某种意义上，你们不应该只是自己。你们应该尝试成为更好的自己。人们说“做自己”，是因为他们希望你们抵制冲动，不要成为别人想要的样子。但是，如果你们不思考，你们不会知道自己想成为什么样的人，也就不可能真正做自己。

The Greek philosopher Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ And while ‘just do it’ might be a good motto for some things, it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you. And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life. The best way to lose the values that are central to who you are is frankly not to think about them at all.

希腊哲学家苏格拉底说，“未经思考的人生是不值得过的”。“Just Do it”可能是一个好的座右铭，但是当你们试图明白如何度过自己的人生时，这不是一个好的座右铭。拥有美好人生的一个最好的路径就是不要试图过轻松的人生。如果你们不思考，就会丢掉对自己至关重要的价值观。

So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Other the last couple of years, I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well, and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged young men. And if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is: Don’t act like it ... ... 

这是深刻的建议。在你们准备去新的学校之前，我有一些小小的建议。过去几年，我已经认识你们当中很多年轻人，我知道你们都是好学生。但你们也是非常幸运的年轻人。如果你们来这里时还没有特权，现在已经属于特权阶层。我的忠告是：请不要在行为上表现出来这一点 ... ...

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幸福与快乐，几乎是每个人穷尽一生的追求。然而，人生中的不幸与痛苦，却也往往能把一个人吊打到怀疑人生。

上面的演讲，通过不同寻常的毕业祝福，深入解读了“不幸与痛苦”带给人们的全面信息，～～ 我们的成功，可能仅仅是由于我们运气好，而不是我们的能力真正有多强；别人的失败，同样地，可能只不过是运气比较差，他们的能力也不见得有多差。

切身体验过不幸与痛苦的滋味，才有可能进行过深入思考与解读，一个人才也会真正走向成熟与稳重。而面对不幸与痛苦，一个人是否会被击垮，则往往取决于他（她）内心中，对“我是谁？”，“从哪里来？“，”要往哪里去”这三个终极问题，是否有清晰的答案。

对一个明确知道自己是谁、要往哪里去的人来说，不幸与痛苦从来都是生活的调味品，进而让他（她）的人生脚步更加坚定和稳健。

The man who knows his fate knows no fear.  洞悉自己命运的人，从来无所畏惧。