Becuase believe or not, each one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold and die. I'd like you to step forward of you and peruse some of the faces from the past. They're not that different from you , are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones. Just like you. Invincible just like you fell. The world is their oyster. They belive they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives evenone iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentelman, these boys are now fertilising daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it ? Carpe...hear it?...Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day, boys, make your lives extrordinary.
二、诗歌、美丽、浪漫、爱情,才是我们活着的意义。
《英语诗歌五百年》序言:要完全理解诗歌,我们首先必须了解它的格调、韵律、修辞手法,然后提两个问题:第一,诗主题如何艺术地实现;第二,诗主题的重要性。
To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech, then ask two questions: 1) How artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered and 2) How important is that objective?
我们不是在接水管。We're not laying pipe.
惟有在梦中,人们才是真正自由的。Only in their dreams can men be truly free.
学会自己思考,学会欣赏文学和语言。不管别人怎么说,文学和语言的确能改变世界。
Learn to think for yourselves again. No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.
我们读诗、写诗并不是因为它们好玩,而是因为我们是人类的一分子,而人类是充满激情的。没错,医学、法律、商业、工程,这些都是崇高的追求,足以支撑人的一生。但诗歌、美丽、浪漫、爱情,这些才是我们活着的意义。
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering -- these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love -- these are what we stay alive for.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…"
- Henry David Thoreau
你们必须努力寻找自己的声音,因为你越迟开始寻找,找到的可能性就越小。
Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all.
梭罗说“大多数人都生活在平静的绝望中”。别陷入这种境地,冲出来。别像老鼠逃跑似的,看看你的周围,要敢于开拓自己的天地。