Dear students, dear parents, and dear teachers;
亲爱的学生、家长、老师们：
Here we are! One more time we are celebrating the
end of a long journey, a journey which required a lot of hard work,
perseverance, and patience, took so many years to complete, and brought you
endless hurdles, sleepless nights, and painful frustrations. However, no matter
how difficult it has been in the past, you completed it successfully and today
is your day.
我们在这里齐聚一堂，庆祝一段漫长旅程的结束。我们在这段旅程中，曾付出大量的努力、坚持和忍耐，花费了数年的时间，跨越和渡过了无尽的障碍、痛苦、沮丧乃至不眠之夜。而今，艰难已成过去，你们成功地走到了今天，庆贺成功的今天。
<Pause>
No one can ever change it from now on. Today you are
ending a long journey and of course, with an expected dialectical twist you are
starting a new one. There is no doubt that the journey you are going to begin
will have a wider sky for you to view, bigger roads for you to walk on, and
more opportunities to shed light in front of your feet.
从今天起，没有人能再改写你的这一段旅程。它迎来了一个完结，也随之迎来了一个序幕 -- 一段新旅程的序幕。毫无疑问，你们将看到更广阔的天空，行走于更宽广的道路，脚下也可能走过更多星光。
<Pause>
The question you must ask yourself at this point, while
waiting right behind the start line is not whether you will be able to finish
this new journey or not. The question that you must ask is how you will finish
it. Will you still be the same you when you finish it? Or will you be someone
else at the finish line?
而此时在新一起跑线的你，应该问的不是自己是否能顺利完成这段新旅程，而是如何完成它。完成后的你，还会是现在的你吗？又或者你到达终点线后，已成了另一个人?
<Pause>
To say it in more philosophical words; when you
complete this new journey, how much of you will remain as you of today and how
much of you will evolve to another you, the one which is waiting to be
awakened by the critical moments of your future life, scattered to
some random spots on your prospective road? In Herakleitos' words, neither you
will be the same you nor the river will be the same river when you two meet the
second time.
用更哲学的话来说，当你完成这段新旅程后，你会保留多少今天的你，又会改变多少成为将来的你？那些在前路中，看似随机的一个中间点、一个关键时刻，将一点点唤醒并塑造将来的那个你。用Herakleitos的话来说，河水流淌，人历沧桑；当再见时，河不会再是现在的河，你也不会再是现在的你。
<Pause>
History repeatedly tells us that great minds were made during long
journeys. Both Eastern and Western works of literature have
countless examples of stories in which an ordinary person leaves home, looks
for the elixir of life or a cure for the sufferings of humanity, or discovers some meaning in the universe of meaningless encounters. From
Sumerians’ Epic of Gilgamesh to Greeks’ Odyssey, from India’s Ramayana to
China’s Journey to the West; we, mortal humans, always read the story
of the same kind of metamorphoses, seek inspiration from
similar adventures, try to find comfort in the achievements of the
protagonists or reach catharsis in the misfortunes of the antagonists.
历史反复告诉我们，伟大的思想是在漫长的旅途中诞生的。东西方的文学作品中有数不清的故事，讲述普通人离家寻找生命永恒、或治愈精神痛苦的良方、或在颠沛中发现某个宇宙真谛。从苏美尔人的《吉尔伽美什史诗》到希腊人的《奥德修斯》，从印度的《罗摩衍那》到中国的《西游记》；我们作为凡人，总是读着类似的蜕变故事，从其中的冒险获得灵感，从主人公的成就中寻找安慰，或者从反派的不幸中得到愤恨的宣泄。
<Pause>
However, any wise reader will know
that these stories tell us one thing only: the journey itself is the meaning,
the road itself is the teacher and the change itself is the only permanent
lesson we can learn.
然而，任何智慧的读者都应该知道这些故事其实只告诉我们一件事：旅程本身就是意义所在。脚下的路是我们的老师，而所有的改变和变化本身，就是我们将从中终身受益的经验和教训。
<Pause>
The road will change you, no matter
how much you resist; just as it changed many others in the past.
Siddhartha became Buddha, “The Enlightened One” after leaving his comfortable
palace and seeing the world with his own eyes, the world that he had not been allowed to see before. Lu Xun decided to become a writer while he was a medical
student in Japan because only in a foreign land, would he be able to
observe himself with the eyes of others and see what he could not see in his
home country. Gandhi -in a surprising similarity with Kang Youwei’s encounter
with the Japanese soldiers on a boat in 1895- started his civil disobedience
movement after he was mistreated on a train in Africa and that journey
transformed him from a simple lawyer to a man who became the symbol
of independence.
无论你如何抗拒，这条路都会改变你，正如不同的路改变了过去的其他人一样。悉达多离开舒适的宫殿，亲眼看到了这个世界 - 这个他以前不被允许看到的世界，继而成为开悟佛陀。鲁迅在日本求学的时候决定弃医从文，因为只有在异国他乡，他才能用别人的视角审视自己，才能看到在祖国看不到的东西。甘地
- 与1895年康有为在船上遭遇日本士兵的故事惊人地相似 – 在非洲的火车上遭受不平等待遇之后，开始了他的人权抗争运动，从一个律师转变为新独立的代表人。
<Pause>
More examples can be mentioned but the
message will remain the same: Change is inevitable, it's the rule #1 of life
and it always comes with a hefty price tag. Let me tell you a story.
还有许许多多的案例，无一不证明着同一真理：改变，是不可避免的。这是生活的第一规则，且它常伴随着高昂的代价。让我来给你讲个故事：
<Pause>
This was a radio play written by Ingeborg
Bachman. A young man enters a shop and asks the old clerk what they sell in
there. The clerk says, “We sell dreams.”
The young man seems interested and wants to see a few samples. The clerk shows
him three good dreams. Young man likes the third dream in which he sees himself
as different from what he is in his current life. In real life he does not have
good relationships with the people around him, he is not a real risk-taker
and is not confident in his actions and words.
这是Ingeborg
Bachman创作的广播剧。一个年轻人走进一家商店，问老店员那里卖什么。店员答：“我们售卖梦想”。年轻人似乎很感兴趣，要求看几个“样品”。店员向他展示了三个美丽的梦想。年轻人很喜欢第三个，他在其中看到与现在完全不同的自己。现实的他，与身边的人关系不好，不是一个敢于冒险的人，也对自己的言行没有信心。
<Pause>
However, in this dream everything seems sorted out; including his
personality, he defends the morality behind all his actions with great
confidence. He then asks the price of the dream he liked the most.
而在这个梦中，所有的不完美都被化解 - 他包容、自信、品行良好。于是他询问这个梦想的价格。
The clerk says, “A few years of your life.”
店员说：“你几年的寿命。”
“I didn’t get it” he says, “Don’t you sell them for money?”
“我不明白”
他说，“你们不收钱吗？”
“No, we sell the dreams for a proportion of the customer’s lifetime.” the
clerk says.
“不，我们收取客户一段生命时光”
店员答。
<Pause>
“But”
replies the young man, “Isn’t it too expensive to pay a few years of a life for
a dream?”
“但” 年轻人说，“一个梦想要用几年生命来换，不是太贵了吗？”
The old clerk smiles “Not at all young man, not at all! We have some
dreams which cost the entire life of a man.”
老店员笑了，说“年轻人，这一点都不贵！我们有些梦想的售价，是一个人的整个生命”。
The young man leaves the shop without buying the dream and returns to
his ordinary life. He was not brave enough to deserve his dream.
年轻人没有买这个梦，离开商店并回到自己的普通现实生活。他不够勇敢，赢得自己的梦想。
<Pause>
Yes, there is always a price tag and
by simply being here, sitting on these chairs, and listening to this speech,
you have already proved that you are ready to pay any price for your dreams no
matter how costly they could be. The echoes of your determination and
self-discipline will keep lurking in the corridors of this school for the
younger ones to get inspired and gain their own momentum. You will be gone but
your legacy will remain. You will transform yourself into a new person while
the classrooms you leave behind will be full of stories mentioning your names
and your deeds, mixed with smiles and perhaps, with a slight dosage of
melancholy.
是的，凡事都有代价。而你们能够出现在这里，坐在椅子上听这个演讲，便证明了你们已经准备好了为自己的梦想付出任何代价，无论它多么昂贵。你们的坚毅和自律将继续激励和鼓舞学弟学妹们的前行。你们将离开，但你们的精神将得以传递。你们会成为崭新的自己，而那些空荡的教室将满载着关于你们的故事，充斥着许多令人莞尔的记忆，或许还夹杂着一抹离别的哀伤。
<Pause>
However, at this point, I would like
to bring another crucial question to the table. How far should you go? How much
will you or should you change? The answer to this question also lies in another
dialectical spiral. Every change carries its unchangeable elements in it. No
matter how much you adapt to your new environment, certain features in you will
always remain the same. As we all know, a butterfly always
carries certain characteristics that are reminiscent of a caterpillar.
现在，我想提出另一个关键问题。你们想走多远？要改变多少？问题的答案也存于另一个辩证的螺旋中。每个变化都蕴含着不可变因素。不管你们怎样去适应新环境，你们一些本身的个人属性并不会改变。众所周知，蝴蝶总是带有一些毛毛虫的特性。
<Pause>
You will remain as a person who
carries the gestures of Shenzhen people wherever you go; you will
experience glimpses of your culture’s long and proud
history whenever you approach a challenging problem in your
life; you will probably drink hot water when you get cold, and you will
miss the boisterous meals around the spinning dining tables. From how you hold
the chopsticks to how you value your friendships, same as the atoms in gold
jewelry no matter if it’s a ring or a bracelet or a necklace, there will always
be tiny unbreakable pieces in the core that will never change.
而无论走到哪里，你们也仍会保持一些深圳人的姿态；面临挑战的时候，你们将意识到华夏文化在你的心里留下了印记，影响着你们的处事思想和方式；冷了，你会喝热水；你会思念旋转餐桌上丰盛的菜肴。从你如何拿筷子到如何珍惜友谊，就像黄金首饰中的原子一样，无论是做成了戒指、手镯还是项链，内里总归还是黄金，虽可能细小，却不会改变。
<Pause>
Of course, these are the visible ones that are easily observable from the outside. At the very deep
corners of your heart, you will also carry the values of your land, your
culture, and your history. You will have the kindness and compassion that you
learned from your grandparents; you will keep the passion for hard work
and the value of sacrifice for a greater cause that you learned from
your parents, you will be stubborn and confident, the way you fight for
that one well-deserved point on the exam paper. Same as the magma that keeps
the surface of our planet warm enough for life to flourish, certain values
embedded deep in you will keep you strong throughout your journey.
当然，外部的包裹和装饰是最先映入眼帘，也是最显而易见的。但植于你内心深处的认知和观念，永远是由这片土地承载的历史和文化灌溉而成的。你将继承祖父母的善良和仁慈，你将传承父母的热情、勤恳和大爱，你顽强而自信，正如你不懈争取试卷中每一分的那份精神。就像岩浆使地球表面保持足够的温度让生命繁衍生息一样，深深植根于你内心的价值观，会令你在整个旅程中保持坚强。
<Pause>
I know I sounded a bit like Cavafy’s poignant poem, The City, but
we cannot deny that there is some truth in it.
我知道这些听起来有点像Cavafy的凄美诗《城市》，但这其中确实蕴含着一些不可否认的道理。
You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.
This city will always follow you.
你不会找到一个新的国家，也不会到达一处新的海岸。
这座城市，将永远跟随着你。
<Pause>
Let me finish my short speech with
another inspirational story so that even many years from today you can
remember and talk about the two stories in this speech and keep interpreting
them in different ways. Buddha says, “Nothing is permanent.” and Mr. Arican
adds “except the stories” …
现在我用另外一个故事来结束这次演讲，将来你们对这个演讲的记忆可能就是这两个故事，并不断用新的人生阅历诠释出不同的意思。佛说，“没有什么是永恒的”， Mr. Arican补充，“除了故事”…
<Pause>
One day, a fisherman caught a
salt-water fish. The fish was so beautiful that the man fell in love with the
fish at first glance and he wanted to keep it with him forever. Every day,
he changed its water by carrying buckets and buckets from the sea.
Eventually, he got tired of carrying seawater and tried tap water instead. At
first, the fish was a little scared, but in the end, it got used to freshwater.
一个渔夫捕到了一条咸水鱼。这条鱼非常漂亮，渔夫一眼就爱上了，准备永远养着它。每天，渔夫都要打来一桶桶的海水，给鱼换水。最终，他疲于打海水，便试着换了自来水。鱼开始有点惊慌，但最后也适应了淡水。
<Pause>
Time came and passed, and the man
began to wonder whether a fish that got used to fresh water could also get used
to air… The fish appeared asphyxiated at first and struggled some, but soon
enough, it got used to air as well. The man was so happy now as he would be
able to take his fish everywhere with him, like carrying a bird in a cage.
时间长了，渔夫想如果鱼可以适应淡水，是否也可以适应空气… 这条鱼一开始彷佛有些窒息，挣扎了一番以后，似乎也适应了空气。渔夫非常高兴，他现在可以随身带着鱼去任何地方了，就像把鸟放在笼子里随身提着一样。
<Pause>
One day, the man decided to go to the
sea. He took his fish with him and when he arrived at the sea, he left the
fish in a shady corner on the pebbled beach. Then he went swimming. Children
were passing by. They saw the fish. Somehow, they felt sorry for it. “How sad,”
they said, “the fish must have been beached, let’s throw it back to the water.
By the time the man could frantically swim back, the fish had already drowned
in the sea.
一天，渔夫决定去海边。他带着鱼，把鱼留在了鹅卵石海滩的一个阴凉角落里，便下水去游泳。一群孩童经过，看到了这条鱼。他们对它感到同情。“真可怜”，他们说，“这条鱼一定是搁浅了。我们把它丢回海里吧”。当渔夫看到并奋力游回来时，鱼已经淹死在了海里。
Bilge Karasu, The Garden of Departed Cats, p 101-102
<Pause>
So, my final advice to you is:
Don’t be a fish like the one in the story.
所以，我对你们最后得建议是：不要成为这个故事里的鱼。
Congratulations to all of you one more
time… Thank you…
再次祝贺你们毕业！ 谢谢。
Written by Ali Riza Arican
Translated to Chinese by Kassia Li
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