感恩节特辑 耶鲁校长谈感恩(中英双语)(4)

　　So, let’s get back to talking about you, soon-to-be graduates of Yale College: You are likely feeling gratitude today. The trouble is, you owe so much to others that you can never fully repay them for the great things you receive in life. And on a day when you are receiving so much, so much warmth, so many congratulations, it is always good to remember that no great gift you have been given — the opportunity for an education, which you earned but also received — (no truly great gift) can ever be “repaid.” Instead, it must be paid forward, and it is up to you to pass this gift on to others in the next generation in the same way you received it.

　　Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins captures these feelings in a poem written for his mother called “The Lanyard.” And, because Mother’s Day was only a week ago, it seems appropriate to read it to you on this occasion:

　　The other day I was ricocheting slowly

　　off the blue walls of this room,

　　moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,

　　from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,

　　when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary

　　where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

　　No cookie nibbled by a French novelist

　　could send one into the past more suddenly —

　　a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp

　　by a deep Adirondack lake

　　learning how to braid long thin plastic strips

　　into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

　　I had never seen anyone use a lanyard

　　or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,

　　but that did not keep me from crossing

　　strand over strand again and again

　　until I had made a boxy

　　red and white lanyard for my mother.

　　She gave me life and milk from her breasts,

　　and I gave her a lanyard.

　　She nursed me in many a sick room,

　　lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,

　　laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,

　　and then led me out into the airy light

　　and taught me to walk and swim,

　　and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.

　　Here are thousands of meals, she said,

　　and here is clothing and a good education.

　　And here is your lanyard, I replied,

　　which I made with a little help from a counselor.

　　Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,

　　strong legs, bones and teeth,

　　and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,

　　and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.

　　And here, I wish to say to her now,

　　is a smaller gift — not the worn truth

　　that you can never repay your mother,

　　but the rueful admission that when she took

　　the two-tone lanyard from my hand,

　　I was as sure as a boy could be

　　that this useless, worthless thing I wove

　　out of boredom would be enough to make us even.*

　　And so seniors, my message today is not “you need to thank your mothers” — although that would not be such a bad idea — but rather that you should spend at least a few moments — in spite of all the hoopla this weekend — thinking about all of those individuals who helped you get to this moment in your lives, all those individuals who you can never repay. They might be family members and friends, beloved teachers and mentors, or even authors whom you have never met. But think about them, and, when the moment is right, say a quiet “thank you.” As William Lyon Phelps, a distinguished professor of English at Yale in the early part of the 20th century, once wrote, “… gratitude begets happiness … the more one gives, the more one has left.”[8]

　　Congratulations! We are delighted to salute your accomplishments. We are overjoyed to celebrate with you. We are proud of your achievements. Remember to give thanks for all that has brought you to this day. And go forth from this place with grateful hearts, paying back the gift you have received here by paying it forward for others.

　　* “The Lanyard,” Billy Collins, from “The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems,” 2007, Random House Trade Paperbacks. Used with permission of the author.

　　[1] Solomon, R.C. (2004). Foreword. In R.A. Emmons & M.E. McCullough (Eds.), “The psychology of gratitude.” Oxford: Oxford University Press (p. vii).

　　[2] Smith, A. (1790/1976). “The theory of moral sentiments” (6th edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

　　[3] McCullough, M.E., Emmons, R.A., & Tsang, J. (2002). “The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82,112-127.

　　[4] For a systematic review of this literature, see Watkins, P.C. (2004). “Gratitude and subjective well-being.” In R.A. Emmons & M.E. McCullough (eds.), “The psychology of gratitude.” Oxford: Oxford University Press. …… 此处隐藏：2394字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……