Dr.泰勒·斯威夫特在纽约大学的演讲

（来源：译介）

（2022年5月19日）

Hi, I’m Taylor.

嗨，我是泰勒。

Last time I was in a stadium this size, I was dancing in heels and wearing a glittery leotard. This outfit is much more comfortable.

上次在这么大的体育场里，我穿着高跟鞋和闪亮紧身衣在跳舞。这套衣服舒服多了。

I’d like to say a huge thank you to NYU‘s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Bill Berkeley and all the trustees and members of the board, NYU’s President Andrew Hamilton, Provost Katherine Fleming, and the faculty and alumni here today who have made this day possible. I feel so proud to share this day with my fellow honorees Susan Hockfield and Felix Matos Rodriguez, who humble me with the ways they improve our world with their work. As for me, I’m…90% sure the main reason I’m here is because I have a song called ‘22’. And let me just say, I am elated to be here with you today as we celebrate and graduate New York University’s Class of 2022.

我想对纽约大学董事会主席比尔·伯克利和所有董事会成员、纽约大学校长安德鲁·汉密尔顿、教务长凯瑟琳·弗莱明，以及今天在座的教师和校友们表示衷心的感谢，是他们让这一天成为可能。今天能与苏珊·霍克菲尔德和菲利克斯·马托斯·罗德里格斯一同获得荣誉学位，我感到非常自豪。他们用自己的工作改善了我们的世界，这让我感到自愧不如。至于我，我……90%确信，我站在这里主要是因为我有一首歌叫《22》。我想说的是，我很高兴今天能和大家一起庆祝，一起作为纽约大学2022届学生毕业。

Not a single one of us here today has done it alone. We are each a patchwork quilt of those who have loved us, those who have believed in our futures, those who showed us empathy and kindness or told us the truth even when it wasn’t easy to hear. Those who told us we could do it when there was absolutely no proof of that. Someone read stories to you and taught you to dream and offered up some moral code of right and wrong for you to try and live by. Someone tried their best to explain every concept in this insanely complex world to the child that was you, as you asked a bazillion questions like ‘how does the moon work’ and ‘why can we eat salad but not grass.’ And maybe they didn’t do it perfectly. No one ever can. Maybe they aren’t with us anymore, and in that case I hope you’ll remember them today. If they are here in this stadium, I hope you’ll find your own way to express your gratitude for all the steps and missteps that have led us to this common destination.

今天在座的我们中，没有一个人是靠着自己毕业。是那些爱过我们的人、相信我们未来的人、向我们展示怜悯和善意的人以及告诉我们不易听到的真相的人，拼凑成如今的我们。他们在完全无法证实的情况下告诉我们，我们可以做到。他们之中，有人给你读故事，教会你梦想，教你辨别是非黑白的道德标准，让你去努力生活。有人想尽办法给你这个孩子解释这个疯狂复杂的世界的每一个概念，你问了无数问题，比如“月亮是怎么转动的”“为什么我们可以吃沙拉却不能吃草”。也许他们做得并不完美。没人能做到十全十美。也许他们已经不在我们身边，如果是这样，我希望你们今天能记起他们。如果他们此时也在这个体育场里，我希望你能用自己的方式来表达你的感激之情，感谢在实现毕业这一共同目标的路上，他们一同经历的所有好与坏。

I know that words are supposed to be my ‘thing’, but I will never be able to find the words to thank my mom and my dad, and my brother, Austin, for the sacrifices they made every day so that I could go from singing in coffee houses to standing up here with you all today because no words would ever be enough. To all the incredible parents, family members, mentors, teachers, allies, friends and loved ones here today who have supported these students in their pursuit of educational enrichment, let me say to you now: Welcome to New York. It’s been waiting for you.

我知道我“擅长”表达，但我永远无法找到合适的语言来感谢我的父母和我的弟弟奥斯汀，是他们每天做出的牺牲，我才能从在咖啡馆唱歌一路走到今天，同你们站在这里，任何语言都不足以表达我的感谢。对于今天在座所有非凡的父母、家人、导师、老师、盟友、朋友和亲人，那些支持在座的学生继续教育深造的人，我想对你们说：“欢迎来纽约，它等你很久了。”

I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper at least, a doctor. Not the type of doctor you would want around in the case of an emergency, unless your specific emergency was that you desperately needed to hear a song with a catchy hook and an intensely cathartic bridge section. Or if your emergency was that you needed a person who can name over 50 breeds of cats in one minute.

我要感谢纽约大学让我在专业上，至少在纸面上，成为一名Doctor（博士）。这不是你在紧急情况下想要找的Doctor（医生），除非你碰上的特殊紧急情况是：你迫切想要听到一首歌词朗朗上口、桥段能够狠狠宣泄情绪的歌。或者你还碰到这种紧急情况：你需要一个能在1分钟内说出50多个猫咪品种的人。

I never got to have the normal college experience, per se. I went to public high school until tenth grade and finished my education doing homeschool work on the floors of airport terminals. Then I went out on the road on a radio tour, which sounds incredibly glamorous but in reality it consisted of a rental car, motels, and my mom and I pretending to have loud mother daughter fights with each other during boarding so no one would want the empty seat between us on Southwest.

我没上过正规大学。事实上，我在公立高中读到十年级，然后在家学习，在机场航站楼的地板上完成了我的学业。之后，我开启了电台之旅，听上去非常光鲜亮丽，但实际上，在这场巡演里，我们开着租来的车，住着汽车旅馆，在西南航空的飞机上，为了不让别人坐在我和妈妈中间的空位上，我们在登机的时候假装大声吵架。

As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I’d hang on the wall of my freshmen dorm. I even set the ending of my music video for my song “Love Story” at my fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model reading a book on the grass and with one single glance, we realize we had been in love in our past lives. Which is exactly what you guys all experienced at some point in the last 4 years, right?

小时候，我一直认为自己会到外地上大学，想象着我在大学新生宿舍墙上贴上海报。在Love Story MV的结尾处，我甚至把我梦想中的大学生活拍了进去，在那里，我遇到了一位在草地上看书的男模特，只一眼，我们就意识到我们曾经相爱过。这正是你们在过去4年中经历过的某个时刻，对吗？

But I really can’t complain about not having a normal college experience to you because you went to NYU during a global pandemic, being essentially locked into your dorms or having to do classes over Zoom. Everyone in college during normal times stresses about test scores, but on top of that you also had to pass like a thousand COVID tests. I imagine the idea of a normal college experience was all you wanted too. But in this case you and I both learned that you don’t always get all the things in the bag that you selected from the menu in the delivery service that is life. You get what you get. And as I would like to say to you, you should be very proud of what you’ve done with it. Today you leave New York University and then you go out into the world searching for what’s next. And so will I.

不过我不能向你们抱怨我没有体验过正常的大学生活。因为你们是在全球疫情暴发的时候来到纽约大学，要么基本在宿舍隔离，要么在Zoom上面上网课。在正常情况下，所有大学生都在为考试成绩焦虑，而你们却还要经历上千次的核酸检测。我觉得，你们也渴望能拥有正常的大学生活。但在这种情况下，你我都了解到，假如生活是个配送站，你挑选的福袋往往装的并不全是你想要的，拿到什么就是什么。今天你们将离开纽约大学，踏入外面的世界，去追寻下一个目标。我也将如此。

So as a rule, I try not to give anyone unsolicited advice unless they ask for it. I’ll go into this more later. I guess I have been officially solicited in this situation, to impart whatever wisdom I might have and tell you the things that helped me in my life so far. Please bear in mind that I, in no way, feel qualified to tell you what to do. You’ve worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed your way here today and so, you know what you’re doing. You’ll do things differently than I did them and for different reasons.

除非别人问起，我一般不会主动给任何人提供建议，这是我的原则。后面我会详细说到。在今天这个场合，我想我是受到正式邀请，请我来向你们传授我所有的智慧，告诉你们在我迄今为止的人生中对我有所帮助的事。请记住，我并不觉得自己有资格告诉你们该做什么。你们靠着努力、奋斗、牺牲、学习和梦想走到今天，所以，你们知道你们在做什么。你们今后做事的方式和理由都与我不同。

So I won’t tell you what to do because no one likes that. I will, however, give you some life hacks I wish I knew when I was starting out my dreams of a career, and navigating life, love, pressure, choices, shame, hope and friendship.

所以，我不会告诉你们该怎么做，因为没人喜欢这样的建议。不过，我会告诉你们一些生活小窍门，我希望自己当初在职业生涯刚开始的时候，在经历生活、爱情、压力、抉择、羞愧、希望和友谊的时候能够明白的小窍门。

The first of which is…life can be heavy, especially if you try to carry it all at once. Part of growing up and moving into new chapters of your life is about catch and release. What I mean by that is, knowing what things to keep, and what things to release. You can’t carry all things, all grudges, all updates on your ex, all enviable promotions your school bully got at the hedge fund his uncle started. Decide what is yours to hold and let the rest go. Oftentimes the good things in your life are lighter anyway, so there’s more room for them. One toxic relationship can outweigh so many wonderful, simple joys. You get to pick what your life has time and room for. Be discerning.

第一点，生活可能是沉重的，尤其是当你试图背负一切的时候。成长和迈向人生新篇章的过程中，有一部分是关于抓紧与放手。我的意思是，你要知道哪些东西需要留下，哪些东西需要放手。你不能背负一切、背负所有的怨恨前行，无论是你前任的最新消息还是欺负你的校霸在他叔叔创办的对冲基金公司得到令人羡慕的晋升，这些你都不能背负。决定好什么是你要保留的，其余的就随它去吧。生活中美好的事物往往没那么沉重，所以你有更多的空间来容纳它们。一段糟糕的关系比许多美好简单的快乐要沉重得多。你可以选择让哪些事情填充你人生所拥有的时间和空间。要懂得辨别。

Secondly, learn to live alongside cringe. No matter how hard you try to avoid being cringe, you will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over a lifetime. Even the term ‘cringe’ might someday be deemed ‘cringe.’

第二，学会与尴尬共存。无论你多么努力地想避免尴尬，每当回看过往，往往会感到尴尬。尴尬在一生中都是无法避免的。甚至“尴尬”这个词在某天也有可能被当做一种尴尬。

I promise you, you’re probably doing or wearing something right now that you will look back on later and find revolting and hilarious. You can’t avoid it, so don’t try to. For example, I had a phase where, for the entirety of 2012, I dressed like a 1950s housewife. But you know what? I was having fun. Trends and phases are fun. Looking back and laughing is fun.

我敢肯定，你现在做的某件事情，或穿的某件衣服，等到以后回想起来，你会觉得反感和好笑。你没法避免，就不要试图去避免。举个例子，我有个阶段，在2012年一整年我都穿得像个上世纪50年代的家庭主妇。但你知道吗？我当时很开心。各个潮流和阶段都让人开心。回顾过往，笑一笑也让人开心。

And while we’re talking about things that make us squirm but really shouldn’t, I’d like to say that I’m a big advocate for not hiding your enthusiasm for things. It seems to me that there is a false stigma around eagerness in our culture of ‘unbothered ambivalence.’ This outlook perpetuates the idea that it’s not cool to ‘want it.’ That people who don’t try hard are fundamentally more chic than people who do. And I wouldn’t know because I have been a lot of things but I’ve never been an expert on ‘chic.’ But I’m the one who’s up here so you have to listen to me when I say this: Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth. The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it most are the people I now hire to work for my company.

当我们在谈论那些让我们感到不安但其实不必不安的事情时，我想说的是，不要隐藏你对事物的热情。在我看来，在我们“不被矛盾情绪所扰”的文化观念中，热情被错误地污名化。这种观念衍生了一种想法，认为提到“想要”一点也不酷。这种想法认为不努力的人从根本上比努力的人更时髦。我并不了解这些，因为虽然我擅长很多事情，但我在“时髦”方面从来不是专家。但此刻我站在这里，所以你也只能听听我的建议：永远不要羞于尝试。永远不要因为尝试而感到羞耻。没有事情可以毫不费力地达成。那些最不愿意尝试的人是我高中时期想要约会和交朋友的人。而那些最愿意尝试的人，现在在我的公司工作。

I started writing songs when I was twelve and since then, it’s been the compass guiding my life, and in turn, my life guided my writing. Everything I do is just an extension of my writing, whether it’s directing videos or a short film, creating the visuals for a tour, or standing on stage performing. Everything is connected by my love of the craft, the thrill of working through ideas and narrowing them down and polishing it all up in the end. Editing. Waking up in the middle of the night and throwing out the old idea because you just thought of a newer, better one. A plot device that ties the whole thing together. There’s a reason they call it a hook. Sometimes a string of words just ensnares me and I can’t focus on anything until it’s been recorded or written down.

我12岁开始写歌，从那时起，写歌就成为我生活的指南针，反过来，我的生活又指导了我的创作。我做的一切事情，无论是执导视频和短片，为巡演设计视觉效果，还是站在舞台上表演，不过是我创作歌曲的延伸。一切都与我对这份工作的热爱有关，与思考想法、精简想法、再进行润色和剪辑所带来的兴奋感有关。半夜醒来，抛掉旧的想法，因为你刚刚想到更新、更好的想法。情节设计将整个故事联系起来。他们把它叫做“hook”（记忆点）是有原因的。有时一连串的文字会让我着迷，如果不把它们录下来或写下来，我就没法专注于其他事情。

As a songwriter I’ve never been able to sit still, or stay in one creative place for too long. I’ve made and released 11 albums and in the process, I’ve switched genres from country to pop to alternative to folk. This might sound like a very songwriter-centric line of discussion but in a way, I really do think we are all writers. And most of us write in a different voice for different situations. You write differently in your Instagram stories than you do your senior thesis. You send a different type of email to your boss than you do your best friend from home. We are all literary chameleons and I think it’s fascinating. It’s just a continuation of the idea that we are so many things, all the time. And I know it can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be, and when. Who you are now and how to act in order to get where you want to go. I have some good news: It’s totally up to you. I also have some terrifying news: It’s totally up to you.

作为一个词曲作者，我从来不止步不前，或者在某个创作风格上停留太久。我已经制作并发行了11张专辑，在这个过程中，我转换了流派，从乡村到流行到另类到民谣。这听上去像是在讨论词曲作者，但从某种程度上来说，我确实认为我们都是作家。我们中的大多数都在用不同的声音创作。你在Ins上写的故事和你的毕业论文不同。你给老板发的电子邮件类型和你在家里给最好的朋友发的也不相同。我们都是文学的变色龙，我认为这很吸引人。我们一直都很多面，这只是这个想法的延伸。我知道，想弄清楚你想成为怎样的人、在何时成为这样的人，以及你现在是怎样的人、你要如何成为你想成为的人，可能会让人不知所措。但我要告诉你们一个好消息：这完全取决于你。同时我也要告诉你们一个坏消息：这完全取决于你。

I said to you earlier that I don’t ever offer advice unless someone asks me for it, and now I’ll tell you why. As a person who started my very public career at the age of 15, it came with a price. And that price was years of unsolicited advice. Being the youngest person in every room for over a decade meant that I was constantly being issued warnings from older members of the music industry, the media, interviewers, executives. This advice often presented itself as thinly veiled warnings. See, I was a teenager in the public eye at a time when our society was absolutely obsessed with the idea of having perfect young female role models. It felt like every interview I did included slight barbs by the interviewer about me one day ‘running off the rails.’ That meant a different thing to every person said it me. So I became a young adult while being fed the message that if I didn’t make any mistakes, all the children of America would grow up to be perfect angels. However, if I did slip up, the entire earth would fall off its axis and it would be entirely my fault and I would go to pop star jail forever and ever. It was all centered around the idea that mistakes equal failure and ultimately, the loss of any chance at a happy or rewarding life.

我前面说过，除非有人问我，否则我从不向人提建议。现在我来告诉你原因。我15岁就成为公众人物，这是有代价的。这个代价就是，多年来那些不请自来的建议。在超过十年的时间里，作为一群人里最年轻的人，音乐界的前辈、媒体、记者、高管都在不断地警告我。这些建议往往以略微隐晦的形式传达给我。你知道，当时我还是公众眼中的青少年，那时我们的社会完全沉迷于塑造年轻女性榜样。仿佛每次我接受采访，会有记者暗暗讽刺我终有一天会“脱离正轨”。这句话对每个对我说的人而言，有着不同的含义。因此，我成了一个小大人，同时被灌输这样的观念：如果我不犯任何错误，所有美国孩子都会成长为完美的天使。然而，如果我真的犯错了，整个地球会脱离轴心，这完全是我的错，我会被永远关进流行歌手监狱里。这些都围绕着一个想法，即犯错等同于失败，并且最终再也没有机会获得幸福，过上有价值的人生。

This has not been my experience. My experience has been that my mistakes led to the best things in my life.

这不是我的经验之谈。我得到的经验是，我犯下的错往往造就了我生命中最美好的事物。

And being embarrassed when you mess up is part of the human experience. Getting back up, dusting yourself off and seeing who still wants to hang out with you afterward and laugh about it? That’s a gift.

在搞砸某件事之后感到尴尬，这是生而为人必然会有的经历。站起来，振作起来，去看看谁在你出糗之后还愿意和你一起玩，并且一笑置之？这是上天馈赠的礼物。

The times I was told no or wasn’t included, wasn’t chosen, didn’t win, didn’t make the cut…looking back, it really feels like those moments were as important, if not more crucial, than the moments I was told ‘yes.’

当我被拒绝、被排挤在外、没被选中、输了、失败的时候……回过头来看，我真的觉得被否定和被肯定是一样的重要，甚至更加重要。

Not being invited to the parties and sleepovers in my hometown made me feel hopelessly lonely, but because I felt alone, I would sit in my room and write the songs that would get me a ticket somewhere else. Having label executives in Nashville tell me that only 35-year-old housewives listen to country music and there was no place for a 13-year-old on their roster made me cry in the car on the way home. But then I’d post my songs on my MySpace and yes, MySpace, and would message with other teenagers like me who loved country music, but just didn’t have anyone singing from their perspective. Having journalists write in-depth, oftentimes critical, pieces about who they perceive me to be made me feel like I was living in some weird simulation, but it also made me look inward to learn about who I actually am. Having the world treat my love life like a spectator sport in which I lose every single game was not a great way to date in my teens and twenties, but it taught me to protect my private life fiercely. Being publicly humiliated over and over again at a young age was excruciatingly painful but it forced me to devalue the ridiculous notion of minute by minute, ever fluctuating social relevance and likability. Getting canceled on the internet and nearly losing my career gave me an excellent knowledge of all the types of wine.

我还在家乡的时候，没有被邀请参加派对或和朋友一同过夜，会让我感到绝望与孤独，但正因为我感到孤独，我才能坐在房间里写歌，让我获得去其他地方发展的机会。纳什维尔一家唱片公司的高管告诉我，只有35岁的家庭主妇才听乡村音乐，他们的花名册容不下我这个13岁的小孩，这让我在开往回家的汽车上哭泣。但后来我把歌发布到MySpace，是的，是MySpace，和那些像我一样喜欢乡村音乐的青少年留言互动，从来没有人唱从他们的角度写的歌。许多记者写的关于我的文章常常都是批评性的，他们眼中的我让我感觉我好像活在一个奇怪的仿真躯壳里，但这也让我开始内省，去了解真实的自己。让全世界谈论我的感情生活，每段感情都以失败告终，这对十几二十岁的我来说，并不是好的恋爱方式，但它教会我严格保护自己的隐私。在年少之时被公众一次又一次地羞辱，让我感到十分痛苦，但这也迫使我不去重视那无时无刻不在变化的社会相关性以及喜爱度这样荒谬的概念。那次遭到网络抵制几乎断送了我的职业生涯，这让我对各种类型的酒有了很深的认识。

I know I sound like a consummate optimist, but I’m really not. I lose perspective all the time. Sometimes everything just feels completely pointless. I know the pressure of living your life through the lens of perfectionism. And I know that I’m talking to a group of perfectionists because you are here today graduating from NYU. And so this may be hard for you to hear: In your life, you will inevitably misspeak, trust the wrong people, under-react, overreact, hurt the people who didn’t deserve it, overthink, not think at all, self sabotage, create a reality where only your experience exists, ruin perfectly good moments for yourself and others, deny any wrongdoing, not take the steps to make it right, feel very guilty, let the guilt eat at you, hit rock bottom, finally address the pain you caused, try to do better next time, rinse, repeat. And I’m not gonna lie, these mistakes will cause you to lose things.

我知道我听起来像个完美的乐观主义者，但我真的不是。我常常失去判断力。有时一切都感觉完全没有意义。我知道透过完美主义视角的生活所带来的压力。我也知道我正在和一群完美主义者聊天，正因如此，你们今天会从纽约大学毕业。这些话对你们来说可能会有些残酷：在你的生活中，你会不可避免地说错话，错信他人，反应不足，反应过度，伤害不值得伤害的人，过度思考，毫不思考，自我毁灭，固步自封，破坏自己和他人的完美时刻，否认任何错误，不采取行动纠正，感到内疚，让内疚侵蚀自己，跌入谷底，最后消除你造成的痛苦，试着下次做得更好，冲洗伤口，重蹈覆辙。我不会对你们撒谎，这些错误会让你们失去一些东西。

I’m trying to tell you that losing things doesn’t just mean losing. A lot of the time, when we lose things, we gain things too.

我想告诉你们的是，失去并不真正意味着失去。很多时候，我们失去的同时也会有所收获。

Now you leave the structure and framework of school and chart your own path. Every choice you make leads to the next choice which leads to the next, and I know it’s hard to know sometimes which path to take. There will be times in life when you need to stand up for yourself. Times when the right thing is to back down and apologize. Times when the right thing is to fight, times when the right thing is to turn and run. Times to hold on with all you have and times to let go with grace. Sometimes the right thing to do is to throw out the old schools of thought in the name of progress and reform. Sometimes the right thing to do is to listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us. How will you know what the right choice is in these crucial moments? You won’t.

现在你们要离开学校的体系和框架，规划自己的道路。你们的每一个选择都会引导下一个选择，而下一个选择又会引导再下一个选择，我知道有时很难知道该走哪条路。生活中有些时候，你需要为自己挺身而出。有时退缩和道歉是正确之举。有时抗争是正确之举，有时转身逃跑是正确之举。有时你要抓紧你所拥有的一切，有时你要优雅地放手。有时，正确的做法是以进步和改革的名义抛弃旧的思想流派。有时，正确的做法是听取前人的智慧。在这些关键时刻，你怎会知道什么才是正确的选择？你不会知道的。

How do I give advice to this many people about their life choices? I won’t.

我要如何给这么多人的人生选择提供建议？我不会的。

Scary news is: You’re on your own now.

可怕的消息是：你们现在要靠自己了。

Cool news is: You’re on your own now.

很棒的消息是：你们现在要靠自己了。

I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about on the internet. Anyway…hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it.

我要告诉你们这个：我们被我们的直觉、感知、欲望和恐惧、伤痕和梦想所引导。有时你会把它搞砸。我也会。当我搞砸的时候，你往往会从网上看到消息。总之……困难总会发生在我们身上。我们会恢复。我们会从中学习。我们将因此而变得更加坚韧。

As long as we are fortunate enough to be breathing, we will breathe in, breathe through, breathe deep, breathe out. And I’m a doctor now, so I know how breathing works.

只要我们有幸还在呼吸，我们就会吸气、呼气、深吸气、再呼气。我现在是一名医生（注：此处为双关语，doctor一词兼有“博士”和“医生”的意思），所以我知道呼吸的作用。

I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you. We’re doing this together. So let’s just keep dancing like we’re…

我希望你们知道，能与你们分享这一天，我是多么自豪。我们一起毕业。所以让我们继续跳舞，就像我们是...

… the class of ’22.

...22届的同学。

（编辑：宋倩倩）