This-is-water(豆瓣翻译).doc

David Foster Wallace - Commencement Speech at Kenyon CollegeTranscription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address - May 21, 2005David Foster Wallace - Kenyon College 毕业典礼致辞（2005年5月21日）(If anybody feels like perspiring, I’d advise you to go ahead, because I’m sure going to. In fact I’m gonna [mumbles while pulling up his gown and taking out a handkerchief from his pocket].) Greetings [“parents”?] and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005. （如果你感觉热的汗都要下来了，我建议你就让汗水尽情流淌吧，反正我打算这么干了。实际上，我要 [喃喃着撩起学士服，掏出手绢 ]。 欢迎 [*各位家长们*？]，并且祝贺 Kenyon 05 界毕业生们。There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”有两条年轻的鱼迎面遇到一条老鱼。老鱼点头打招呼道 “早上好呀，孩子们。这水怎么样？“ 两条年轻的鱼继续游了一会儿，终于其中一条忍不住看看另一条说道 ”什么他妈的是‘水’呀？“This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story [“thing”] turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning. 美国大学毕业典礼演讲标准的开场通常是一个富于教育意义的小故事。这种故事比起毕业典礼上常见的说教，算是不那么扯淡的。但是请不要以为我视自己为这条老而智慧的鱼，来向你们这些小鱼儿传道什么是水。这个故事只是想说：最明显、最重要的现实往往最不易被察觉或讨论的。当然，这么说出来也只是老生常谈。但是事实是，成年人日复一日的生活中，老生常谈确是关乎生死。这就是我想在这个爽快美好的早晨于你们分享的一点想法。Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that