公众人物毕业演讲 第138期:2012年Michael Lewis普林斯顿大学(2)

 　　Sort of. I'm going to explain briefly¹, how that happened

　　对吧 算是吧 我将简短的描述 我是如何飞黄腾达的

　　I want you to understand just how mysterious careers can be before you go out and have one yourself

　　我希望你们在走出校门追寻自己的事业前 能够明白事业发展本身是多么神秘

　　So I graduated from Princeton without having published a word of anything, anywhere

　　我从普林斯顿毕业的时候 从来没有在任何地方任何时间发表任何东西

　　I didn't write for the Prince or for anyone else

　　我没有为the Prince刊物 或任何人写过任何文章

　　But at Princeton, studying art history

　　然而在普林斯顿大学 作为艺术史系的学生

　　I felt the first twinge of literary ambition

　　我第一次有了在文学界施展抱负的冲动

　　It happened while working on my senior thesis

　　这是在我写毕业论文的时候发生的

　　My adviser² was a really gifted man professor named William Childs

　　我的导师是个超有天分的人 William Childs教授

　　The thesis I wrote for him... I tried to explain how the Italian sculptor³

　　我毕业论文的题目是 研究意大利雕塑家Donatello

　　Donatello used Greek and Roman sources that's actually totally beside the point but I've always wanted to tell someone

　　如何借鉴了希腊和罗马资源 其实这跟今天的题目半毛钱关系都没有 只是我一直喜欢让别人知道

　　God knows what Professor Childs actually thought of it but he helped me to become engrossed⁴

　　神知道Childs教授是怎么看待这个题目的 但他却帮助我全心投入

　　Actually more than engrossed, totally obsessed⁵

　　不只是全心投入 根本就是痴迷

　　When I handed it in I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life

　　当我交上论文的那刻我知道了 我这一生想要从事的事业

　　I want to write senior theses. Or, to put it differently, to write books

　　写高级论文 或者说 写书

　　Then I went to my thesis defense⁶

　　然后我去了论文答辩

　　It was just a few yards from here, in McCormick Hall

　　地方离这不远 就在McCormick厅

　　I listened and waited for Professor Childs to say how well written my thesis was

　　我等待着希望听到Childs教授告诉我 我的论文写得多么好

　　He didn't. And so after about 45 minutes I finally said

　　但他没有 于是等了45分钟后 我终于问

　　So. What did you think of the writing?

　　那你怎么评价我的写作呢？

　　Put it this way, he said. Never try to make a living at it

　　这么说吧 他说 千万不要靠这个谋生

　　And I didn't, not really

　　所以我放弃了 其实不是

　　I did what everyone does who has no idea what to do with themselves

　　我做了所有人不知道该做什么时做的那件事

　　I get out of the college and went to graduate school

　　去读研究生

1 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

2 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

3 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

4 engrossed   

adj.全神贯注的

参考例句：

• The student is engrossed in his book.这名学生正在专心致志地看书。
• No one had ever been quite so engrossed in an evening paper.没人会对一份晚报如此全神贯注。

5 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。