摘要：Good morning, everyone! Graduates of the Class of 2025, faculty and family members, colleagues, and friends.
Good morning, everyone! Graduates of the Class of 2025, faculty and family members, colleagues, and friends.
各位2025届毕业生们、家人和朋友们，耶鲁大学的教职员工和同事们，大家早上好！
Today, we continue a tradition that is centuries old.
今天，我们将延续耶鲁大学的百年传统。
On the Sunday before Commencement, Yale presidents have stood behind this rostrum to impart a few words about the world that awaits our graduates beyond Phelps Gate.
在每个毕业典礼前的周日，耶鲁大学的校长们都会站在这里，向毕业生们描绘跨越菲尔普斯大门后将要面对的世界。
It gives me great pleasure to continue the tradition today in my first Baccalaureate address as Yale's twenty-fourth president.
作为耶鲁大学第24任校长，我非常荣幸能够延续这一传统，发表我的首次学位授予典礼演讲。
But before I share a few reflections, I want to commence by recognizing this class.
首先，请允许我首先向2025届的毕业生们致敬。
Friends and families, will you please rise and give a loud cheer to members of the Class of 2025?
请今天在座的所有毕业生亲友们起立，让我们以热烈的掌声祝贺这届优秀的毕业生们。
Now, graduates, it's your turn. Members of the Class of 2025, will you please rise and return the favor by recognizing all those who have supported you every step of the way?
现在，请2025届的全体毕业生们起立，向所有一路支持你们走到今天的人们致敬。
Parents and loved ones of today's graduates, I know how this moment feels.
各位毕业生的家长和亲友们，我非常理解你们此刻的心情。
Just a few springs ago, I was beaming with pride—and yes, a bit teary-eyed—during my own son's commencement weekend.
几年前的春天，在我儿子的毕业典礼上，我也是满脸自豪，却又不禁眼含热泪。
As a parent to both a current college student and a recent graduate, I understand the swirl of emotions that come with watching your children navigate their college years. The quiet worry about how they will adjust, mingled with the confidence that they would.
同样作为一名有孩子在读大学、也有孩子刚刚毕业的家长，我深知见证着孩子们踏上大学旅途时的百感交集——既默默为他们能否适应新生活而担忧，又对他们能够克服挑战而充满信心。
And as you sit here today, I know it is hard not to simultaneously float back to those moments when they took their very first steps—and wonder now what the next steps will bring.
今天在座的各位，想必大家都难免回想起孩子们迈出人生第一步的时刻，同时也期待他们将走向何方。
We're so grateful that you entrusted Yale with a critical chapter in between.
我们非常感谢你们，将孩子人生中如此关键的篇章交托给耶鲁。
To everyone in the audience, let me remind you about a few of the accomplishments of the Class of 2025.
在这里，我想和大家分享2025届的毕业生们的一些卓越成就。
Graduates, you started out as the Covid pandemic was just beginning to wane. You helped Yale to revitalize campus life. You have been pioneers in navigating the new frontier of generative AI in the classroom.
各位毕业生们，是你们在疫情阴霾初散时来到耶鲁校园，重新开启校园生活；是你们在课堂上担当先锋，探索生成式AI领域前沿。
You count among your ranks Rhodes, Marshall, Goldwater, and Schwarzman Scholars—and even an Olympic medalist.
你们中有多位罗德学者、马歇尔学者、戈德华特学者与苏世民学者，甚至还有一位奥运奖牌得主。
And you have distinguished yourselves not only in size, but in spirit, as Yale's largest class since the Second World War.
作为二战以来耶鲁大学规模最大的一届毕业生，你们不仅在人数上，更在精神风貌上出类拔萃。
Along the way, you've challenged grandmasters in chess; cheered on the Bulldogs to several Ivy League championships; and dazzled audiences with your performances in solos, ensembles, and groups in nearly every genre and on stages across the country and around the world.
回望来路，你们曾与国际象棋大师对弈切磋；为耶鲁斗牛犬队加油欢呼，助其拿下常春藤联盟冠军奖杯；也在全美乃至世界各地的舞台上，用精彩的独奏、重奏、合奏展现不同种类音乐的魅力，令观众们心驰神往。
You've marked personal milestones and developed friendships that will shape a lifetime.
在这一过程中，你们不仅创造了个人成长的里程碑，也建立了将终身受用的友谊。
But of course, among all there is to celebrate, your time on campus also coincides with another consequential period that continues to shape our lives: a time of rising partisan antipathy.
尽管校园生活充满了值得庆祝的时刻，但你们在耶鲁大学的时光也正值另一个持续影响着我们生活的重要时期：美国社会对于“党争的厌倦”正在持续加剧。
When you entered Yale, partisan rancor had reached historic levels. And now, as you depart, polls suggest that many think of the opposing party as not just misguided, but quote "downright evil." All of us can sense that conversations have become more brittle. Trust in institutions—and one another—is fraying.
在你们进入耶鲁大学时，党派之争已达历史最高水平；而如今，在你们即将毕业之际，民意调查显示，许多人认为对立政党不仅是步入歧途，甚至认为其“邪恶至极”。我们每个人都能感觉到，对话已经变得愈发脆弱，人们对于制度和彼此之间的信任正在逐渐瓦解。
Common ground feels hard to find, and still harder to sustain.
找到彼此的共同点已不是易事，想要维持住这种联结更是难上加难。
I don't think we've lost the ability to talk with each other so much as the will to.
我认为我们失去的并不是和彼此对话的能力，而是与彼此交流的意愿。
Instead, it's easy to retreat into echo chambers shaped by algorithms. To subscribe to content that validates our viewpoints—and to scroll past perspectives that challenge them.
相反，我们往往更容易退缩回由算法构筑的“信息茧房”之中，只订阅那些与我们的观点相符的内容，而匆匆略过那些与之相悖的观点。
So as an educator and a parent, I often wrestle with a question I know many of you do too: In a world so fragmented, how do we find our way back to one another? How can we shape our shared future when the ties that bind us feel so tenuous, if not already broken?
因此，作为一名教育者和一位家长，我和在座的许多人一样，常常在思考这个问题：在这个支离破碎的世界里，我们如何才能重新连接彼此？当维系我们的纽带变得如此脆弱，甚至已经断裂时，我们又该如何塑造我们共同的未来？
Some of you have gotten to know me this year, and so it may not come as a surprise that I seek inspiration in history and in art.
在过去的一年里，你们中的一些人或许已经对我有所了解——我总是从历史与艺术中寻求灵感。
It also seems fitting, on the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War,
今年恰逢美国独立战争爆发250周年，让我们一起把目光投向校园内仅几步之遥的耶鲁大学美术馆。
to turn to the paintings hanging only steps away in the Yale University Art Gallery. There, John Trumbull's painting, "The Battle of Bunker's Hill, " is one of the most iconic, and it marks that moment, 250 years ago in June, when a band of soldiers stood their ground on a hillside near Boston.
在那里，约翰・特朗布尔的画作《沃伦将军在邦克山战役之死》作为最具代表性的作品之一，生动地记录了250年前的6月，一群美军将士们在波士顿近郊的山坡上坚守阵地的时刻。
The scene, as you can see beside me, unfolds beneath swirling plumes of thick smoke, the air acrid with cannon fire and laced with sacrifice. British forces have breached American lines. The fate of a young nation hangs in the balance. And Joseph Warren, the American Major General, has fallen in what would become one of the first major battles in the war for independence.
正如你们所能看到的那样，画面中的滚滚浓烟笼罩着整个战场，空气中弥漫着炮火硝烟与牺牲的气息——英军突破了美军的防线，这个年轻国家的命运正岌岌可危，美军少将约瑟夫·沃伦在独立战争的第一场重大战役中壮烈牺牲。
In death, as in life, General Warren roused the revolutionary cause.
生前身后，沃伦将军都持续鼓舞着革命事业。
But in Trumbull's masterpiece, he distills the importance and drama of that day to a moment of humanity amidst the awful brutality of war.
然而，在特朗布尔的画作中，他却将那一场战役的历史意义与戏剧性凝练成了残酷的战争中一个充满人本关怀的瞬间。
In Trumbull's composition, the slashing diagonal, animated by the billowing flags and the chaos of red-coated men and revolutionaries in battle, stands in tension with the moment of stillness at the center of the canvas. There, British Major John Small steps in to stop a fellow redcoat from bayoneting the fallen body of the heroic Joseph Warren.
特朗布尔在构图中，用由飘扬的旗帜和双方将士们混乱的战斗场景所带来动感的对角线，与画面中心的静止瞬间对比形成张力——在那里，英军少校约翰·斯莫尔正挺身阻止一名英军士兵用刺刀刺向已经倒下的沃伦将军。
In that moment, one man preserves the dignity of a dying foe with an unexpected gesture of compassion amid chaos. One man, taming the passions of war, chooses mercy.
在那一刻，他在硝烟之中展现出令人意想不到的慈悯之心，维护了一位垂死敌人的尊严。
Chooses to see the man who was his friend, instead of the general of an opposing force.
他选择了仁慈，而不是战场的冲动与激情；他选择了昔日故友，而不是敌方将领。
Ours is an institution that predates the Revolution, and many Yalies played pivotal roles in the nation's founding.
耶鲁大学诞生于美国独立战争前，许多耶鲁校友也在美国建国中发挥了关键的作用。
This history matters not only because of Yale's age, but also because of the leadership we've shown in pursuit of the ideals that shaped this country—chief among them the pursuit of liberty.
这段历史不仅因耶鲁悠久的历史而重要，更是因为我们在追求塑造这个国家的理想——尤其是追求自由精神时所展现出的领导力。
But let us also remember that those founding ideals were aspirational from the start—and we have fallen short in our history, including toward the people of this land and those who contributed to this country even as they were denied its freedoms.
然而，我们也需要记住，这些建国理想从一开始便是一种理想化的追求，我们在历史进程中曾有过诸多不足，尤其是对这片土地上的原住民以及那些为国家的发展做出贡献却连自由都未曾享有的人们有所亏欠。
But we have always been a people striving to live up to our ideals. That is why the journey remains unfinished—and why we must continue it with humility.
但是，我们始终是一个努力追求理想的民族——也正因如此，我们的这段征程仍未结束，我们也必须怀着谦卑之心继续前行。
Fellow art historians have noted how astonishing it is that Trumbull does not focus on the outcome of the battle, so much as the nobility of its participants.
其他艺术史学者们曾指出，特朗布尔作品的非凡之处在于他并未着力刻画战役的结果，而是更加关注参战者们的高尚品格。
By spotlighting Major Small's intervention, Trumbull honored an officer "equally distinguished by acts of humanity and kindness to his enemies, as by bravery and fidelity to the cause he served." The kind of courage that Trumbull invites us to see is the kind we too often overlook. The courage to practice restraint over retribution. The courage to see a fellow human being, even when every voice around you insists they are the enemy.
通过凸显英军少校斯莫尔对二次伤害沃伦将军遗体行为的阻拦，特朗布尔致敬了这位“对其所服务的事业勇敢而忠诚，甚至对其敌人都报以人本关怀与仁慈之心”的卓越将领。特朗布尔通过画作让我们看到的这种勇气，恰恰是我们最常忽视的——那种克制而非报复的勇气，那种即便周围所有的声音都坚称其是敌人、却依旧能够以人本关怀视之的勇气。
The courage, in short, to show compassion.
这种勇气，是一种展现出慈悯之心的勇气。
Compassion, as I suspect Major Small understood, is not the absence of conviction.
我认为，英军少校斯莫尔所理解的慈悯之心，并不意味着信念的缺失。
It is not weakness. And it is certainly not retreat.
它不代表着软弱，更不是一种退缩。
It is, in fact, an act of radical strength in its rarest form. It is the idea that even in our most consequential disagreements—that even when the stakes are as significant as life and liberty—we must find ways to recognize our common humanity.
实际上，这是一种最为罕见的激进力量的体现，并告诉我们：即使面对最为严峻的分歧——甚至关系到生命与自由等重大问题时——我们仍然必须寻找人性中共通的人本关怀。
Now, I am not necessarily advocating for the avoidance of conflict or the denial of our differences.
当然，我不是在倡导回避冲突或是否认人们之间的隔阂。
In a vibrant, pluralistic society, disagreement is inevitable, indeed welcomed.
在一个充满活力的多元社会中，隔阂不仅难以避免，甚至受到人们欢迎。
But what I would like to impress on you today is that compassion can coexist with our most deeply held beliefs.
但今天，我想要强调的是，慈悯之心可以与我们最坚定的信念共存。
We can, at once, have a resolute mind and an open heart—one that holds hope for peace, and for a day when our common humanity triumphs over our deepest divisions.
我们可以在拥有坚定信念的同时，怀有一颗开放包容的心——不仅对和平充满希望，也对我们所共有的人本关怀终将战胜最深的隔阂而满怀期待。
It is reasonable to think of Trumbull's scene, though nearby to those of us at Yale, as some distant, romanticized moment on canvas.
尽管对于我们这些身在耶鲁校园的人来说，特朗布尔的画作并不遥远，但我们或许会将其描绘的场景视作画布上某个遥远且经过浪漫化处理的瞬间。
Yet Trumbull captured for a nation not only the events but also the values that stood at the heart of our new country.
然而，特朗布尔通过画笔为美利坚民族所描绘的不仅是这件事本身，同时也是美国作为一个崭新国家的立国之本。
In his series of paintings and prints that celebrated the creation of the United States, Trumbull helped shape the collective memory of the sacrifice, the bravery, and the spirit of generosity at the heart of our origin story.
通过其围绕美国诞生主题的系列绘画和版画作品，特朗布尔帮助塑造了人们对美国建国故事中那些关于牺牲、勇敢与奉献精神的集体记忆。
Incidentally, Trumbull is interred beneath the Yale University Art Gallery itself—his legacy, and the ideals of America he documented, quite literally, part of our foundation.
顺带一提，特朗布尔被安葬在耶鲁大学美术馆之下，而他留下的遗产，以及他所记录的美国理想，也在字面意义上成为了耶鲁大学根基的一部分。
While you will likely never face circumstances similar to those of Major Small on Bunker's Hill, you will, without question, encounter division. You may be tempted to turn away from those who do not agree with you.
虽然你们很可能永远都不会遇到类似英军少校斯莫尔在邦克山上的处境，但毫无疑问的是，你们总会在人生旅途中遇到分歧，也可能会受到诱惑去远离那些与你们意见相左的人。
It is precisely in those moments that you must lean in on what you have learned at Yale.
正是在那些时刻，你们必须去拥抱在耶鲁所学到的内涵。
To listen—especially when it would be easier to dismiss. To extend grace—even when grievance feels warranted. To defend your ideals without demeaning those who disagree with them.
去倾听，尤其在你们更容易选择充耳不闻的时候；去给予宽容，即使在你们觉得抱怨是理所应当的时候；去捍卫自己的理想，同时也不去贬低那些与其相悖的人。
In my first year as president, I have been moved by our community's spirit to exemplify these principles.
在我担任耶鲁校长的第一年里，我被我们的社区以身作则、秉持这些原则的精神所深深感动。
I've watched as veterans who have served in combat zones now show valor in the classroom by engaging openly and respectfully with fellow students about the complexities of war.
我看到那些退伍老兵们在课堂上以开放而尊重的态度与同学们探讨战争的复杂性，展现出与战场上相当的勇气。
I've seen faculty members, like those involved in the Law School's Crossing Divides program, convene leaders from opposing sides of contentious debates to explore how they bridge differences and find new ways forward.
我也看到了耶鲁大学的教职员工们，比如参与耶鲁法学院“Crossing Divides”（跨越隔阂）项目的各位是如何召集那些处于对立观点的领导人们，探索弥合分歧的方式，寻找前进的新路径。
And I've had the privilege of meeting eminent alumni like Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who turned a personal injustice into a public display of generosity.
我还有幸结识了像Henry Louis Gates, Jr.这样的杰出校友，他将一次个人的不公遭遇转换成一次公众见证下的宽容。
After a painful incident in which he was wrongly arrested on his own front porch—on the suspicion of breaking into his own home—Professor Gates chose not to retreat into resentment but to instead sit down with the arresting officer.
在经历因被误认为私闯民宅而在自家门外被逮捕这一痛苦的事件之后，Gates教授并没有选择沉溺于怨恨之中，而是选择与逮捕他的警官坐下来对话。
Some of your family members may well remember that the two men met at the White House for what became known as the "beer summit." Of course, the summit was not some grand solution to the broader issue it concerned.
或许在座的部分亲友们还记得，两人在白宫举行了后来被称为“啤酒峰会”的会面。当然，这次峰会并未能提出应对相关更广泛问题的宏大方案，实际上从来没有任何一次对话能够做到这一点。
No single conversation could be. But it was a small gesture of hope. A hope that when we sit together, speak openly, and acknowledge our shared humanity, we can create space for understanding—and even unexpected connections—to take root.
但这确实是一次充满希望的小小尝试——希望当我们坐在一起、敞开心扉并认同我们所共有的人本关怀时，我们可以创造空间，让彼此理解、甚至意想不到的联系能在此生根发芽。
As a remarkable postscript, Professor Gates found not only common ground with the arresting officer, but a distant relative. The two discovered that they descend from the same ancestor, reminding us of how interwoven our lives often are—if only we summon the courage to look more closely and to listen more carefully.
作为令人瞩目的后续事件，Gates教授不仅与当时逮捕他的警官找到了彼此共通之处，还发现他们竟是远房亲戚，是同一个祖先的后代。这也让我们明白，只要我们能够鼓起勇气，去更仔细地观察、更认真地倾听，就会发现我们与彼此的生活往往是相互交织在一起的。
As Yale graduates, you are uniquely equipped to do so.
作为耶鲁大学的毕业生，你们拥有得天独厚的条件去实现这一点。
You have spent four years in an environment that celebrates the balance of excellence and empathy, rigorous thought and human connection.
在过去的四年里，耶鲁大学为你们创造了一个崇尚卓越与共情、严谨思考与人际联系相互平衡的环境。
So, yours is now the rare privilege, and the solemn responsibility, to live what you have learned. To mend what has been broken. To lift up where others have torn down.
因此，你们现在有幸、也有责任去实践你们在这里的所学所获——去修复那些被破坏的事物，去重建那些被摧毁的地方。
In the coming days and years, you will assume leadership roles across every sector of society.
在未来的岁月里，你们将在社会的不同领域担任领导者的角色。
Some of you will pursue scientific breakthroughs, others artistic endeavors. Some will build businesses, others will shape policies.
你们中的一些人将追求科学突破，一些人将致力艺术创作；一些人将成为企业创始人，也有一些人将成为政策制定者。
Whatever path you choose, I urge you to heed the humanity on view just a few steps away on Trumbull's canvas.
无论你们选择哪一条路，我都希望你们能够留心不远处耶鲁大学美术馆中特朗布尔的画布上所展现出的人本关怀。
To remember that even in those moments of profound conflict, we can choose instead to be guided by a spirit of compassion. That we can choose to act with dignity toward those with whom we disagree.
要记住，即使在那些冲突最为深刻的时候，我们也可以选择以慈悯之心为指引，选择有尊严地对待那些与我们意见相左的人。
And that in a world divided, civility may be our most revolutionary act.
在一个分裂的世界中，文明或许是我们最具有革命性的行动。
So, as you prepare to pass through Phelps Gate one last time as students, know that you leave this place with both our congratulations and our confidence.
因此，当你们准备作为学生最后一次准备穿过菲尔普斯大门时，请你们记得，你们是带着我们的祝福和信心离开这里的。
A deep and abiding confidence that you will, indeed, be the bearers of our banner—one of knowledge and understanding, leadership and service, light and truth.
我们相信，你们一定能够传递属于耶鲁大学的这面旗帜，一面满载着知识与理解、领导力与服务意识、光明与真理的旗帜。
So, when future historians look back at this fractured moment, let them record that you carried this banner not just from Yale to the world, but from the world as it is to the world as it might be.
所以，当未来的历史学家们回顾这个支离破碎的时刻时，请让他们记录：你们不仅将这面旗帜从耶鲁带向世界，还将其从当下的世界带向一个理想中的未来世界。
Let them note that you helped us find our way back to one another.
让他们记住，是你们帮助我们找到回到彼此身边的路。
Let them say you were not only brilliant scholars, but courageous citizens.
让他们讲述，你们不仅是卓越的学者，更是勇敢的公民。
Let them say that in a time that called for both conviction and compassion, the Yale College Class of 2025 answered with both in full measure.
让他们歌颂，在一个需要信念与慈悯的时代，是耶鲁本科学院2025届的毕业生们向这个世界作出的充分回应。
Thank you, and congratulations.
谢谢你们，祝贺你们！
来源：英语东
