今年，波士顿顶尖私立走读学校BB&N毕业典礼上，中国女生朱茜娜代表129位2018届毕业生致辞。这是该校建校一百多年的历史上，第一位华裔女生获得代表毕业生演讲的殊荣。朱同学曾荣获全国艺术大奖，今年秋天将就读普林斯顿大学。本次演讲非常出色感人，非常感谢本号特约作者杨光女士穿针引线联系朱同学爸爸朱穗生、妈妈常江，授权本号编译和发表演讲稿。因译者水平所限，译文无法反映原文神韵之万一，敬请朱同学及各位读者见谅。
朱茜娜同学上台演讲
Good morning, everyone. My name is Athena Chu and I am honored to be speaking here on behalf of the class of 2018 today.
各位早上好，我是朱茜娜，今天很荣幸代表2018届毕业生致辞。
I have been joking for the longest time that I was ready to graduate BB&N sophomore year. But standing here today, I have to admit that the only thing I am certain of is what I am about to leave behind. BB&N, everything it gave us, and everything it forced us to find for ourselves, has prepared us well. If there is anything we have learned over the past four years from our friends, our family, and our faculty and staff, it is that we are capable. There is no doubt that we would not be where we are right now without the care and guidance of our teachers, without the love from our families, without the laughter, the fights, the apologies, the compromises, the sacrifices. So, I am ready to leave this place, but I am far from ready to say goodbye.
And yet, here we are.
我一直开玩笑地说从高二开始就做好从BB&N毕业的准备。但今天站在这里，我必须承认的唯一现实，是自己真的要离开BB&N了，她给予我们的一切、以及她坚持要求我们为自己发掘的一切、都让我们做好充分的准备。如果在过去四年我们从朋友、家庭、老师那里学到一点什么，那就是我们有能力做好任何事。毫无疑问，如果没有老师的关爱和引领，没有家庭的挚爱，没有欢笑、争执、歉意、妥协和牺牲，我们无法达到今天的高度。因此，当我打点行装准备离校而去之时，还根本没有想好如何说出“再见”二字。
无论如何，我们来到了这里。
“It’s our time, breathe it in:
worlds to change and worlds to win!
Our turn coming through,
Me and you, man,
Me and you!”
“这是我们的时代、我们从空气中就可以嗅到：
世界在变化、我们要征服这个世界！
终于轮到我们大显身手了，
你和我、哥们
你和我！”
These are the lyrics to the last song from the musical Merrily We Roll Along. I saw it a month into senior year at the Huntington Theater, after Mr. Leith, my teacher and advisor, convinced me to watch it. The story is told backwards. It begins with three friends in their forties and ends with the first time they meet each other sometime in their twenties in college.
这些歌词来自音乐剧“我们一起快乐地摇滚”的压轴曲目。高四开学后一个月，在老师兼顾问利斯先生的力荐下，我去亨廷顿剧院（Huntington Theater）观赏了这个歌剧。故事采用倒叙方式。开幕展现在观众面前的是三位40多岁的老朋友，而结尾则描述了他们二十来岁的大学时代首次见面。
In the last scene, the three friends embrace on the roof of a New York City apartment, singing to the sky. They don’t know yet that in pursuing their dreams they will lose each other, that they will each find success on their own terms, but not together, that their love for what they do will overcome their love for one another. They don’t know yet that sometimes they have to choose between their passions and their livelihoods, that they will not always make the right decisions, or even realize that they made a decision, that they will sacrifice the wrong things for the wrong reasons. They don’t know yet that this world is not always forgiving or understanding, that it is full of both wonder and heartbreak.
在最后一幕中，三个朋友爬上纽约一幢公寓的屋顶，相拥一起对天高歌。不过他们当时肯定不知道，他们在追求梦想的过程中会失去对方；他们会根据自己的方式、而不是齐心协力地找寻成功；他们对事业的痴迷将远胜彼此的感情。他们还不知道的是，有时候他们不得不在激情和生计间做出选择，他们不会一直做出正确的决定、甚至很难意识到自己已经做出了决定，他们将由于误判而牺牲了不该牺牲的东西。他们还不了解这个世界并非总是宽容和理解，这里充斥着迷茫和心碎。
We don’t know yet either, do we?
我们对未来同样毫无所知，不是吗？
Class of 2018, we are not actors in a musical. At least, I don’t think we are. If we are, I am in trouble. I haven’t learned my lines yet, or any of the lyrics or the melody or the cues or which character I am supposed to be for that matter, or when the opening day is, or where the stage is…
2018届的同学们，我认为我们并不是音乐剧的演员。如果真要出演音乐剧，那就麻烦了。我还没有开始背台词、或歌词、配音、曲调、剧情、或自己将要扮演何种角色、也不知道节目何时开演、以及舞台所处何地。。。
But I’m not too worried. Maybe we don’t learn our lines because we have to write them ourselves. Maybe we don’t have a stage yet because we have to make one of our own. Maybe we each have our own version of a stage. Maybe every day is opening day. There’s no one day to work for. Every day is it. We cannot wait around for someone to tell us who we are. We were given our names but we have also named ourselves again and again these past four years. We named ourselves athletes, artists, biologists, chemists, engineers, debaters, writers, mathematicians, historians. We have named ourselves all of these things at once. We have named ourselves classmates and teammates, students and teachers, friends and family. When we leave this place we will name ourselves again. We are the protagonists of our own stories, the secondary characters of each other’s, and sometimes the antagonists. There’s no one character we are “supposed” to be in the end.
但我不会太过焦虑。也许我们背不出台词，因为我们必须亲力亲为撰写自己的台词。也许我们还没有舞台，因为我们得身体力行打造全新的舞台。也许我们每个人都有自己的舞台。也许每天都是揭幕首演。我们不知道哪天是演出日，因此我们每天都要投入工作。我们不能坐等他人告知自己的角色定位。虽然我们无法选择自己的姓名，但在过去四年我们一次次为自己冠名。我们是运动员、艺术家、生物学家、化学家、工程师、辩手、作家、数学家、历史学家。我们集所有称号于一身。我们还把自己称为同学和队友、学生和老师、朋友和家庭。当我们离开学校时，我们还将拥有新的称谓。我们既是自己故事的主角，又是彼此故事的配角，有时甚至会成为对手。到最后，我们不会局限在一个预设的角色之中。
Most of us will spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out why we are the characters we are, why we are here. Many of us will fail to do so. And that’s okay. We do not need to know everything, despite how much we yearn for it.
我们中的大多数人将竭尽余生寻求自己的人生位置、以及为何如此定位。我们中很多人可能无法达到目的，不过这也没什么，尽管我们渴望真相，但也不必知晓一切。
The Class of 2018, we yearn for a lot of things, and it is our desire for something greater than ourselves, that makes us an accomplished class.
2018届的同学们，我们有着很多向往，我们共同的希望是超越自我，让我们成为一届功成名就的年级。
Sitting here are the most driven and talented people I have ever met. I can tell you about Elijah Davis’ documentary, how he interviewed admissions officers, parents, and black students and alumni at nearby ISL schools, how he worked on the project for an entire year to tell the stories that have not been told yet. I can tell you about the cookbook Consi Faling, Caroline Donnelly Moran, Angela Liu, and Cora Wendlandt made, or how Jenna Selden rescued animals from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico after the hurricane left many without ahome. I can tell you about Henry Marshall, the youngest national sailing champion in American history, or Shayan Olumi and Lily Druker, our very own Boston Marathon runners. I can tell you about every ISL championship, girls varsity softball, girls varsity soccer. I can tell you about the best sophomore debate team to ever come together: Chris Attisani, Danny Noenickx, Yliuz SierraMartin, and me. I can tell you about Avi Madsen playing the role of Creon in Antigone, dragging Jeremy Tang, who played Haemon, across the stage, and how he grieved over losing his son— one of the best moments in theater I had ever seen at this school. I can tell you about every late night Elisa Tabor and I spent editing Point of View articles, driving to get Chinese food at midnight. I will always be astounded by her work ethic. I can tell you about art class and how, when I looked over at Bri Forman’s painting, it would already be finished. Before I even got my paints or brushes out yet, she had already created a masterpiece. I can tell you about dance class in freshman year, we were jamming to some Bruno Mars song and Ben Blackburn was my partner. I have to admit I was impressed with his dance moves (it’s no wonder that so many people had a crush on him).
今天在此欢聚一堂的是我见过最奋发图强和足智多谋的群体。我可以告诉你Elijah Davis拍摄的纪录片，他如何在附近ISL学校采访招生官、家长、黑人学生和校友，他如何在长达一年的时间里投身于这个项目，揭示那些不为人所知的内幕。我可以告诉你们，Consi Faling、Caroline Donnelly Moran、Angela Liu和Cora Wendlandt撰写的烹饪指南，也可以告诉你们Jenna Selden如何在一场令很多人无家可归的飓风过后，深入多米尼加和波多黎各拯救动物。我可以告诉你们，有史以来全美最年轻的帆船冠军Henry Marshall，以及在家门口参加波士顿马拉松赛的选手Shayan Olumi和Lily Druker的传奇。我可以告诉你们每一个ISL冠军，女子垒球校队，女子足球校队的夺冠过程。我可以告诉你们，由Chris Attisani,、Danny Noenickx,、Yliuz Sierra Martin和我组成的，有史以来最棒的高二年级辩论队故事。我可以告诉你们，Avi Madsen在“安提戈涅”(Antigo)中扮演克里昂(Creon)，拖着扮演哈蒙(Haemon)的Jeremy Tang走上舞台，他是如何为失去爱子而痛不欲生，这是我在学校戏剧舞台欣赏的最感人一幕。我可以告诉你们，Elisa Tabor和我加班加点赶写校报文章的每一个夜晚，半夜三更驱车到中餐馆吃夜宵的情景，Elisa的工作态度令我肃然起敬。我可以告诉你们艺术课的轶事，以及Bri Forman是如何在我面前完成一幅画的。当我还没来得及取出颜料或画笔，她就已经呈现出一幅杰作。我可以告诉你们，在高一的舞蹈课中，舞伴Ben Blackburn和我故意没有按照布鲁诺·马尔斯（Bruno Mars）歌曲节奏起舞。必须承认，他的舞步给我留下了深刻的印象（难怪那么多人迷恋他）。
参加戏剧表演的BB&N学生
I can tell you about everything we have excelled in, how many awards we won, how many miles we ran, how many paintings we made. I can tell you about how many times we threw the ball until we got it right, how many times we recited the same words over and over until we had that poem fully memorized. I can tell you about how early we woke up or how late we stayed up to get to where we are now, how we gave 100% on the field or the stage or in the classroom even when we felt like we had nothing left to give.
我可以告诉你们，我们擅长的每一件事情，我们荣获多少个奖项，我们奔跑多少英里，我们创作多少画作。我可以告诉你们，我们练习了多少次投球，直到准确为止，我们背诵了多少行诗句，直到完全记住。我可以告诉你们，我们是多么地起早摸黑，最后才有机会站到这里，在球场、在舞台、在教室，我们是多么努力地全身心付出，即使已经感觉精疲力竭。
We have a lot to be proud of, and we knowwe have so much more to offer. But there will always be another time to celebrate what we have accomplished. There will rarely be a time again when we, the class of 2018, are all here together. In the musical, Merrily We RollAlong, the three friends on that roof learned too late that everything they would come to achieve amounted to very little if they didn’t have each other tocelebrate with.
我们有如此众多值得自傲之处，我们深知可以贡献更多。但总有机会另择他时弹冠相庆。作为2018届的同学，我们可能鲜有机会再聚一堂。在音乐剧“我们一起快乐地摇滚”中，屋顶上的三个朋友太晚才领悟到，如果他们没有一起庆祝各自获得的成就，所有一切都是浮云。
And so, I not only want to celebrate with you all, I want to celebrate us— not what we have done over the past four years, just who we have become, who we want to be, who we are right now, just us.
所以，我不仅仅想与你们所有人一起庆祝，我更想庆祝的，不是为过去四年所做的事情，而是我们已经成为什么样的人，我们想成为什么样的人，我们现在是什么样的人，就我们自己。
Because it’s not the wins or the losses that I’ll remember in the years to come. It will be everything in between. It will be the smallest moments, the ones we are sure to forget. I’ll remember best that time Delila Keravuori taught our whole Bivouac squad how to make bruschetta, and how we rejoiced over eating what felt like a five-star meal in the middle of the woods. I’ll remember best that time Ali Plump was solving some calculus equation in her notebook under the table during our history class junior year, and how she beamed when she figured it out. I’ll remember the pure joy on her face. I’ll remember best the last week of our fall semester when the finish line felt so far away and impossible, and Maggie Foot gave me a hug and said everything I needed to hear. I’ll remember best that same day when Andreas Frank squeezed my hand in the library and nodded in understanding.
因为，在未来的岁月里，留存于我记忆之中不再是胜利或失败。那是在此之间发生的一切，是微不足道的片段，是那些我们注定遗忘的时刻。我清楚地记得，Delila Keravuori教我们整个野营团队烤制意式蒜末面包，以及我们是如何为在树林中吃到五星级美味而兴高采烈。我非常清楚地记得，在高三的一节历史课上，Ali Plump在课桌下的笔记本演算几个微积分方程，当终于得到答案时，灿烂的笑容是如何在她脸上绽放开来。我会永远牢记那种纯粹的喜悦。我最清楚地记得，在秋季学期最后一周，当感觉终点是如此遥不可及时，Maggie Foot 拥抱着我，说出我亟需听到的一切。那一天，Andreas Frank在图书馆里紧紧地握着我的手，点头表示理解。
There are so many moments shared among this group of people before you, some we wish to never speak of again, some we can’t help but smile over. These are moments, here and now, that I want to save for us, because they are ours. They cannot be put into words.
眼前的同学们相互分享了如此多过往情景，其中有些我们永远不想再提起，有些我们忍俊不住一笑而过。这是我们的生活片段，此时此刻，我想为大家保留这一切，因为这属于我们自己，无法用语言表达。
朱茜娜在演讲
I wish I could know for sure what is to come after this ends. Right now, we are just those kids on a roof. But we cannot rewind our lives or live backwards. We don’t know if we will get to where we want to be. We don’t even know really what it is we want. The whole world is in front of us, and so be it if it is at times ugly and hard and tiresome, cruel and lonely. It doesn’t have to make any sense. The world will not wait for us, and it does not care for us, but we will care for it anyway. Because the world is kind too, and beautiful. It is full of stories that we will want to tell. It is everything we dream of — I am sure of it, I have to be—everything we see in each other right now, and everything we can’t even fathom yet.
我希望确切地知晓毕业后将要发生的事情。此刻，我们就像那几位屋顶上的孩子。但我们无法将自己的生命或生活回放。我们不知道自己能否到达理想中的彼岸，我们甚至还不知道自己想要的到底是什么。整个世界在我们面前展现，即使有时候显得丑陋、狠心、讨厌、残酷和孤独。这并没有任何意义。这世界不会等待我们，也不会关注我们，但无论如何我们都要关心它。因为世界也是善良的，美丽的。这里充满了我们想要表达的故事。这里有我们梦寐以求的一切，我坚信，这其实就是我们此刻在彼此身上看到的一切，以及我们目前还无法理解的一切。
We are more than capable of overcoming tough times, and even more so, our own doubts and fears. We have to try. We will try. And in trying, we will make mistakes. We have made many already. We hurt and misunderstand each other, but we also help each other. We listen to each other and laugh with each other. We should not be afraid of failing, only a missed opportunity. Our BB&N education is ingrained into us as we continue on our paths. It doesn’t matter where we come from or where we are planning on going. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. It doesn’t even matter if we remember this particular moment, if these four years all blur into an afterthought.
我们有足够的能力度过艰难时刻，更能克服自身的彷徨和恐惧。我们应该去尝试。我们勇于去尝试。在尝试的过程中，我们会犯错。我们已经犯了很多错。我们彼此伤害和误解，但我们也会互相帮助。我们彼此倾听、一同欢笑。我们害怕的不是失败，而只是错失良机。在我们继续踏上人生旅程之时，BB&N的教育在我们身上留下深重的烙印。无论我们来自何处、无论我们去往何方、无论花费多少时间，甚至无论我们能否记得此时此刻、这四年高中生涯是否化为过眼云烟，这都不重要！
May we never forget, rather, how hopeful we are right now, how eager and alive. May we never forget the excitement of anending, the freedom of a beginning. May we never forget that there will always be another roof, that there will be more moments like this one. May we never forget that we are loved, that there is always something to love. May we neverforget who and what we have come to love in just four years.
然而，希望我们永不遗忘的是，我们现在是多么地满怀希望、多么地热情洋溢和活力充沛。愿我们一直牢记结局的兴奋和开局的自如。愿我们永远不会遗忘，总有另外一个屋顶存在、会有更多像现在这样的美好时光。愿我们永远不会忘记有人关爱自己、永远存在值得爱的东西。愿我们永远不会忘却，在这短短四年间我们为之倾注爱心的人或事。
Right now, we are here. We happen to behere together. The Class of 2018.
此时此刻，我们有缘在此齐聚一堂。2018届的同学们。
The whole world is in front of us, and all that matters is we begin.
整个世界展现在我们面前，让我们而今迈步从头越。
关于BB&N
BB&N是Buckingham Browne & Nichols School的简称，这是一所位于马萨诸塞州剑桥市，提供幼托班至12年级教育的私立走读男女混校。BB&N被普遍认为全美顶尖私立学校之一。自1964年总统学者奖设立至今，马萨诸塞州27位获奖者中的三位出自BB&N，并有三位该校毕业生荣获罗德奖学金。
学校共有四个校区，分别为幼儿和小学部、初中部、高中部和办公区。2017年该校共有1,017位学生、146位教师、以及148位管理者和职员。
BB&N于1974年由Browne & Nichols School 和 BuckinghamSchool合并而成。组成BB&N的两所学校均为拥有百年以上历史的名校，前者创办于1883年，为一所7-12年级男校；后者创办于1889年，为一所K-12年级学校，其中K-6年级同时招收男女生、而7-12年级仅招女生。
更多有关BB&N的信息，请查询学校官网：https://www.bbns.org
作者：朱茜娜。编译：本号。本文经作者父母朱穗生和常江授权编译和发表。
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