【304】希拉里15年前耶鲁演讲——即使有人在你背后大声喊叫，也要勇往直前

昨天美国大选落下帷幕了。结局大家都知道了。

按说我不是个就着热点写文章的人，但是今天我还是想写一篇关于希拉里的文章。

因为巧的是手边就有这样的素材，我早上起床之后有时会读些英语，正好前两天早上起床读的一篇就是希拉里的，是她在2001年母校耶鲁大学300周年纪念日发表的演讲。

演讲的题目叫作 Dare to Compete, Dare to Care（敢于竞争，勇于关爱）。这篇演讲稿前半篇提到了自己参加美国参议院竞选活动，走上从政这条道路，缘于一件事。那时她还没有想好是否要竞选，这对她来说是一个艰难的决定，以前从未考虑过这件事。

某次活动遇见了一名知名女运动员，比利·琼·金，她们握手时，她显然已经在报纸上看到了人们讨论希拉里是否应该参加竞选的报道，所以对希拉里说，“要敢于竞争，克林顿夫人，要敢于竞争。”

那天早上在读这篇演讲的时候，这一幕特别有画面感，我能够想象两个女人之间的那种互相鼓励支持，也许就那么一瞬间，但真的就改变了对方的人生。

我不想讨论希拉里作为一名政客是否是伪君子，但作为女性来说，她是勇敢坚定的。

其实女性在职场中虽然擅长沟通，做事也丝毫不差，但相对男性而言，普遍不太愿意暴露自己的野心（对于有野心的这部分人而言），会比较少直截了当地和老板提出要求或是争取机会，也多与人为善，和男性的竞争意识相比就弱了许多。

之前有一些找我咨询职场或者成长的人，清一色都是女生，有些真的已经很优秀了。作为女生，我们还是很容易就缺乏自信，出现问题就从内自省，很少去和外界要求什么，不愿或者也不敢直截了当地说：我就是想要做这件事！我就是想要赢得这个机会！

这就是我为什么想分享这篇希拉里的演讲。当我们对着机会犹豫不决甚至往后退缩的时候，需要有这样的文章告诉你，即使是希拉里，她也有过这样的时刻，你所要做的就是hold on, lean in，坚持住，向前一步。无论发生什么，即使有人在你背后大声喊叫，也要勇往直前。 

下文贴出演讲原文，英文部分来自网络，中文部分没有找到现成的全文翻译，只能一句句手工在英语听力网站上粘出来。（T.T）

本来还想放视频的，但网上找了很久也没有找到，可能时间太久远了吧。

It is such an honor and pleasure for me to be back at Yale, especially on the occasion of the 300th anniversary. I have had so many memories of my time here, and as Nick was speaking I thought about how I ended up at Yale Law School. And it tells a little bit about how much progress we’ve made.

再回耶鲁，特别是在耶鲁大学300周年纪念日再回到这里，我感到非常高兴非常荣幸！耶鲁大学给我留下了许多美好的回忆，尼克发言时，我想起了当年从耶鲁法学院毕业时的情景。这让我感受到了耶鲁大学所取得的巨大进步。

What I think most about when I think of Yale is not just the politically charged atmosphere and not even just the superb legal education that I received. It was at Yale that I began work that has been at the core of what I have cared about ever since. I began working with New Haven legal services representing children. And I studied child development, abuse and neglect at the Yale New Haven Hospital and the Child Study Center. I was lucky enough to receive a civil rights internship with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children’s Defense Fund, where I went to work after I graduated. Those experiences fueled in me a passion to work for the benefit of children, particularly the most vulnerable.

每当想起耶鲁时，我感触最深的不是这里浓郁的政治氛围，也不是我所接受的顶级的法律教育。正是在耶鲁，我开始做一些事情，这些事情从那时到现在都是我关心的核心。正是在耶鲁，我开始在纽黑文儿童法律机构工作。我还在耶鲁纽黑文医院和儿童研究中心研究儿童身心发展以及辱骂和忽视儿童的行为。之后，我很幸运地与玛丽安·莱特·埃德尔一起获得了在儿童保护基金委员会的民权实习机会，并在毕业后去了那里工作。所有这些经历激发了我为保护儿童权益而努力的激情，特别是保护那些最脆弱的儿童。

Now, looking back, there is no way that I could have predicted what path my life would have taken. I didn’t sit around the law school, saying, well, you know, I think I’ll graduate and then I’ll go to work at the Children’s Defense Fund, and then the impeachment inquiry, and Nixon retired or resigns, I’ll go to Arkansas. I didn’t think like that. I was taking each day at a time.

现在回想起来，当时我并不知道自己会走上什么样的人生道路。我没有坐在法学院里说：“嗯，我想我毕业后要去儿童保护基金委员会工作，然后会遭到弹劾并接受调查，当尼克松退休或辞职后我会去阿肯色州。”事实上，我从未这样想过，只是顺其自然地过着每一天。

But, I’ve been very fortunate because I’ve always had an idea in my mind about what I thought was important and what gave my life meaning and purpose. A set of values and beliefs that have helped me navigate the shoals, the sometimes very treacherous sea, to illuminate my own true desires, despite that others say about what l should care about and believe in. A passion to succeed at what l thought was important and children have always provided that lone star, that guiding light. Because l have that absolute conviction that every child, especially in this, the most blessed of nations that has ever existed on the face of earth, that every child deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential.

但是，我一直都很幸运，因为我始终知道什么对我来说才是最重要的、什么让我的人生更有意义和追求。尽管别人常常告诉我应该关注和信仰什么，但是我依然坚持自己的一套价值观和信仰，它们帮助我度过了人生的浅海滩，让我在变幻莫测的大海自由航行，照亮了我内心深处的愿望。在我所认为的重要事情上取得成功以及对而他的关注像一颗启明星一样，指引着我前行的道路。因为我坚信，每一个孩子、特别是在美国这个地球上备受上帝恩惠的国度里的孩子，都应该有机会发挥他们天赐的潜能。

But you know that belief and conviction-it may make for a personal mission statement, but standing alone, not translated into action, it means very little to anyone else, particularly to those for whom you have those concerns.

但是你们要知道，信仰和信念可以促进个人目标的实现。但如果仅仅挂在嘴上，而不付诸行动的话，那这些对任何人来说都没有太大意义，特别是对于那些你所关注的人。

When I was thinking about running for the United States Senate-which was such an enormous decision to make, one I never could have dreamed that I would have been making when I was here on campus-I visited a school in New York City and I met a young woman, who was a star athlete.

当我考虑清楚要去参加美国参议院竞选活动时——这对我来说是一个非常艰难的决定，在耶鲁上大学时代我从未梦想过的事情——我去参观了纽约的一所学校，在那里遇见了一个年轻女人，同事一名明星运动员。

I was there because of Billy Jean King promoting an HBO special about women in sports called “Dare to compete.” It was about Title IX and how we finally, thanks to government action, provided opportunities to girls and women in sports.

我去那儿是因为比利·琼·金要在家庭影院频道宣传一个名为“敢于竞争”的体育节目。这个节目旨在宣传“第九项体育运动”，宣扬在政府的帮助下女性最终获得了参加体育比赛的机会。

And although I played not very well at intramural sports, I have always been a strong supporter of women in sports. And I was introduced by this young woman, and as I went to shake her hand she obviously had been reading the newspapers about people saying I should or shouldn’t run for the Senate. And I was congratulating her on the speech she had just made and she held onto my hand and she said, “Dare to compete, Mrs. Clinton. Dare to compete.”

尽管在学校时我并不擅长体育运动，但我非常支持女性参加体育运动。经别人的介绍，我认识了这位年轻女士。我前去跟她握手，而她显然已经在报纸上看到了有关人们讨论我该不该参加竞选的报道。我在对她刚刚的成功演讲表示祝贺时，她紧紧握住我的手，对我说，“要敢于竞争，克林顿夫人。要敢于竞争。”

I took that to heart because it is hard to compete sometimes, especially in public ways, when your failures are there for everyone to see and you don’t know what is going to happen from one day to the next. And yet so much of life, whether we like to accept it or not, is competing with ourselves to be the best we can be, being involved in classes or professions or just life, where we know we are competing with others.

我牢牢记住了她的话，因为有时候竞争真的很残酷，特别是通过公开方式进行竞争，因为在那种情况下你的失败人人可见，而且你不知道接下来的一天天会发生什么。然而，这就是生活，不管我们愿意接受与否，我们总是在不断挑战自我，力争做到最好。无论是在学校还是在职场甚至是在生活中，我们也都在和别人竞争。

I took her advice and I did compete because I chose to do so. And the biggest choices that you’ll face in your life will be yours alone to make. I’m sure you’ll receive good advice. You’re got a great education to go back and reflect about what is right for you, but you eventually will have to choose and I hope that you will dare to compete. And by that I don’t mean the kind of cutthroat competition that is too often characterized by what is driving America today. I mean the small voice inside you that says to you, you can do it, you can take this risk, you can take this next step.

我采纳了她的建议，参加了竞选，因为我已经做出了这样的决定。最重要的选择必须由自己来抉择。我相信你们会得到很好的建议。你们接受了良好的教育，这些教育能让你们明白什么最适合自己，但最终你们还是要做出选择，我希望你们敢于竞争。但是我指的并不是那种激烈的竞争，而是源于心底的那种微妙的声音，告诉你，你可以去做这件事情，你可以去冒这次险，你可以走这一步。

And it doesn’t mean that once having made that choice you will always succeed. In fact, you won’t. There are setbacks and you will experience difficult disappointments. You will be slowed down and sometimes the breath will just be knocked out of you. But if you carry with you the values and beliefs that you can make a difference in your own life, first and foremost, and then in the lives of others. You can get back up, you can keep going.

但这个并不意味着一旦做了决定你就一定能取得成功。事实并非如此。成功路上难免挫折，也会有沮丧与失望。你们会放慢脚步，甚至会感到窒息。但是，如果你们坚持自己的价值观和信仰，那么首先你们可以使自己的生活有所改观，同时也可以改变别人的生活。你们可以振作起来，也可以勇往直前。

But it is also important, as I have found, not to take yourself too seriously, because after all, every one of us here today, none of us is deserving of full credit. I think every day of the blessings my birth gave me without any doing of my own. I chose neither my family nor my country, but they as much as anything I’ve ever done, determined my course.

但是我发现，同样重要的是，不要把自己太当一回事，因为毕竟我们今天在座的所有人中没有一个人是十全十美的。我在想每天生命赋予我多少祝福，我却没有主动去祝福别人。我既没有选择我的家庭也没有选择我的祖国，但是它们如同我所做过事情一样决定着我的人生。

You compare my or your circumstances with those of the majority of people who’ve ever lived or who are living right now, they too often are born knowing too well what their futures will be. They lack the freedom to choose their life’s path. They’re imprisoned by circumstances of poverty and ignorance, bigotry, disease, hunger, oppression and war.

将我的或你们的生活境况与前人或现在的人的生活进行比较，你们会发现，这些人通常一出生就知道自己的未来会是怎样。他们没有选择人生道路的自由。他们被贫穷、无知、偏执、疾病、饥饿、压迫和战争困扰着。

So, dare to compete, yes, but maybe even more difficult, dare to care. Dare to care about people who need our help to succeed and fulfill their own lives. There are so many out there and sometimes all it takes is the simplest of gestures or helping hands and many of you understand that already. I know that the numbers of graduates in the last 20 years have worked in community organizations, have tutored, have committed themselves to religious activities.

因此，要敢于竞争，就是这样。但是敢于关爱也许更难。我们要关爱那些需要借助我们一臂之力获得成功或实现人生价值的人们。外面有很多人等待我们去帮助，你们中的许多人应该都已经明白，他们有时需要的不过就是一个最简单的手势或者仅仅是拉他们一把而已。我知道，过去20年许多从耶鲁毕业的大学生有的在社区工作，有的从事教育行业，有的把自己的一生都奉献给了宗教事业。

You have been there trying to serve because you have believed both that it was the right thing to do and because it gave something back to you. You have dared to care.

你们竭尽全力服务社会，因为你们相信这正是你们要做的，而且会得到回报。这样，你们就做到了敢于关爱。

Well, dare to care to fight for equal justice for all, for equal pay for women, against hate crimes and bigotry. Dare to care about public schools without qualified teachers or adequate resources. Dare to care about protecting our environment. Dare to care about the 10 million children in our country who lack health insurance. Dare to care about the one and a half million children who have a parent in jail. The seven million people who suffer from HIV/AIDS. And thank you for caring enough to demand that our nation do more to help those that are suffering throughout this world with HIV/AIDS, to prevent this pandemic from spreading even further.

要敢于关爱，就意味着我们要敢于为全人类的平等正义而奋斗，敢于为妇女同工同酬而奋斗，敢于为打击犯罪和顽固势力而奋斗。我们要关注那些缺乏合格教师和教育资源的公立学校，要勇于承担保护环境的重任。我们要勇于关注我们国家1000万没有医疗保险的儿童、150万父母有一方在监狱的儿童以及700万艾滋病患者。在此我要感谢那些呼吁我们国家给予全世界的艾滋病患者更多帮助、抑制艾滋病传播的人。

And I’ll also add, dare enough to care about our political process. You know, as I go and speak with students I’m impressed so much, not only in formal settings, on campuses, but with my daughter and her friends, about how much you care, about how willing you are to volunteer and serve. You may have missed the last wave of the dot.com revolution, but you’ve understood that the dot.community revolution is there for you every single day. And you’ve been willing to be part of remarking lives in our community.

我还想再强调一点，那就是勇于去关注我们政治进程。你们知道吗，每当我跟学生交谈时，不管是在正式场合还是在校园里，或是在与我的女儿及她的朋友们交谈时，他们对社会的关注以及他们志愿为他人服务的精神都给我留下了深刻的印象。你们也许已经错过了互联网革命的最后一个革命浪潮，但是你们应该已经明白，互联网革命期待你们每一天都能参与。而且我相信你们一直很乐意成为改造社会的一份子。

And yet, there is a real resistance, a turning away from the political process. I hope that some of you will be public servants and will even run for office yourself, not to win a position to make and impression on your friends at your 20th reunion, but because you understand how important it is for each of us as citizens to make a commitment to our democracy.

然而，很多人都对政治持有排斥心理，会对政治避而不谈。我希望你们中的一些人能成为人民的公仆、甚至能亲自参加竞选，而不是谋取高职只为能在20年同学聚会上炫耀。因为你们明白，我们每一个人作为公民都有义务为我们的民主事业做出贡献，这一点很重要。

Your generation, the first one born after the social upheavals of the 60’s and 70’s, in the midst of the technological advances of the 80’s and 90’s, are inheriting an economy, a society and a government that has yet to understand fully, or even come to grips with, our rapidly changing world.

你们这一代人生于60到70年代社会动荡的末期，成长于80至90年代技术革命期间，你们所面临的经济体制、社会体制和政府机构，已经清楚地意识到这是一个日新月异的世界，并开始认真对待这个瞬息万变的世界。

And so bring your values and experiences and insights into politics. Dare to help make, not just a difference in politics, but create a different politics. Some have called you the generation of choice. You’ve been raised with multiple choice tests, multiple channels, multiple websites and multiple lifestyles. You’ve grown up choosing among alternatives that were either not imagined, created or available to people in prior generations. You’ve been invested with far more personal power to customize your life, to make more free choices about how to live than was ever thought possible. And I think as I look at all the surveys and research that is done, your choices reflect not only freedom, but personal responsibility.

因此，把你们的价值观、阅历和洞察力都融于政治中吧！你们不仅要敢于在政治上有所作为，而且还要敢于创造一个完全不同的政治体系。有人把你们这一代人称为有选择权利的一代。你们是在多项选择测验、多渠道、多网站及多重生活方式中长大的，你们被赋予了很多力量，拥有规划自己人生的权利，能够比以往任何时候都更加自由地主宰自己的生活。当我看着你们完成的所有问卷调查和研究时，我认为你们的选择不仅反映了社会，也反映了你们的责任心。

The social indicators, not the headlines, the social indicators tell a positive story: drug use and cheating and arrests being down, been pregnancy and suicides, drunk driving deaths being down. Community service and religious involvement being up. But if you look at the area of voting among 18 to 29 year olds, the numbers tell a far more troubling tale. Many of you I know believe that service and community volunteerism is a better way of solving the issues facing our country than political engagement, because you believe-choose one of the following multiples or choose them all-government either can’t understand or won’t make the right choices because of political pressures, inefficiency, incompetence or big money influence.

是社会调查指标，而不是头版头条新闻，让我们感受到整个社会的进步：吸毒、诈骗以及在押人数均呈下降趋势；少女怀孕、自杀以及酒后驾车致死事件也在逐渐减少。同时，参加社区服务及宗教活动的人数呈上升趋势。但是，18岁到29岁人群的投票选举情况则令人担忧。我知道，你们中许多人都认为参加社区服务和志愿者活动比参与政治活动更能解决我们国家面临的问题，因为你们认为，政府往往趋于政治压力，缺乏效率或无能、甚至是受金钱驱使而不能领会或作出正确选择。你们这样做可能是因为上述原因的一种，也可能是因为所有这些原因。

Well, I admit there is enough truth in that critique to justify feeling disconnected and alienated. But at bottom, that’s a personal cop-out and a national peril. Political conditions maximize the conditions for individual opportunity and responsibility as well as community. Americorps and the Peace Corps exist because of political decisions. Our air, water, land and food will be clean and safe because of political choices. Our ability to cure disease or log onto the Internet have been advanced because of politically determined investments. Ethnic cleansing in Kosovo ended because of political leadership. Your parents and grandparents traveled here by means of government built and subsidized transportation systems. Many used GI Bills or government loans, as I did, to attend college.

我承认，人们批评的人类情感淡漠和疏远很多都是事实。但实际上，这只是个人托辞和国家危难。政局最大限度地扩大了个人机会和个人要承担的责任，同时也最大限度地扩大了社会机会和社会所要承担的责任。美国军团和美国和平部队因政治决策而存在。我们的空气、水、土地和食品因政治决策而安全卫生。以政治为导向的投资使医疗技术和网络技术取得了新的发展。政治领导结束了科索沃（南斯拉夫自治省名）的种族净化。你们的父母、祖父母能够到此旅游得益于政府资助修建的交通运输系统。和我一样，很多人在美国退伍军人权利法案和政府贷款条例的帮助下完成了大学教育。

Now, I could, as you might guess, go on and on, but the point is to remind us all that government is us and each generation has to stake its claim. And, as stakeholders, you will have to decide whether or not to make the choice to participate. It is hard and it is, bringing change in a democracy, particularly now. There’s so much about our modern times that conspire to lower our sights, to weaken our vision-as individuals and communities and even nations.

现在，你们也许已经猜到，我会一直坚持下去。而且我要强调一点，政府使我们的，每一代人都要响应它的号召。作为其中的一份子，你们必须做出选择，决定要不要参与其中。这很艰难，却能给民主社会带来变革，尤其是现在。现代社会无形中使我们个人、团体甚至国家放低眼光，缩小视野。

It is not the vast conspiracy you may have heard about; rather it’s a silent conspiracy of cynicism and indifference and alienation that we see every day, in our popular culture and in our prodigious consumerism.

在一个大众文化和高消费的国度里，你们可能听说都不是巨大的阴谋，而是我们天天都能见到的无形的讽刺、冷漠和疏远。

But as many have said before and as Vaclav Havel has said to memorably, “It cannot suffice just to invent new machines, new regulations and new institutions. It is necessary to understand differently and more perfectly the true purpose of our existence on this Earth and of our deeds.” And I think we are called on to reject, in this time of blessings that we enjoy, those who will tear us apart and tear us down and instead to liberate our God-given spirit, by being willing to dare to dream of a better world.

很多人曾说过，瓦兹拉夫·哈维尔（曾任捷克斯洛伐克总统）也曾明确表示过，“仅仅发明新机器、制定新条例、设立新机构是不够的，对于我们存在于这个世界以及我们行为的真正目的有一个全新的、彻底的认识是非常重要的。”而且，我认为，生活在幸福中的我们要敢于去追求一个更加完美的世界，这种力量呼吁我们去反抗那些离间、诋毁我们而不是帮助我们发挥天赋的人。

During my campaign, when times were tough and days were long I used to think about the example of Harriet Tubman, a heroic New Yorker, a 19th century Moses, who risked her life to bring hundreds of slaves to freedom. She would say to those who she gathered up in the South where she kept going back year after year from the safety of Auburn, New York, that no matter what happens, they had to keep going. If they heard shouts behind them, they had to keep going. If they heard gunfire or dogs, they had to keep going to freedom. Well, those aren’t the risks we face. It is more the silence and apathy and indifference that dogs our heels.

在我参加竞选的过程中，当我遇到挫折，日子变得艰难时，我常常把哈利特·塔布曼作为榜样。她是纽约的英雄，是19世纪的摩西，她冒着生命危险带领成百上千的奴隶走向了自由。告诉他们，无论发生什么都必须坚持往前走。告诉他们，无论发生什么都必须坚持往前走。如果听见背后有人大声喊叫，他们也必须坚持往前走。如果听见枪声或者狗叫声，他们也必须向着自由继续前行。然而这些并不是我们现在所面临的危险，我们此刻最主要的问题是沉默、无情和冷淡。

Thirty-two years ago, I spoke at my own graduation from Wellesley, where I did call on my fellow classmates to reject the notion of limitations on our ability to effect change and instead to embrace the idea that the goal of education should be human liberation and the freedom to practice with all the skill of our being the art of making possible.

32年前，我在韦尔斯利学院自己的毕业典礼上演讲，号召我的同学反对我们改变世界的能力是有限的这样一种观念。并号召他们拥护这样的思想：教育的目标应该是解放人类，使人类获得行动的自由，用其所拥有的技能创造奇迹。

For after all, our fate is to be free. To choose competition over apathy, caring over indifference, vision over myopia, and love over hate.

总之，自由是人类最终的归宿。我们要勇于竞争而非冷漠、勇于关爱而非漠不关心、高瞻远瞩而非鼠目寸光、大爱无私而非满目仇恨。

Just as this is a special time in your lives, it is for me as well because my daughter will be graduating in four weeks, graduating also from a wonderful place with a great education and beginning a new life. And as I think about all the parents and grandparents who are out there, I have a sense of what their feeling. Their hearts are leaping with joy, but it’s hard to keep tears in check because the presence of our children at a time and place such as this is really a fulfillment of our own American dreams. Well, I applaud you and all of your love, commitment and hard work, just as I applaud your daughters and sons for theirs.

毕业典礼对你们来说是一个特殊的时刻，对我也是如此，因为我女儿再过四个星期也要毕业了，也要从一个颇具魅力而且拥有一流教育的大学毕业开始新的生活了。当我想起你们的父母和祖父母时，我想我们拥有同样的心情。他们的心中满是喜悦，情不自禁留下激动的泪水，因为当你们在这一时刻这一地点出席这样一个典礼的时候，你们已经实现了我们伟大的美国梦。我要为你们的父母们无私的爱、奉献和辛苦的工作而喝彩，也要为他们的儿女喝彩！

And I leave these graduates with the same message I hope to leave with my graduate. Dare to compete. Dare to care. Dare to dream. Dare to love. Practice the art of making possible. And no matter what happens, even if you hear shouts behind, keep going.

我希望在自己毕业的时候听到这样的话，同样我也要把这些话送给你们。要敢于竞争，敢于关爱，敢于憧憬，大胆去爱！要努力创造奇迹！无论发生什么，即使有人在你背后大声喊叫，也要勇往直前。

Thank you and God bless you all.

谢谢你们！愿上帝保佑你们！

（完）

手工整理不易，顺手点赞转发评论打赏吧~

参考来源：网站可可英语“名校励志英语演讲”