2019年5月17日（星期五），圣路易斯华盛顿大学举行了第158届毕业典礼。前纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格(Michael R. Bloomberg)被邀请作为毕业典礼演讲嘉宾。

演讲腾讯视频中文字幕简洁版：

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演讲完整版：

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演讲中英文全文如下：

Well good morning, everyone. Hello, WashU, how is everyone doing?

早上好。华大你好，大家都好吗？

Let me start with the most important words I can say today: Congratulations to the distinguished graduates of the great class of2019.

让我先以今天最重要的一句话开场：祝贺优秀的2019届毕业生！

I’d like to welcome everyone here — and Chancellor Wrighton for extending the invitation. I’ve known the chancellor for more than a decade, and I want to congratulate him for everything he has done to both transform this campus and raise academic standards.

欢迎大家来到这里——也感谢马克.莱顿校长的邀请。我认识莱顿校长十多年了，祝贺他为改变华大和提升华大学术水平所做的一切。

If there are any older alumni present, be glad you applied back when you did. I can just tell you that certainly I would not have gotten into WashU today. For the record, I was the kind of student who always made the top half of the class possible.

如果在场有华大老校友，请为你们当年申请华大感到高兴。坦率地说，如果现在让我申请华大，毫无疑问我很难被录取。记录显示，我一直是班级里成绩比较靠后的学生。

Graduates,  it’s a great honor to be your Commencement speaker. I accept the fact that I wasn’t your first choice. But unfortunately,T-Pain couldn’t make it. Mandatory vocal rest, he said. Actually, that’s the same reason I didn’t go out last night and sing karaoke at T’s.

各位毕业生，很荣幸成为你们的毕业典礼的演讲嘉宾。不过我得接受一个事实，我本来不是你们首选的演讲嘉宾。但不幸的是，T-Pain（艺术家、成功的非裔歌手）无法到场。他最近需要保护嗓子。实际上，这也是我昨晚不出去唱卡拉OK的原因。

Today’s a beautiful day. But this is St. Louis, and so before leaving my hotel this morning I also packed a winter parka.

今天天气棒极了。但这里是圣路易斯，所以在今天早上离开酒店之前，我还带了一件冬装大衣。（注：这是调侃圣路易斯气温变化很大）

I drove over here, and I was lucky: I found a very convenient parking space — on West Campus — so I took the shuttle over. It was worth it. What an amazing place this is. Where else could I see the bunny? And the DUC.

我开车到这里，很幸运地在西校区找到了一个非常方便的停车位，然后乘坐校车过来。多么美丽的校园。除了在这里，我还能在哪里看到那只兔子和丹佛斯大学中心？

（注：１，　因为校园施工，所以华盛顿大学停车位紧缺，这里应该是调侃华盛顿大学停车困难。２，校园有一个著名兔子雕塑）

Still, I was disappointed that, in all my walking around, I did not get to see the school’s most famous icon: Ninja Turtle Backpack Guy. Demetri, way to dance to your own beat.

尽管如此，我感到遗憾的一点是，我这一路上，没有见到学校最著名的背着忍者神龟包包的奇人(Ninja Turtle Backpack Guy)。德米特里，加油，继续跟随心灵自由舞蹈吧。

Graduates, you’re probably asking yourself some big, important questions right now on this important day, like how am I going to make a living? Will I ever have a mattress as nice as the one I had in the Forty? Will I ever again experience the magic of free Uber rides?

毕业生们，在今天这个重要的日子里，你们可能问自己一些很重要的大问题，比如该如何谋生？我还能睡到南40(south forty)那么舒服的床垫吗？以后会还有机会享受学校的免费优步吗？

（注：1，Forty是大一大二学生的宿舍，床垫特别舒服，2，为了学生的安全，有一段时间大学给学生提供免费Uber）

And the biggest question of all, after Chancellor Wrighton retires, will he still wear double-breasted suits? I’m going to say yes to that one.

最重要的问题是，在莱顿校长退休之后，他还会穿双排扣西装吗？我想答案应该是“是”。

（注：马克莱顿校长最爱穿双排扣西装，任何时候都是以双排扣西装的严谨形象示人）

Today, you’ll have to say farewell to many of the things that served as your support system and that got you through these stressful times. Things like Ted Drewes, toasted ravs, John’s Donuts, gooey butter cake. Thank goodness WashU has also one of the world’s best medical centers.

今天，你将不得作别很多经常帮助你渡过压力时光的美食。像老泰的啤酒，烤饺子，老约翰的甜甜圈，粘粘的黄油蛋糕等。幸亏华大的医疗中心是全世界最好的之一。

（注：华大确实拥有世界上最好的医学中心之一）

Now, before I go any further, let me take a moment to congratulate another group who is here today and deserves a lot of credit, and I’m talking about your parents and your family. How about a nice round of applause for them.

现在，在我继续之前，让我们祝贺今天在座的另一群人，我指的是你们的父母和家人。让我们一起为他们鼓掌。

They’re out there beaming, not even thinking about the cost of tuition, and I’m sure they are just thrilled that some of you will be moving back into their basements.

他们现在特别激动，甚至忘记了为你们所支付学费的。我相信他们中的一些人也很激动，因为你们中有些人将搬去他们的地下室住（和父母一起居住）。

Wherever you’re headed in the days and months ahead, I want to leave you with some food for thought, so let me turn to the real message of my speech.

无论在将来你决定去哪里，我都想跟大家分享一些思考，让我言归正传。

In composing my remarks, I thought about the fact that WashU was originally named Eliot Seminary after one of the founders, Reverend William Eliot. Apparently, he was uncomfortable naming things after himself. So the Board of Trustees at the time changed the name of the school to honor George Washington.

在撰写我的讲稿时候，我想到华大最初的名字是艾略特神学院，因为华大的创始人之一是艾略特牧师。很明显，他并不喜欢以自己名字命名一个学院，因此，当时的校董会给大学改变以纪念乔治·华盛顿总统。

I can appreciate what Reverend Eliot was thinking. I hate it when people name things after themselves — we had a story about that recently on Bloomberg Television and Bloomberg Radio, maybe it was in Bloomberg Business week or Bloomberg News, who knows.

我很欣赏艾略特牧师的处理。我讨厌那种喜欢拿自己名字命名的人——我们最近在彭博电视和彭博电台上在播放相关的事，也可能是在彭博商业周刊或彭博新闻上讲到过，管他呢。

（注：彭博电视，彭博电台，彭博商业周刊和彭博新闻都是以布隆伯格名字命名，这是他在自我调侃）

In all seriousness, the board back then made an inspiring decision to choose Washington. And anyone who thinks this school is in D.C. or near Seattle clearly hasn’t been paying attention.

认真地说，校董会当时选择华盛顿做校名，是非常鼓舞人心的决定。但是，有些人以为华大是在D.C.或西雅图附近，那是他们自己没有注意。

（注：很多人都以为圣路易华盛顿大学是在西雅图或者D.C.这是华盛顿大学经常碰到的一个梗）

It seems fitting that an institution named for Washington has played such an important role in presidential elections in recent decades. WashU has hosted a number of nationally televised debates, including the last one you saw in 2016.

近几十年来，以华盛顿总统命名的院校，确实在总统选举中发挥了非常重要的作用。华大主持了一系列的总统选举辩论，包括你们在2016年看到的最后一场辩论。

Hosting a presidential debate is an experience that few schools or students get. But I can’t stand here and tell you it provided agreat civics lesson. I wish I could.

很少的学校能有机会主持总统竞选辩论，让学生得到这些经验。尽管我希望能，但我不能站在这里告诉你，这提供了一个很好的公民课的机会。

Instead of focusing on the critical issues facing the country, that debate was more about locker room talk and ‘lock her up.’Lincoln-Douglas, I think it’s fair to say, it was not.

那场辩论主要话题不是在关注国家所面临的各种重大问题，而是变成在更多地关注“更衣室的谈话”和“把她关进监狱”。很公平地说，完全不是林肯与竞争对手道格拉斯之间那样的高水平总统竞选辩论。

That brings me to the topic du jour. It would be easy to blame the candidates or the moderators for the poor quality of that debate. But the problem runs much deeper.

这让我想到了网红的炒作。我们可以把辩论质量低轻易地归结成指责候选人或主持人水平差。但其实问题严重得多。

All across America — at family gatherings, in social settings and workplaces, on college campuses, and certainly on social media, Americans are losing the ability to conduct civil and productive dialogue with those who hold different political views.

整个美国——无论是家庭聚会、社交场合还是工作场所、在大学校园、以及在社交媒体上，美国人正在失去与持有不同政治观点的人进行文明和富有成效的对话的能力。

That has profound implications for our ability to function as a society. After all, when you can’t talk with one another, you can’t understand one another. When we can’t understand one another, we can’t work together. When we can’t work together, we can’t do anything. At least not anything big and important.

这对我们作为一个高效率运转的社会的有着深远的影响。毕竟，当人们无法互相交谈时，就无法互相理解。当我们无法相互理解时，就无法一起工作。当我们不能一起工作时，我们就一事无成。至少无法做成重要的事情。

We face a lot of hard challenges in America today —from climate change to gun violence, to failing schools to the opioid epidemic, and on campuses, from the frightening trend toward racism, sexism, hatred, anti-Semitism and in tolerance of unpopular views and opinions.

今天的美国面临许多艰难的挑战——从气候变化到枪支暴力，从学校教育的失败到阿片类处方药和毒品成瘾危机。甚至在校园里，也出现了可怕的趋势，种族主义、性别歧视、仇恨、反犹太主义，以及对不同观点的不欢迎和对不同意见缺乏包容。、

To have any hope of overcoming these challenges, we have to start by reclaiming our civic dialogue from those who are debasing and degrading it — and preventing us from getting things done.

如果要对克服这些挑战留有希望的话，我们必须让那些阻止我们实现目标和贬低民众间对话的人无法得逞。

All of you can help do that — no matter what your politics are and no matter what line of work you pursue later on. Maybe your passion is science or the environment. Or the arts or education. Or medicine or health care. Or business. There is not a single issue that isn’t affected by political debates. And there is not a single issue that isn’t threatened by the breakdown in our civic discourse.

你们每个人都可以这么做—无论你是什么样的政治观点，无论从事什么工作。也许你的兴趣是科学和环境，或艺术或教育，或医药或保健，或者是经商。但是，没有什么是不受到政治辩论的影响的。并且，没有任何一件事情是不受到社会文明进步倒退的威胁的。

So even if you hate politics — and there are a lot of reasons to hate politics these days — you will have to engage in political dialogue, if only to survive Thanksgiving dinner with your crazy uncle. And you will have to judge the arguments made by candidates if you are going to vote intelligently.

即使你讨厌政治—现在确实有很多理由让你讨厌政治—但是你也往往无法逃避涉及政治的对话。例如只是为了能与你疯狂的叔叔一起共进感恩节晚餐，你也可能需要设计政治对话。而如果你要理智地投票，你将不得不对候选人的观点做出判断。

The question I hope you will ask yourself is: on what basis will you make those judgments?

我希望你们会问自己这么一个问题：你将以什么作为判断的依据？

It would be natural to think that a degree from one of America’s top colleges has prepared you as a skilled judge of political debates. But unfortunately a recent study found that the smartest and most knowledgeable voters can actually be the worst judges. And the reason is they are most likely to make judgments based on which party is making the argument rather than on the argument itself.

一般大家会很自然地认为，在美国顶尖大学的学习已经让你们具有成熟的政治判断力。但不幸的是，最近的一项研究表明，即使是最聪明、知识最渊博的选民，也可能做出最糟糕的政治判断。原因是他们最有可能根据党派站队，而不是按辩论本身作出判断。

Now, I know what you’re thinking. ‘I would never do that,’ you say. But it happens unconsciously all the time. People have a tendency to assume the worst about those on the other side of the aisle. And when it comes to those on your side, they tend to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. That’s why educated and knowledgeable people excuse these actions that are ethically wrong and defend statements that are blatant lies.

听到这，你们可能会想“我永远不会那样做，”你心里说。但这些事情总是下意识地发生的。人们总是觉得，只有跟自己立场相对的人才会有这些糟糕的表现。当遇到那些跟你观点类似的人时，他们往往看不到、听不到任何邪恶，并对做恶选择沉默。这就是为什么受过教育和知识渊博的人，会为道德上错误的行为辩解，甚至捍卫公然的谎言。

Of course, some people say defending the indefensible is just politics as usual, but I don’t accept that — and I hope you won’t either.

当然，有些人说，为站不住脚的观点辩论不就是政治的常态吗，但我不接受这种解释——我希望你们也不会。

When extreme partisanship replaces reason, logic, facts and data, the country suffers — and special interests win. I’ve seen it time and time again, on issue after issue: gun violence, education, public health, and even one that threatens life as we know it: climate change.

当极端的党派关系取代理性、逻辑、事实和数据时，国家就会受到损害——特殊利益集团获胜。当触及枪支暴力，教育，公共卫生，甚至威胁我们未来的生活的气候变化问题时，我一次又一次地看到这些现象的存在。

Yesterday, I stood with WashU’s next chancellor, Andrew Martin, and the president of Ohio State University to announce that Bloomberg Philanthropies will help sponsor the first-ever climate summit of Midwestern universities next year right here on this campus.

昨天，我与华盛顿大学的继任校长安德鲁·马丁以及俄亥俄州立大学校长一起宣布，布隆伯格慈善基金将在明年赞助举办有史以来的第一届中西部大学气候峰会。

We were joined by your mayor here, Lyda Krewson, because St. Louis, like WashU, has always been a real leader on climate change.

市长LydaKrewson也加入了我们的行列，因为圣路易斯市和华大一样，一直是气候变化问题的真正领导者。

Last year, this city was one of the winners of aclimate competition my foundation ran. And we are now providing about $2.5million of resources to help St. Louis increase energy efficiency and expand solar power — a goal that WashU is helping the city to achieve. Thank you very much.

去年，圣路易斯市是我的基金会举办的气候竞赛的赢家之一。我们提供约25０万美元的资金，以帮助圣路易斯提高能源效率和推广太阳能—这是华大帮助自己所在城市期望达到的目标之一。非常感谢你们。

Universities have a critical role to play in helping our country tackle this challenge, and I want to thank everyone at WashU who has been part of that work.

大学在帮助我们的国家应对这些挑战时可以发挥关键作用，我要感谢华大参与这项工作的所有人。

There really is no time to waste. The problems driven by climate change are getting worse — and that’s something you’ve seen right here during your life time.

我们真的不能浪费时间了。气候变化带来的问题正在恶化—这会是在你们生命中就能见到的。

The recent Mississippi River floods have affected life in St. Louis and they have devastated farmers across the Midwest. Those types of natural disasters will continue to get more severe with climate change, according to the best scientific data.

密西西比河最近的洪灾，摧毁了中西部的一些农场，也影响了圣路易斯。根据科学数据，随着气候变化问题加剧，这类型的自然灾害将越来越严重。

The trouble is too many politicians aren’t interested in hard science. They’re only interested in political science and winning their next election. So they ignore the data, they try to cut funding for climate research — because they know it will undermine their political argument. Sometimes they even try to block public employees from uttering the words climate change.

比较麻烦的是，太多政治家对科学不感兴趣。他们只对政治学和赢得下一次选举感兴趣。所以他们无视这些数据，试图削减气候研究的经费—因为他们知道，这将导致他们的政治立场站不住脚。有时他们甚至试图阻止公职人员说气候变化这个词。

You can’t make this stuff up. You just have to wonder, what are they trying to hide? The only conclusion I have drawn is that they’re either hiding their own ignorance or their own bad faith.

你不能无视这些的存在。你必须要思考，他们在隐藏什么？唯一结论是他们要么隐藏自己的无知要么隐藏自己的图谋。

Either way, when government tries to gag scientists and censor our conclusions, watch out and speak up.

无论是哪种情况，当政府试图歪曲抹黑科学家并审查我们的结论时，请关注这些现象并勇敢地说不。

America’s progress depends on a dialogue that treats these issues not as pawns in a political battle, but as problems to besolved.  Ignoring data and facts — and defending indefensible positions —happens in both parties. But during your time on campus, it has enabled new levels of dishonesty and wrong doing and it has reached a point that, I believe, no democracy can long sustain.

美国的进步取决于遇到问题采取解决的态度，而不是把问题变成政治斗争。两党都有无视数据和事实，捍卫错误立场的行为。在你们读大学的这几年，党派政治中充斥的虚假和错误信息越演愈裂，美国已经到了临界点，我相信，这样下去任何民主都难以为继。

Our democracy, as the Founding Fathers understood, relies on more than just votes. George Washington wrote in his farewell address, ‘Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.’

正如开国元勋所理解的那样，我们的民主不仅仅依赖于选票。乔治·华盛顿在他的告别演说中写道：“道德或美德的清泉是受民众欢迎的政府的基础

If the spring runs dry, democracy withers away —and the rights that we hold dear disappear.

如果清泉干涸，民主就会枯萎——而我们所拥有的权益就会消失。

Graduates, that spring of virtue is now yours to protect. And make no mistake, it is more polluted with toxic dialogue than it has ever been in modern history.

毕业生们，美德的清泉现在需要你们去维护。毫无疑问，在美国现代历史上，对话所受到的污染从来没有这么严重过。

The good news is the way to clean up the pollution can be found in the three words written on the cover of your diploma. It’s the motto of this great university: ‘Per Veritatem Vis’ (strength through truth). And it’s a motto that fits perfectly with a university named for George Washington.

好消息是，从你的毕业证书封面上的三个单词中，可以找到清理污染的方法。这是伟大的华盛顿大学的座右铭：~q~Per Veritatem Vis~q~（力量源自真理）。这是一个与以乔治·华盛顿命名的大学完美契合的座右铭。

In 1794, during President Washington’s second term, there was a faction ginning up support for secession. Washington recognized the threat it posed — and he was confident that it would not succeed. He wrote in a letter, and I quote, ‘It is not difficult by concealment of some facts, and exaggeration of others to bias a well-meaning mind, at least for a time.’

1794年，在华盛顿总统的第二个任期内，有一个派系开始想分裂国家。华盛顿认识到了它所构成的威胁——但他相信他们不会成功。他在一封信中写道：“短期内，通过隐瞒事实和夸大歪曲他人来误导善良的人并不困难。

But, he continued, ‘Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light.’

但他继续说道，“但是，经过曲折和磨难，真相最终会重见光明。”

Now, I know the phrase ‘pains is taken’ probably just horrified every English major here. As kids we were taught that Washington never told a lie, but they never told us he had trouble with subject-verb agreements.

现在，我知道“pains is taken”这种说法，可能会让每个英语专业的感到不适。早在孩童时代，我们就被告知华盛顿总统从不说谎。但他们从未告诉我们，华盛顿在语法上会遇到麻烦。

In fairness to George, ‘pains is taken’ is the way they spoke back then. Today, Washington would probably say ‘take pains.’ Or maybe T-Pain.

为了公平对待华盛顿，“pains is taken”是当时的语法习惯。如果在今天，华盛顿可能会说“take pains”。或者干脆说T-Pain

（注：用因故无法出席的原演讲嘉宾名字开玩笑）。

But really, Washington’s point, and Washington U.’smotto, are principles I hope that all of you will take to heart: truth will prevail where pains are taken to bring it to light. And with truth comes strength.

但实际上，我希望你们所有人都能牢记—华盛顿的观点以及华盛顿大学的座右铭——经过曲折和磨难，真相最终会重见光明。力量源自真理。

The pains that every generation has taken to bring truth to light are why secession didn’t succeed in 1794 or 1861. The pains taken by abolitionists, and suffragettes, and civil rights marchers, and marriage equality advocates brought America’s core truth to light: that all people are created equal.

每一代人为追求真理和进步都经历了痛苦和牺牲，这是为什么国家在1794年或1861年没有被分裂。废奴主义者，女权主义者和民权游行者以及平等婚姻倡导者所经历的磨难和付出，让美国被核心真理照亮：所有人生来平等。

Today, the necessity of taking pains to bring truth to light is greater than ever because the tools for spreading lies are more powerful than ever.

今天，因为传播谎言的工具比以往任何时候都强大，因此坚守真相也需要付出比以往任何时代更多地努力。

Since the dawn of democracy, there have always been those, to paraphrase Socrates, who try to make the weaker argument appear the stronger and who care more about winning debates than being truthful.

借用苏格拉底的话，自民主诞生以来，一直有这样的人，他们试图让虚弱无力的论点看起来更强大，更关心赢得辩论而不是传播真实。

In ancient Greece, these were called Sophists — and they would have loved Twitter and Facebook.

在古希腊，这些人被称诡辩者—他们肯定会喜欢Twitter和Facebook。

Social media has given rise to a new golden age of sophistry — aided and abetted by blind partisanship. The only way to overcome it — the only way to lift our national discourse out of the gutter — is to heed Washington’s words and take pains to bring truth to light.

社交媒体给诡辩者带来了新黄金时代—被盲目的党派立场借力和怂恿。克服它的唯一方法—将我们国家从沟壑中解救出来的唯一方法—就是听华盛顿的话，为捍卫真理付出努力和牺牲。

Those pains are the burden of citizenship in a democracy. And a great education does not relieve them. It intensifies them.This is especially true, I believe, for graduates of a university bearing the name Washington.

这些痛苦，是民主制度下公民的一种责任和义务。受过好的教育的人更责无旁贷。对于毕业于一所名字叫华盛顿大学的毕业生来说，尤其如此。

All of you have been part of this institution’s long tradition of advocacy and activism. Don’t leave it behind. Carry it with you, and take on this challenge to bring truth to light.

你们所有人都是华大倡导和行动的悠久传统传承者。不要抛弃这种传统。捍卫它，接受挑战，让真相重见光明。

To help you get started, let me offer some quick advice for dealing with modern-day sophists who try to obscure — and deny —truth.

为了帮助你们入门，让我提供一些快速建议，如何对待那些试图掩盖、否认真相的现代诡辩者。

When those in the political arena engage in name-calling and other schoolyard chants, and are trying to distract your attention away from the real issues and from their inability to address them or their unwillingness to put forward practical solutions — don’t be distracted.

当那些处于政治舞台上的人在扣帽子和叫骂时，他们是在试图将注意力从实际问题上分散开来。这是因为他们没有能力解决这些问题，或者他们不愿意提出切实可行的解决方案——不要被这些行为转移注意力。

When they tolerate attacks on minority groups, especially those who profess a faith that some find threatening, they are empowering those who traffic in hatred — don’t tolerate it.

当他们容忍对少数群体的攻击，特别是将某些信仰宣扬成威胁时，他们是在鼓动那些传播仇恨的人—不要容忍这些恶行。

When they denounce journalists as ‘enemies of the state,’ and declare any critical coverage to be ‘fake news,’ and dress up lies as ‘alternative facts,’ they are trying to fool you into trusting only the news that comes from their mouths — don’t be fooled.

当他们谴责记者是“ pains washington 华大 华盛顿 政治