Dear Class of 2012: 致2012年畢業(yè)的你：

Allow me to be the first one not to congratulate you. Through exertions that—let's be honest—were probably less than heroic, most of you have spent the last few years getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree. Now you're entering a lousy economy, courtesy of the very president whom you, as freshmen, voted for with such enthusiasm. Please spare us the self-pity about how tough it is to look for a job while living with your parents. They're the ones who spent a fortune on your education only to get you back— return-to-sender, forwarding address unknown.

請(qǐng)?jiān)试S我成為第一個(gè)不對(duì)你說“恭喜”的人。在過去幾年中，你們中的大多數(shù)努力地在各種并不實(shí)用的課程中為了一個(gè)看得過去的成績而徘徊奮斗。老實(shí)說，這并不是什么值得夸耀的事情。現(xiàn)在在這糟糕的，拜你們大一時(shí)投票選出的總統(tǒng)所賜的經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境下，你們要離開學(xué)校了。重回父母家住下，還要同時(shí)開始尋找并不好找的工作，這不是一件容易的事兒。畢竟你的父母是曾經(jīng)在你身上給予厚望，而他們現(xiàn)在更像是拿著沒能寄出去的郵包的發(fā)件人，且無從得知這個(gè)郵包接下來該往哪兒發(fā)去。

No doubt some of you have overcome real hardships or taken real degrees. A couple of years ago I hired a summer intern from West Point. She came to the office directly from weeks of field exercises in which she kept a bulletproof vest on at all times, even while sleeping. She writes brilliantly and is as self-effacing as she is accomplished. Now she's in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

你們中的某些當(dāng)然還是經(jīng)歷了嚴(yán)峻的考驗(yàn)獲得了真才實(shí)學(xué)的。幾年前我曾經(jīng)招了一個(gè)來自西點(diǎn)軍校的實(shí)習(xí)生。她開始工作前剛完成了一個(gè)長達(dá)數(shù)周的訓(xùn)練項(xiàng)目，在這個(gè)項(xiàng)目里她甚至連睡覺的時(shí)候都得穿著防彈背心。她的文筆十分的好，而且格外謙虛。現(xiàn)在的她正在阿富汗對(duì)抗恐怖分子。

If you're like that intern, please feel free to feel sorry for yourself. Just remember she doesn't.

如果你也像那個(gè)實(shí)習(xí)生一樣，你有權(quán)利對(duì)你的生活覺得不滿。但請(qǐng)記住，她從來沒有那么想過。

Unfortunately, dear graduates, chances are you're nothing like her. And since you're no longer children, at least officially, it's time someone tells you the facts of life. The other facts.

但是親愛的畢業(yè)生們，也許你們遠(yuǎn)沒有達(dá)到她的成就。你們已然不是小孩兒了，至少現(xiàn)在有人該告訴你一些關(guān)于人生的實(shí)情了。一些其他的實(shí)情。

Fact One is that, in our "knowledge-based" economy, knowledge counts. Yet here you are, probably the least knowledgeable graduating class in history.

首先要說的是，在這個(gè)知識(shí)決定命運(yùn)的經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境中，知識(shí)依然是很受重視的。但可惜你們也許是這么多年來最缺乏知識(shí)的一屆畢業(yè)生。

A few months ago, I interviewed a young man with an astonishingly high GPA from an Ivy League university and aspirations to write about Middle East politics. We got on the subject of the Suez Crisis of 1956. He was vaguely familiar with it. But he didn't know who was president of the United States in 1956. And he didn't know who succeeded that president.

幾個(gè)月前，我面試了一個(gè)從常春藤盟校畢業(yè)，有一個(gè)GPA高得令人發(fā)指的男生。他想寫作關(guān)于中東政治方面的文章，于是我們開始談?wù)?956年的蘇伊士運(yùn)河危機(jī)（注：第二次中東戰(zhàn)爭）。他只是大概知道這樁歷史事件，但完全不了解誰是當(dāng)時(shí)的美國總統(tǒng)，以及他的繼任者是誰。

Pop quiz, Class of '12: Do you?

突擊檢查一下，12屆畢業(yè)生們，你們知道嗎？

Many of you have been reared on the cliché that the purpose of education isn't to stuff your head with facts but to teach you how to think. Wrong. I routinely interview college students, mostly from top schools, and I notice that their brains are like old maps, with lots of blank spaces for the uncharted terrain. It's not that they lack for motivation or IQ. It's that they can't connect the dots when they don't know where the dots are in the first place.

人們一直說教育的目的不是灌輸式地記憶，而是學(xué)習(xí)如何思考。亂扯。在我長期面試在校生的印象中，我發(fā)覺許多面試者的思維就像古舊的地圖一般，有許多區(qū)域是因?yàn)闆]有認(rèn)知而空白著的。很多情況下我覺得他們并不是缺乏動(dòng)機(jī)或是智力不足，而是當(dāng)他們根本不知道知識(shí)從何而來的時(shí)候，無法建立知識(shí)點(diǎn)間的聯(lián)系。

Now to Fact Two: Your competition is global. Shape up. Don't end your days like a man I met a few weeks ago in Florida, complaining that Richard Nixon had caused his New York City business to fail by opening up China.

現(xiàn)在讓我們來談?wù)劦诙妒聦?shí)：你們所面對(duì)的競爭是國際化的。努力吧，別像我前兩天在佛羅里達(dá)所遇到的那個(gè)商人一樣，在你的余生中抱怨是尼克松總統(tǒng)對(duì)中國開放的政策悔了他曾經(jīng)在紐約的業(yè)務(wù)。

In places like Ireland, France, India and Spain, your most talented and ambitious peers are graduating into economies even more depressed than America's. Unlike you, they probably speak several languages. They may also have a degree in a hard science or engineering—skills that transfer easily to the more remunerative jobs in investment banks or global consultancies.

在像愛爾蘭、法國、印度和西班牙這樣的地方，你們不乏天賦與目標(biāo)的同齡人正在一個(gè)更糟糕的經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境中畢業(yè)。與你們不同的是，他們也許會(huì)說許多種語言，并擁有一個(gè)科學(xué)或工程方面的學(xué)位。他們的能力或許更容易幫助他們找到一份薪酬豐厚的類似于投行或咨詢業(yè)的工作。

I know a lot of people like this from my neighborhood in New York City, and it's a good thing they're so well-mannered because otherwise they'd be eating our lunch. But if things continue as they are, they might soon be eating yours.

在我在紐約工作的地方附近，有許多這樣的人。萬幸他們?nèi)匀槐３种鴳?yīng)有的禮節(jié)，所以我們并沒有感受到來自他們的壓力。然而如果經(jīng)濟(jì)環(huán)境繼續(xù)這么發(fā)展下去，也許他們馬上就會(huì)開始搶你們的飯碗了。

Which reminds me of Fact Three: Your prospective employers can smell BS from miles away. And most of you don't even know how badly you stink.

這讓我聯(lián)想起了我想說的第三樁事情：你未來的老板對(duì)于夸夸其談的想法早有察覺。但你們中的許多甚至不知道你們的想法有多糟。

When did puffery become the American way? Probably around the time Norman Mailer came out with "Advertisements for Myself." But at least that was in the service of provoking an establishment that liked to cultivate an ideal of emotional restraint and public reserve.

從什么時(shí)候起連美國人也開始靠吹牛而活了？也許是始于諾曼?梅勒的《給自己的廣告》。但至少那本書是為了動(dòng)員人們培養(yǎng)個(gè)人節(jié)操以及參與社會(huì)公益活動(dòng)。

To read through your CVs, dear graduates, is to be assaulted by endless Advertisements for Myself. Here you are, 21 or 22 years old, claiming to have accomplished feats in past summer internships or at your school newspaper that would be hard to credit in a biography of Walter Lippmann or Ernie Pyle.

畢業(yè)生們，當(dāng)我閱讀你們的簡歷時(shí)，我所看見的只是無窮無盡的“給自己的廣告”。你們?cè)?1、22歲時(shí)所完成的一切，不管來自你上個(gè)夏天的實(shí)習(xí)或是在學(xué)校校報(bào)的工作，甚至已經(jīng)超出沃爾特?李普曼和厄尼?派爾（注：均為非常有名的作家，普利策獎(jiǎng)得主）在他們自傳中對(duì)他們自己的描述了。

If you're not too bright, you may think this kind of nonsense goes undetected; if you're a little brighter, you probably figure everyone does it so you must as well.

也許你愚蠢地認(rèn)為這種吹噓并不會(huì)為人們所發(fā)覺，或者你自作聰明地認(rèn)為既然大家都在這么做你也必須從眾一下。

But the best of you don't do this kind of thing at all. You have an innate sense of modesty. You're confident that your résumé needs no embellishment. You understand that less is more.

但是你最好的那一面絕不會(huì)做這樣的事情。最初你內(nèi)心是很謙遜的。你無需在簡歷中標(biāo)榜自己，并對(duì)此有足夠的信心。你懂什么是“少即是多”。

In other words, you're probably capable of thinking for yourself. And here's Fact Four: There will always be a market for people who can do that.

從另一個(gè)角度說，你也許有自我思考的能力。這是我想說的第四件事情：對(duì)于能自我思考的人而言，市場的需求永遠(yuǎn)存在。

In every generation there's a strong tendency for everyone to think like everyone else. But your generation has an especially bad case, because your mass conformism is masked by the appearance of mass nonconformism. It's a point I learned from my West Point intern, when I asked her what it was like to lead such a uniformed existence.

對(duì)于每一代人而言，人云亦云的問題是很普遍的。但對(duì)于你們這代人來說，這個(gè)問題尤其嚴(yán)重，因?yàn)槟銈兊拇罅康膹谋娦袨榇蠖鄮狭瞬蛔邔こＢ返膫窝b。這是我與我西點(diǎn)軍校的實(shí)習(xí)生聊到她帶領(lǐng)規(guī)定練習(xí)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)時(shí)所學(xué)到的。

Her answer stayed with me. Wearing a uniform, she said, helped her figure out what it was that really distinguished her as an individual.

她的回答讓我印象深刻。她說，穿著統(tǒng)一的制服，反而讓她理解到自己與其他人的不同之處。”

Now she's a second lieutenant, leading a life of meaning and honor, figuring out how to Think Different for the sake of a cause that counts. Not many of you will be able to follow in her precise footsteps, nor do you need to do so. But if you can just manage to tone down your egos, shape up your minds, and think unfashionable thoughts, you just might be able to do something worthy with your lives. And even get a job. Good luck!

現(xiàn)在她已經(jīng)是一個(gè)有著對(duì)生活的理想和榮耀的少尉了，而且她有對(duì)自己生活意義的獨(dú)到見解。你們中也許沒多少人能完全像她一樣，當(dāng)然也沒有必要像她一樣。但是如果你能夠放下自我中心的想法，多獨(dú)立思考，也許在你的生命中你能夠做出些不枉此生的事情。甚至找到一份工作。加油吧！

相關(guān)閱讀

馬克?扎克伯格演講：成功沒有捷徑(視頻)

蘋果入職信：你會(huì)熱愛的工作（雙語）

從“坑爹”說起

網(wǎng)絡(luò)流行語翻譯大全：賣萌小清新英文逐個(gè)說

（來源：滬江英語? 編輯：Julie）