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So, if you want an education, the odds aren't with you: The professors are off doing what they call their own work; the other students, who've doped out the way the place runs, are busy leaving the professors alone and getting themselves in position for bright and shining futures; the student-services people are trying to keep everyone content, offering plenty of entertainment and building another state-of-the-art workout facility every few months. The development office is already scanning you for future donations. The primary function of Yale University, it's recently been said, is to create prosperous alumni so as to enrich Yale University.
因此，如果你們想要獲得教育，成功的概率并不高：教授們都去做所謂的“自己的工作”了；其他已經(jīng)弄淸楚這個(gè)地方的運(yùn)行法則的學(xué)生忙著不給教授添麻煩，為了光明和燦爛的未來蓄勢待發(fā)；學(xué)生服務(wù)處試著讓每一個(gè)人都滿意，為學(xué)生提供豐富的娛樂活動，每隔幾個(gè)月就添加一款最新、最先進(jìn)的健身設(shè)施。學(xué)校開發(fā)辦已經(jīng)在考察你們未來捐資的可能性。最近有人說耶魯大學(xué)最主要的功能就是培養(yǎng)出大批的優(yōu)秀畢業(yè)生，以讓耶魯大學(xué)得到發(fā)展。
So why make trouble? Why not just go along? Let the profs roam free in the realms of pure thought, let yourselves party in the realms of impure pleasure, and let the student-services gang assert fewer prohibitions and newer delights for you. You'll get a good job, you'll have plenty of friends, you'll have a driveway of your own.
那么為什么要制造麻煩？為什么不隨波逐流？讓教授們在純潔的思想殿堂中自由徜徉，讓你們自己在不純潔的歡樂殿堂中聚會，讓學(xué)生服務(wù)處那伙人頒布更少的禁令，為你們創(chuàng)造更多新的歡樂。你們會找到好工作，你們會結(jié)交很多朋友，你們會有屬于自己的車道。
You'll also, if my father and I are right, be truly and righteously screwed. The reason for this is simple. The quest at the center of a liberal-arts education is not a luxury quest; it's a necessity quest. If you do not undertake it, you risk leading a life of desperation. For you risk trying to be someone other than who you are, which, in the long run, is killing.
如果我和我的父親都是正確的話，你們也將真正地完蛋，而且是你們咎由自取。原因很簡單，人文教育的核心追求不是一種奢侈，而是一種必須。如果你們不接受，你們的生活將要冒著絕望的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。 因?yàn)槟銈兠半U(xiǎn)想要成為別人而不是真正的自己，而這樣做，長遠(yuǎn)來說就是自殺。
By the time you come to college, you will have been told who you are numberless times. Your parents and friends, your teachers, your counselors, your priests and rabbis and ministers and imams have all had their say. They've let you know how they size you up, and they've let you know what they think you should value. They've given you a sharp and protracted taste of what they feel is good and bad, right and wrong. Much is on their side. They have confronted you with scriptures—holy books that have given people what they feel to be wisdom for thousands of years. They've given you family traditions—you've learned the ways of your tribe and your community.
來到大學(xué)之前，不斷有人告訴你們該做什么人，你們的父母、朋友、老師以及輔導(dǎo)員，你們的神父、拉比、牧師以及伊瑪目都有自己的一套說辭。他們讓你們知道他們是如何衡量你們的，告訴你們他們認(rèn)為你們應(yīng)該重視什么，讓你們知道在他們眼中什么是好壞，什么是對錯(cuò)。他們所說的并非全無道理，他們讓你們讀經(jīng)文—不管它們真正來源于何處，這些圣書都給人一種包含了幾千年智慧的感覺。他們給了你們家族傳統(tǒng)—你們學(xué)會了自己部族和社團(tuán)的生活方式。
