Allow me to be the first one not to congratulate you. Through exertions that—let's be honest—were probably less than heroic, most of you have spent the last few years getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree.
　　Now you're entering a lousy economy, courtesy of the very president whom you, as freshmen, voted for with such enthusiasm. Please spare us the self-pity about how tough it is to look for a job while living with your parents. They're the ones who spent a fortune on your education only to get you back— return-to-sender, forwarding address unknown.
　　請允許我成為第一個不對你說“恭喜”的人。經過那 －老實說吧－ 虛有其表的努力，你們大多數為了得到“學位”，把過去幾年花費在不實用課程的亮眼成績。
　　現在，基於你們大一“熱情”下投票而選出之總統所賜，你們即將進入一個非常糟糕的經濟結構。請不要可憐自己費心找工作的同時還與父母同住。不如想想：你的父母，曾經在你身上寄予厚望，可如今卻像位拿著退件郵包的發信人，茫然於這個郵包的未來地址。

　　No doubt some of you have overcome real hardships or taken real degrees. A couple of years ago I hired a summer intern from West Point. She came to the office directly from weeks of field exercises in which she kept a bulletproof vest on at all times, even while sleeping. She writes brilliantly and is as self-effacing as she is accomplished. Now she's in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.
　　無疑地，你們某些人的確，克服了艱難或經歷過考驗後才得以畢業。幾年前，我雇用一位來自西點軍校的暑期實習生。“她”，在結束一段長達數周且隨時穿戴防彈背心(甚至就寢)的野外訓練後，就來辦公室報到。她的文筆流暢亦格外謙虛。現在的她，正在阿富汗對抗塔利班組織。

　　If you're like that intern, please feel free to feel sorry for yourself. Just remember she doesn't.
　　如果你的情況如同我那位實習生，你有權對自己的生活表示不滿。但請記住，她從來沒有那麼想過。
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　　Unfortunately, dear graduates, chances are you're nothing like her. And since you're no longer children, at least officially, it's time someone tells you the facts of life. The other facts.
　　可惜的是，各位畢業生，你們遠沒有達到她的成就。況且，你們已然不是小孩子，至少此刻，有人該告訴你一些關於人生的實情。一些“其他”的實情。

　　Fact One is that, in our "knowledge-based" economy, knowledge counts. Yet here you are, probably the least knowledgeable graduating class in history.
　　實情一，在這個知識決定命運的環境，知識仍備受重視。然而你們，或許是歷屆以來最缺乏知識的一屆畢業生。

　　A few months ago, I interviewed a young man with an astonishingly high GPA from an Ivy League university and aspirations to write about Middle East politics. We got on the subject of the Suez Crisis  of 1956. He was vaguely familiar with it. But he didn't know who was president of the United States in 1956. And he didn't know who succeeded that president.
　　幾個月前，我面試一位畢業於常春藤盟校加上超凡GPA成績、而且渴望著書寫關於中東政治文章的年輕人。我們開始談論1956年的蘇伊士運河危機。他只是大概了解這樁歷史，更不曉得當時美國總統的名字及其繼任者是誰。

　　Pop quiz, Class of '12: Do you?       隨堂小考一下，2012屆的畢業生們，你們知道嗎？

　　Many of you have been reared on the cliché that the purpose of education isn't to stuff your head with facts but to teach you how to think. Wrong. I routinely interview college students, mostly from top schools, and I notice that their brains are like old maps, with lots of blank spaces for the uncharted terrain. It's not that they lack for motivation or IQ. It's that they can't connect the dots when they don't know where the dots are in the first place.
　　「教育的目的不在灌輸記憶，而是學習思考」這句陳腔濫調，洗腦了你們大多數。簡直鬼扯！多數來自頂尖學院的在校生，在我例行面試下發覺，他們的思維就像古老的地圖嵌著大量未知領域的空白。這並非因為面試者缺乏動力或智力不足。而是因為不知道論點來源，導致他們無法貫通談話脈絡。

　　Now to Fact Two: Your competition is global. Shape up. Don't end your days like a man I met a few weeks ago in Florida, complaining that Richard Nixon had caused his New York City business to fail by opening up China.
　　再談實情二：你們面對著國際化的競爭。振作吧！不要像幾個禮拜前在Florida我所遇到的那位商人，在餘生中抱怨Nixon對中國的開放而毀了他紐約的業務。

　　In places like Ireland, France, India and Spain, your most talented and ambitious peers are graduating into economies even more depressed than America's. Unlike you, they probably speak several languages. They may also have a degree in a hard science or engineering—skills that transfer easily to the more remunerative jobs in investment banks or global consultancies.
　　在愛爾蘭、法國、印度和西班牙等地，更具天賦與野心的同儕們等待畢業後進入一個比美國更絕望的大環境。然而與在座不同的是，他們可能會多國語言甚至有理論科學或工程學的技能，進而升遷到銀行投資或諮詢公司中更高薪資的職位。

　　I know a lot of people like this from my neighborhood in New York City, and it's a good thing they're so well-mannered because otherwise they'd be eating our lunch. But if things continue as they are, they might soon be eating yours.
　　住在紐約大都會附近，我認識許多來自上述背景的有為人士。幸虧他們遵守良好的規範，我們這一代沒有感受到競爭的壓力。然而如果，經濟環境繼續惡化下去，也許他們不久將會開始搶你們這一代的飯碗。

　　Which reminds me of Fact Three: Your prospective employers can smell BS from miles away. And most of you don't even know how badly you stink.
　　這使我想起實情三：未來的老闆對於大言不慚的行為早有察覺。但你們多數人還不明白自己的作法是多麼糟糕。﹙B.S. ＝ Bull Shit﹚

　　When did puffery become the American way? Probably around the time Norman Mailer came out with "Advertisements for Myself." But at least that was in the service of provoking an establishment that liked to cultivate an ideal of emotional restraint and public reserve.
　　美國人何時靠吹噓而活？大概是源於Norman Mailer出版的《為自己打廣告》。但是至少，那本書是為了喚醒人們關於情緒管理以及社會公益的建立。

　　To read through your CVs , dear graduates, is to be assaulted by endless Advertisements for Myself. Here you are, 21 or 22 years old, claiming to have accomplished feats in past summer internships or at your school newspaper that would be hard to credit  in a biography of Walter Lippmann or Ernie Pyle .
　　親愛的各位，閱讀你們的簡歷，感覺像被無數本的《為自己打廣告》書籍淹沒。21、22歲，你們聲言在過去暑期實習或學校社報所達到的成就，其實遠超過Walter Lippmann和Ernie Pyle 在其傳記中的自述。

　　If you're not too bright, you may think this kind of nonsense goes undetected; if you're a little brighter, you probably figure everyone does it so yu must as well.
　　But the best of you don't do this kind of thing at all. You have an innate sense of modesty. You're confident that your résumé needs no embellishment. You understand that less is more.
　　或許你遲鈍地以為小動作不會被發現；或者你自顧地認為只是跟著大家一起做。
　　但是，你的善良面絕不會做這樣的事情。你具有天生的虛心。你要抱持著無需在簡歷中標榜自己的足夠信心。你明白“少即是多”的道理。

　　In other words, you're probably capable of thinking for yourself. And here's Fact Four: There will always be a market for people who can do that.
　　從另一個角度想，你可能有自我思考的能力。這就是實情四：能自我思考的人，總會有謀生管道。

　　In every generation there's a strong tendency for everyone to think like everyone else. But your generation has an especially bad case, because your mass conformism is masked by the appearance of mass nonconformism. It's a point I learned from my West Point intern, when I asked her what it was like to lead such a uniformed existence.
　　歷代以來，人云亦云的意向很是普遍。到了你們這一代，因為標新立異的表象下覆蓋著集體的盲從因襲，導致“局面”尤其不樂觀。這是當我詢問那位來自西點軍校的實習生：如何保持制式化生活，所體會到的特徵。
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　　Her answer stayed with me. Wearing a uniform, she said, helped her figure out what it was that really distinguished her as an individual.
　　她的答案仍言猶在耳。她說“穿著制服，讓我理解到自己與他人的不同之處。”

　　Now she's a second lieutenant, leading a life of meaning and honor, figuring out how to Think Different for the sake of a cause that counts. Not many of you will be able to follow in her precise footsteps, nor do you need to do so. But if you can just manage to tone down your egos, shape up your minds, and think unfashionable thoughts, you just might be able to do something worthy with your lives.
　　現在，她是位二階少尉，過著充滿意義和榮耀的人生以及對理想追求的獨到見解。
　　你們當中，或許沒有多少人能追隨她精確的腳步，當然你也不需要望其項背。但只要你試著放低身段、強化心智、獨立省思，你可以創造一番不枉此生的事業。