威尔逊普林斯顿大学校长（普林斯顿大学校长致2025届新生开学演讲）

It is so good to see you. It's so good to be together. I have missed these moments of collective joy and excitement over the past year.

见到你们真高兴。能在一起真好。在过去的一年里，我一直想念集体欢乐和激动的时刻！

There is a lot of excitement during orientation. Of course, the college experience is not all, or even mostly, about celebrations or parades. It is first and foremost about learning, growth, and as Jennifer Morton says in her book, transformation.

在大学入学周，大家都很兴奋。当然，大学的经历并非全部——或者大部分都不是关于庆祝或狂欢的。它首先和学习、成长有关——如詹妮弗·莫顿在她的《转变》一书中所说。

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. As you begin that journey today, I would 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.

我希望你们会有很多快乐的经历，但我知道在你们前进的道路上，也会有挑战和困难的时刻。在你们今天开始这段旅程的时候，我想和你们分享我最近面临的一个挑战，并描述我从中吸取的四个教训，这可能与你们在普林斯顿接下来的时光有关。

Five years ago, I had a magnetic resonance imaging scan, an MRI for short. The problem that justified the test turned out to be very minor, but the MRI revealed an unrelated issue called an acoustic neuroma.

五年前，我做了核磁共振检查。检查结果没什么大问题，但是却发现我得了听神经瘤。

An acoustic neuroma is a small growth, sort of like the moles that many of us have on our skin. It is, however, in a very tight place, on a nerve deep inside the ear. It is a kind of benign, non-cancerous brain tumor.

听神经瘤生长缓慢，有点像我们许多人皮肤上的痣。然而，它位于一个非常紧密的地方，在耳朵深处的神经上。它是一种良性、非癌性脑肿瘤。

When acoustic neuromas grow, they can cause loss of hearing, balance, or the ability to control facial muscles. I have experienced some hearing loss. 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. I have to be really careful, for example, when I climb the steep, narrow stairs that lead to this lectern.

当听神经瘤生长时，它们会导致听力、平衡或控制面部肌肉的能力丧失。我的听力有些下降。我可能也失去了一点平衡，但我的行动总是有点笨拙，所以不太确定。例如，当我走在通向讲台的陡峭狭窄的楼梯时，我必须非常小心。

Fortunately, acoustic neuromas usually grow very slowly, by millimeters per year. Sometimes they stop growing. 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.

幸运的是，听神经瘤通常生长非常缓慢，每年生长以毫米计。有时它们停止生长。如果只是小的听神经瘤可以等待，不去治疗，看看它是否增长，或放射治疗，或手术切除。

So once or twice a year for the past five years, I have lain inside an MRI tube while the magnets clatter around me, taking pictures of my brain. So far, I have been lucky. My neuroma has not grown.

所以在过去的五年里，我每年都会躺在核磁共振成像管里一两次，这时磁铁在我周围发出声音，给我的大脑拍照。到目前为止，我很幸运。我的神经瘤没有变大。

So why am I telling you this? I said earlier that I draw four lessons from my experience that may be relevant to your own path through Princeton.

我为什么要告诉你这些？我早些时候说过，我从自己的经历中汲取了四点教训，这些教训可能与你通过普林斯顿大学的道路有关。

The first lesson has to do with how we talk about difficult things. I'll always be grateful to the doctor who first told me about my neuroma. He said that I needed to come back to the hospital because his colleagues had discovered “a benign growth that had probably been there for a very long time.”

第一个是关于我们如何谈论困难的事情。我将永远感谢第一个告诉我神经瘤的医生。他说我需要回到医院，因为他的同事们发现了“一种可能已经存在很长时间的良性肿瘤。”

He could also have said, with equal scientific accuracy, that I had a potentially fatal brain tumor. I am really glad he did not say that. The news was hard enough to process even when framed more gently.

他还可以用同样的科学准确性说，我得了一个可能致命的脑瘤。我真高兴他没有那样说。这个消息很难处理，即使是在更温和的框架下。

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

你在普林斯顿教育质量将取决于你是否愿意和有能力参与有关敏感和困难想法的对话。你可能不需要讨论任何人的改变生命的医学诊断，但你肯定需要谈论深刻重要和充满感情的话题，如种族、性别和正义。

I hope that you will embrace those discussions, both inside the classroom and outside of it. And as you do, I hope you will remember that it matters not only what we say, but how we say it.

我希望你们在课堂内外都能接受这些讨论。正如你们所做的，我希望你们记住，这不仅关系到我们说什么，而且关系到我们如何说。

We can best learn from one another if we speak to each other openly, respectfully, and compassionately even when we disagree vigorously or when we convey unwelcome ideas. Of course, none of us will get this right all the time. We should hope that others will forgive our mistakes, and we need to be ready to forgive theirs.

如果我们能坦诚、尊重和富有同情心地相互交谈，即使在我们强烈反对或表达不受欢迎的想法时，我们也能最好地相互学习。当然，我们谁也不会一直这样做。我们应该希望别人会原谅我们的错误，我们需要准备原谅他们的错误。

The second lesson is about the value of science, institutions, and objectivity. To cope with my acoustic neuroma, I need to believe a lot of amazing things.

第二个教训是关于科学、制度和客观性的价值。为了对付我的听神经瘤，我需要相信很多令人惊奇的事情。

I need to believe that noisy magnets can safely take an accurate picture of a growth deep inside my head. I must believe the doctors know without testing it that the tumor is benign, not cancerous, so that we can leave it there. 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.

我需要相信，嘈杂的磁铁声可以安全地拍下我大脑深处肿瘤的精确照片。我必须相信医生们不经检测就知道肿瘤是良性的，而不是癌变的，这样我们就可以把它留在那里了。如果它开始生长，我需要相信我的医生能用精确的放射治疗，而不伤及于我。

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

当我躺在核磁共振成像中，我想到我是多么幸运地生活在这样一个科学奇迹的时代。我也认为我能幸运地懂得一点科学，相信那些生产设备和照顾我的机构和医生。

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

我希望你们在普林斯顿教育将提高你们的科学素养，并能维持和改进我们公民组织。这些组织迫切需要我们的关注。

Science, for example, has given us safe and effective vaccines that protect against the COVID-19 virus, but people in this country are dying needlessly because they trust neither the science nor their government. The ability to benefit from scientific understanding and participate in civic institutions is a gift. We should cultivate that gift and share it with others.

例如，科学给了我们安全、有效对抗新冠病毒的疫苗，但我们的人民却在不必要的死亡，因为他们既不信任科学也不信任政府。受益于对科学的理解和参与公民组织的能力是一种天赋。我们应该培养这种天赋并与他人分享。

The third lesson is about the hidden challenges in our lives. Until I wrote this speech, I had only told ten people about my neuroma.

第三个教训是关于我们生活中那些不被公开的挑战。在我写这篇演讲稿之前，我只告诉了十个人我的神经瘤。

I kept it secret because I worried about what other people would think if they knew that I had a brain tumor. Perhaps you have had a similar experience, wondering what others might think if they discovered something about you.

我保守秘密是因为我担心如果别人知道我得了脑瘤，他们会怎么想。也许你也有过类似的经历，想知道如果别人发现了你的某些东西，他们会怎么想。

Very few people have acoustic neuromas, but everyone has vulnerabilities, pain, and struggles that they conceal from the world. That is true no matter how impressive, authoritative, or composed someone may appear.

很少有人患有听神经瘤，但每个人都有向外界隐瞒的弱点、痛苦和挣扎。无论一个人看上去多么令人印象深刻、权威或沉着，这都是事实。

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

当你在处理自己的这些挑战时，在这里你会遇到这些挑战——记住你并不孤单是很有帮助的。校园里的其他人也经历了类似的经历，我们希望支持你们。

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. That condition is part of what makes us human, and one of many reasons why we need to treat each other humanely.

相反，当你与周围的人互动时，不仅包括其他学生，还有老师、员工，甚至还有大学的管理层——我希望你记住，他们可能正在处理你看不见的问题，或者他们还没有准备好或无法分享的问题。这种状况是我们成为人类的一部分，也是我们需要人道地对待彼此的众多原因之一。

That brings me to the fourth lesson, which is about humility. I am 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. Its silent growth could render me unable to stand in front of you or smile as I greet you.

这就引出了第四个教训，关于谦逊。我清楚地意识到，无论我完成了多少工作，无论我多么努力，我都可能被一个我既看不见也控制不住的微小病变压得喘不过气来。它无声的成长，会让我无法站在你面前，也无法在问候你时微笑。

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.

我希望我能告诉你，这些对我自身弱点的洞察，以及我所经历的好运和医疗奇迹的祝福，使我能够品味生命中的每一刻，或者对我遇到的每一个人产生一些深切的同情。

I am not that good. I still become frustrated, irritated, petty, and depressed, just like everyone else.

我没那么好。我仍然会像其他人一样，变得沮丧、恼怒、小气和沮丧。

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

然而，在反思的时刻，我的病情提醒我，我们在生活中所做的事情，包括我们进入普林斯顿大学这样特殊地方的能力，不仅取决于天赋和努力，还取决于对他人的关心和纯粹的运气。而运气因素极小，好与坏的差别可能会缩小到几毫米。

I also find myself with new reason to appreciate human resilience and striving. We are all, all of us fragile and flawed, yet we can reach for the stars and do tremendous good. That astonishing combination of weakness and courage is part of what defines the human condition.

我也发现自己有了新的理由去欣赏人类的韧性和奋斗精神。我们都是脆弱的，有缺陷的，但我们可以触及星空，做出成绩。这种令人惊讶的弱点和勇气的结合是人类生存条件的一部分。

We share it. We share it without regard to race, national origin, religion, sexual identity, or political belief. We share it across all the wedges that too often divide us.

我们分享。我们不考虑种族、国籍、宗教、性别认同或政治信仰而分享。我们在分歧间分享。

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

脆弱和抱负的相同组合激发了这所大学的使命。普林斯顿是一个集体，我们这些有缺点但坚韧的人们相互支持，以学习、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.

为实现我们的最高抱负而分享合作的追求正是我们将来自世界各地的你们聚集在一起以应对以微米、毫米、联赛或光年为单位的挑战的原因。

I am happy, indeed I'm downright overjoyed and exhilarated, that you join that quest today. 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!

我很高兴，事实上，我非常高兴和兴奋，你们今天加入了这一使命。所以，对于普林斯顿大学 2025 届的全体新生们，对于在外面等候我们欢庆队伍的上届同学们，以及今年返回校园的每一位本科生、研究生和教职员工，我要说：欢迎来到普林斯顿。

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