在这样一个特殊又意义重大的时刻，首先我想向你们致以欢迎和问候。 
I am sending you this welcome in a moment of great poignancy. 
 开学典礼是年度最盛大的学术仪式之一，通常只有毕业典礼能与之媲美。这两个大学校历上的重要时刻一个标志着新成员的加入，一个标志着毕业生们在完成学业生涯中的关键阶段后离开。每个人都情绪高昂，心中充满了成就感、期待以及对那些见证他们一路走来的人们的感激，尤其是对自己的父母。 
The formal Convocation is one of the great academic ceremonies of the year, matched only by Commencement. These two great moments in the University calendar mark the entrance of our newest members and the departure of those students who have completed a critical stage in their education with us. Each is filled with high emotions – the sense of accomplishment, of anticipation, and of gratitude to those – most notably the parents – who have seen them through to this point in life.


你们正站在人生的新起点上，多年来我也十分有幸以校长这个身份与你们分享这个时刻，但我从未想到有一天我不得不以线上的形式参与其中。尽管如此，我为你们自豪，因你们感到温暖，我也决心在未来几年里为你们提供世界最顶尖的教育。这种感觉一如既往，甚至可能更加的强烈，因为我们共同珍视的人际互动被暂时剥夺了。
You are at the beginning, and in all the years I have been fortunate enough to be in this role and to stand with you at the outset, never did I imagine that I would have to do this virtually. But I can assure you of this, that the feelings of pride and warmth for you and the determination to provide you with the best educational experience in the world in the years ahead are just as strong as ever, and perhaps even stronger because we have been deprived, for the moment, of that personal interaction we value so deeply.
 此时此刻，我知道你们的生活一定受到了强烈的干扰。不可否认，我们正与一场历史性的危机作斗争，你们这一代青年人尤其受到影响。一想到你们的希望和梦想被改变、被部分搁置，我深感痛心。
Now, I realize that the disruption you must be feeling in your lives at this time must be intense. There is no denying the facts that we are all struggling with a crisis of historic proportions and that young people like yourselves are being especially affected. The idea that your hopes and dreams have been modified and at least partially put on hold is hard to deal with. 

但我想向你们保证几件事情。


But I want to assure you of several things. 



第一，学校里的每一位教职员工都会全心全意地帮助你们，帮助我们每一个人，一同度过这段非常时期。我们尚不清楚这种状况会持续多久，但我相信我们很快可以恢复如常。在那之前，我们将调整和改善我们的教学模式和课程，为你们提供哥伦比亚大学所独有的卓越教育。 
The first is that every single faculty member and staff of the University is completely and totally dedicated to helping you, and us, get through this period. We do not know how long this will last, but I am optimistic that there will come a point soon when we will be returning to normal. Until then, we are reshaping and redesigning our teaching and courses to provide you with the extraordinary education that Columbia distinctively offers. 
 第二，请记住将来我们会有很长一段时间在一起。虽然这是一个极具挑战的开端，但我们仍然有时间来弥补我们现在不得不放弃的东西。我保证这一切都会实现。 
The second observation I want to offer now is to remember that we will have a long time together. And, although this is a challenging start, we will have time to make up for what we have had to forego at the beginning. I promise this will happen. 
 
第三点也是我想表达的最后一点，它非常重要但同时也有些复杂。它真正关乎到我们如何学习，如何在生命的旅途中成为我们自己，以及所有这些如何与我们所在的当下相关联。

The third and last thought I want to convey here is extremely important but quite a bit more complicated. It really is about how we learn, about how we become who we are over the course of our lives, and about how all of that relates to this moment in time.


让我从我们如何学习讲起。 
Let me begin with how we learn.
 我在高校里度过了几乎整个职业生涯，人们或许预料到我发表如下观点，但我的确相信，这个世界上最重要的事情是培养思想，这正是生活的事实。民主是一种思想。自由市场经济是一种思想。治疗疾病也是一种思想。我们的生活根基便是这些思想、理论——告诉我们世界如何运转，我们又应该如何存在于这个世界上。
As someone who has spent nearly all of my professional life in the academy, I might be expected to say the following; it is a fact of life, I believe, that the most important thing in the world is ideas. Democracy is an idea; a free market economy is an idea; the treatment of disease is an idea. Ideas, theories about how the world works and about how we should be in the world, these are the foundations of how we live. 然而，培养思想的方式多种多样，比如在哥伦比亚大学接受教育（这可以说是最好的方式之一），但学会观察这个世界并付诸实践也是一种方式。事实上，这种方法为我们提供了一个机会，帮助我们发展出真正切实可行的想法。最佳的学习方式通常是将观察与行动相结合，在思考和实践之间不断交互碰撞。 There are, however, many ways in which we form our ideas. Pursuing an education at Columbia University is one way (one of the best! Of course). But observing and acting in the world is another way, too; a way which also provides us with the opportunity to develop ideas that will work in fact. The best way to learn is usually a combination of these two methods, a continual process of interaction and interchange between reflection, on the one hand, and action, on the other hand. 

如果我们暂且将上述视为真理（且许多严谨的学者都以这样或那样的形式得出了相同的结论），那么在重大事件发生时期的学习对我们的成长是有帮助的。我们正处在这样一个时期。大流行病对我们的健康、经济、社会结构和我们的生活方式造成了历史性、全球性的威胁。与此同时，美国以及世界上的许多其他国家也面临着民主危机。美国的民主制度中存在着长达几个世纪的不平等和不公正危机，这场危机持续以极其有害的方式显现出来，尤其体现在非裔美国人的生活中。反观国际舞台，亦是危机重重。
Now, if this is true (and many serious minds have come to this conclusion, in one form or another), then it can be helpful to learning well that we learn in a time of momentous events. And we are most certainly in a time of momentous events. There is the pandemic, of course; an historic, world-wide threat to our health, our economies, our social fabric, and our ways of life. There is also, however, simultaneously, a crisis of democracy now confronting the United States, as well as many nations around the world. And within our democracy there is a crisis of a centuries-long inequality and injustice that continues to manifest itself in extremely harmful ways, particularly in the lived experience of African Americans. There are other crises, too, many on the international stage. 

所有的这些危机都鼓舞和动员着人性中最好的一面来应对它们。我们看到人们在寻求更好的医保、经济复苏和社会结构平衡。我们看到人们为反对独裁倾向、维护美国宪政民主制度中的必要组成部分——尊重事实和真理、宽容人民和观点、在行使权力时克制并遵守法规——所付出的高尚努力。在不平等、歧视等问题上，我们见证了第二次民权运动的开始。
With respect to every one of these crises, there is a heartening mobilization of the best sides of humanity to grapple with them, and we see the quest for better health care, economic rejuvenation, and maintenance of the social fabric; we see noble efforts to call out authoritarian tendencies and to maintain the essential ingredients of a system of constitutional democracy – respect to facts and truth, tolerance of peoples and viewpoints, and observance of restraint in the exercise of power; and, with respect to the pernicious problems of inequality and discrimination, we have the beginnings of a Second Civil Rights Movement.

你们开启大学生活的同时，也生活在这个意义重大、举足轻重的时刻。在未来的几十年甚至几百年时间里，人们将对这一时期展开一系列评论、研究、分析、回顾、阐释和评估。而你们也是这一时期的一部分，生活在其中，受其影响，受其教导，受其伤害，或许也得到它的帮助。 
You are launching your college career while living in this enormously significant and fraught moment. It will be remarked on, studied, analyzed, reviewed, interpreted and assessed for decades and even centuries to come. And you were in it, part of it, affected by it, taught by it, hurt by it, perhaps helped by it. 
 未来在哥大的课堂上，你们遇到的几乎所有思想都与这个世界有关。对你们，对我们来说，它们不是抽象的、脱离现实的，而是与我们的生活息息相关。若是在更为平和的时期，这段教育经历又会变得不一样。
And nearly all of the ideas you will encounter in your classes will have relevance to this world. For you, and for us, they will not be abstractions, or detached from reality, but rather blindingly and illuminatingly relevant. In more subdued or placid times, that is not the same educational experience. 我还想补充一点，哥伦比亚大学肩负的使命不仅仅是引领你们发现思想，还会帮助你们将这些想法带到世界的构建中。我们将通过多种方式为你们提供参与、学习和思考世界的机会。不管我们现在历经的困难有多艰巨，请记住，在这当中总有一些东西是非常特别的，甚至对你们习得哥大教育的核心大有裨益。  
I should add that we at Columbia have taken on the mission of not only leading in the discovery of ideas but also in the bringing of these ideas to the making of the world. So, in a variety of ways, we want to provide chances for you to participate in the world, as well as study and think about it. And, so as hard as what we are going through now is, always keep in mind that there is something profoundly special and even beneficial to the core enterprise of the Columbia education you are receiving. 




最后我想说，我非常期待当面见到你们。希望当我们的学术生活得以恢复常态，我能在我的第一修正案课堂上遇到大家。尽管今天形式简单，我在此由衷地祝贺各位加入哥伦比亚大学，并祝你们在未来的日子里好运。
Still, I want to close by saying how much I look forward to seeing you in person, perhaps even having you in my course on the First Amendment, when the ordinary rhythms of our academic lives can be renewed. For now, in this painfully removed form, I say congratulations on joining us at Columbia and good luck in the years ahead.