高西庆在杜克大学毕业典礼上的演讲：不忘初心
高西庆，曾担任中国证监会副主席、全国社保基金理事会副理事长、中国投资公司总经理。
i was going to speak today about the necessity for an open-mind as you approach new opportunities, new environment and new paradigm, the need to have stamina in times of difficulty and to not be afraid to take the road less travelled. but i believe most of you know this or you wouldn’t be here today in the first place.
我今天本来想跟大家讲讲未来当你们面对新的机会、新的环境以及新的模式时保持开放心态的必要性，以及遇到困难时应该怎样保持坚持不懈的努力和拥有另辟蹊径的勇气。可是，我相信在座的大部分人都已经十分明白这些道理，否则你们不会取得今天的成绩。
so i'm just going to give you a piece of avuncular advice, tell my story and be boring:
所以我只想从一个长者的角度给你们一点建议，讲讲我的故事，或许这会比较无聊。
close to thirty years ago, i was where you are today and only a few years before that, it would have seemed impossible to me that i would ever sit where you are today. you have earned this seat, through intelligence, diligence and discipline, my deepest congratulations to all of you. for all the cynicism in the world today, especially given how people perceive the practice of law, i encourage all of you to preserve your optimism, idealism and passion for what you do.
大约30年前，我正坐在你们现在坐的位置上;如果再倒回几年的话，我完全不敢想像自己有朝一日会成为你们其中的一员。你们通过自己的才智、勤奋和自律赢得了坐在今天毕业典礼上的资格，我衷心地祝贺你们。面对现今横行于世的犬儒主义，尤其是人们对整个法律行业的负面看法，我鼓励你们不要丢掉做自己想做事时的那份乐观、理想以及激情。不忘初心，方得始终。
you have proven that you have a lot to offer this world, now you need to prove you can make a difference, whether that be in the courtroom, classroom, ngo or office lead by example because anything is possible! i want to share with you some of my experience in the hopes that it encourages you to not accept barriers at any cost.
各位同学已经证明你们有能力为这个世界贡献良多，但是现在你需要去证明你确实可以通过努力让这个世界变得不同。这种变化可以发生在法庭上、教室里，也可以发生在民间组织或是政府部门之中，因为一切皆有可能!我想和你们分享一些我的经历，希望以此鼓励你们面对挑战、勇往直前。
as a teenager, i was sent to a railroad construction site deep in the mountains in western china. food was rationed and workload was heavy. however, what made it more unbearable was the lack of knowledge and information. i devoured every piece of paper that had any word on it, like a hungry man. together with a few co-workers we started a study group called "the communist laborer's night school", with the few old text books we brought with us, and a radio we used to learn english from voa and bbc, at the risk of imprisonment for listening to "enemy stations".
当我还是一个十几岁少年的时候，我被送到中国西部的大山区里修建铁路。在那里，食物实行配给制并且工作强度很大，所以我们总是处于饥饿状态。但是，更加让人痛苦的是知识与信息的缺失。我贪婪地去看每张偶尔得到的写有字的纸片，如饥似渴。我还和其他几位工友们成立了一个“共产主义劳动夜校”。我们一同学习一些旧课本，冒着被判刑的风险用一台收音机听“敌国电台”：从“美国之音”和bbc学习英语。
after 3 years of hard labor and a head injury, i was given a job in an artillery factory making machine guns. i biked about 10 miles twice a week to learn english taught in the radio engineering school of a university in xi'an. most of the 200 people quitted the class during the one-year study, and i was one of the dozen remaining, together with the chief engineer of my factory, who later put in a strong recommendation for me to go to college in beijing, without having ever been to a high school.
经过三年繁重的劳动和一次脑部受伤，我被分配到西安一家兵工厂制造机关枪。我每周两次下班后骑自行车去10英里外一所大学的无线电工程系学习英语。在这一年的学习中，200多名学员中的大多数并没有坚持。但是我是那坚持下来的十几个人之一，一同留下来的还有我工厂里的总工程师。他后来在我甚至没有上过高中的情况下强烈推荐我去北京读大学。
after graduating from both college and law school in bj, i was sent as an exchange scholar to work in a law firm in california. boy i remember the cultural shock i had when i first arrived in sf in 1982! there i realized that my knowledge of law was utterly inadequate to deal with international transactions, which i was supposed to teach back in beijing. i decided to go through the hardship of studying for a jd degree in the us. that started my honey-decades with duke law, which gave me a full scholarship and a fuller education in american law.
从对外经贸大学的法学硕士班毕业后，我获得了去加州一家律所实习的交换机会。我仍然记得1982年当我第一次抵达旧金山时所能感受到的文化冲击。在那里，当处理一些有关国际交易的案子时，我意识到自己有关美国法律的知识非常匮乏，而这却是我回国之后准备教授的。我决定在美国咬着牙读一个法学博士学位。杜克法学院资助了我全额奖学金让我能够系统地学习美国法律，从此开启了我和杜克法学院长达三十年源远流长的甜蜜之旅。
i was once asked by a hard-struggling law student from china why i seemed so happy and content with my studies then, living mostly in the law library. i answered, if you have experienced the deprivation of knowledge for so long as i have, you would, too, view this place as the heaven of learning. i said that despite the many occasions when a few professors would vote against granting the scholarship to a "red chinese", or some fellow students spoke right in my face that they were "abhorred" by the chinese communist system. when i was later asked of a similar question as a junior associate in the sweat shop of a wall street law firm, i happily told the fellow associate that vladimir lenin taught me to learn your skills so to dig the grave for capitalism.
曾经有一个深受法学院学习压力痛苦折磨的中国学生问过我这样一个问题：“你几乎成天以图书馆为家，为什么还那么开心和满足?”我回答说，如果你像我那样，经历过如此之长的缺乏精神食粮的岁月，那么你同样会把这地方当做是求知的天堂。当然求学过程中也有很多不尽人意之处，比如有那么几位教授反对给我这个来自红色中国的人发奖学金，或者有几位学生曾当面对我说他憎恨中国的共产主义制度。我后来在华尔街一所律所里当律师的时候，也被问到这个问题时，我很开心地回答道，列宁教导我要学习西方的先进知识，才可以为资本主义挖掘坟墓。
the ensuing 1987 financial crisis jolted me to an opposite direction, though. i was so fascinated by the intricacies of the capitalistic financing machines that i decided to study it carefully and try to transplant it to my own home country. i went back to china in the summer of 1988, after visiting most of the stock exchanges in europe and some in asia, in a seemingly fool-hardy effort to persuade the chinese government forthe establishment of a capital market.
然而，随后1987年的金融危机却将我拉向了另外一个方向。我对这精妙的资本主义筹融资机器体系产生了巨大的兴趣，所以我决定认真仔细地研究它并且将这架机器移植到我自己的祖国。在自费调研过欧洲以及亚洲大部分证券交易所后，我于1988年夏天回国，以近乎愚公移山的努力说服中国政府建立中国的资本市场。
among all the people who were skeptical of our idea, was an american consul in beijing. after suspiciously questioning my intention to have gone back to china and hearing my explanation about my ambition to start the stock market there, he said, this is all bs, and tore up my application forms. this is in early 1990, when i applied to come to teach a short course at duke law. by the end of that year, we have helped the opening of two stock exchanges, the shse and the szse, which have a combined market cap of several trillion dollars today. two years after, the unintended consequences started to show and the central government finally adopted our proposal of setting up the regulatory agency and persuaded me to join it.
在所有质疑我这个想法的人群中，有一位是驻北京的美国领事。在怀疑我回中国的动机并且听完我想要在那里建立股票市场的想法后，他说，这完全是扯淡，并且撕碎了我美国签证的申请表。记得那是1990年初，我当时去申请美国签证回杜克法学院教几周课。当年年底，中国自己的两个证券交易所就建成了：上海证交所和深圳证交所。今天，这两家证券交易所交易的股票总市值达到上万亿美金。随后的两年，中央政府最终接受了我们的提议并启动成立了证券市场监管机构，并且劝说我加入其中。
being a regulator is like being a matchmaker, when the marriage is successful, the couple would think it's their own good fortune, will be busy enjoying themselves and very seldom grateful to you. but if anything goes wrong, then both sides blame you for it. i got just that sort of treatment, blamed all the time, for good or bad reasons. i was yanked out of the agency to run the newly established social security fund in XX, and then, 4 and half years later, the sovereign wealth fund. after almost 7 years serving as an investor, i'm finally relieved of my duty and allowed to retire to do what i love the most, i.e., working with young people every day, teaching and, more importantly, learning.
监管者的角色就好比是媒人，如果做媒成功，男女双方会认为这是他们自己的好运气，沉溺于爱河中而没有时间来感谢你。但一旦失败，双方都会指责你的不是。我就获得了那样的待遇：不管是什么样的原因，总是被骂。XX年，我被调离证监会成为新成立的全国社会保障基金的负责人，四年之后，又成为中投公司的总经理。在七年的投资生涯之后，我总算可以卸下身上的责任并且获准退休去干我最想干的事情——那就是每天和年轻人在一起，教授他们，更重要的是，向他们学习。
why do i want to tell you the boring story of a personal life? because i can't help offering you my advice, having made so many mistakes and suffered so many detours. here are the few things i learned in life in the vain hope that you would avoid them.
为什么我想向你们讲述我自己没有多大意思的人生经历?因为我在犯过如此多错误、走过无数次弯路之后，忍不住想提供给你们一些我的建议。下面就是我的一点人生体会，希望你们能够有所感悟，避免走我所走过的弯路。
1. different views, different people, different culture and different ideology may not necessarily be a bad thing. they just teach you to be more tolerant and open minded. vive la difference, as the french would say.
1. 不同的思想、不同的人、不同的文化以及不同的意识形态或许并不是一件坏事。他们只是在教你更加宽容，保持更加开放的心态。就像法国人说的那样，vive la difference(差别万岁)。
2. taking hardship is not necessarily a bad thing, it may pay in the long run. of course in the long run we will all be dead, as maynard keynes said. and that's why we need the next suggestion.
2. 吃苦或许不是一件坏事，总有一天你会获得回报。当然凯恩斯也说过：从长远来看，我们都会死的。但这也就是为什么我们需要下一个建议。
3. taking the road less travelled is not necessarily a bad thing, it just makes your life much more interesting. let's try to live an interesting and significant life.
3. 另辟蹊径走自己的路或许不是一件坏事，这只是意味着我们的生活会更加精彩。让我们尝试去过一种精彩并且有意义的生活。
4. setting high material demands in this world today is not necessarily a good thing, as it may keep you from realizing your ideals or keeping your vision.
在当今社会，对物质生活的过分追求或许不是一件好事。因为这将使你远离梦想，不能开拓你的视野。
i want to leave you today with the words of the great american poet, max ehrmann because he said it infinitely better than i can. hope you guys can remember this as you go forth.
最后，我想送给你们伟大的美国诗人max ehrmann的诗篇，他讲得比我好多了。我希望你们在前行的道路上，能够记住这首诗。
go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. as far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. if you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. but let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
be yourself. especially, do not feign affection. neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity anddisenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.
take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. but do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. you are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. and whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
therefore be at peace with universe, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. with all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. be cheerful. strive to be happy.
在嘈杂和匆忙中，平静地前行吧，
也别忘了在寂静中，能找到多好的安宁。
可以的话，尽量不放弃原则而与所有人和睦相处。
细语清晰地说出你的肺腑之言，也聆听别人的说话，
别人的话纵然又枯燥又无知，总会有他们的故事。
避开大声说话和好斗的人;他们是扰乱心性的人。
不要跟其他人比较，否则可能变得虚荣自负或忿忿不平，
因为一定有人比你伟大，也一定有人比你渺小。
享受计划，也享受成就。
无论自己的事业有多卑微，维持对它的兴趣;
在一生多变的命运中，它是你真正拥有的东西。
谨慎处理生意，因为这世界充斥着欺诈。
但是，不要因此而看不见人间美德;
很多人为崇高理想而奋斗，生命到处都有英勇的事迹。
做你自己。
尤其不要虚情假意。但也不要把爱视为虚伪;
因为尽管生命有时枯燥乏味、有时令人迷醉，
爱，却如青草般日久常在。
不轻视因年老而获得的阅历，
并得体地舍弃年轻时拥有的东西。
培育心灵上的力量，以面对突然而来的不幸。
但不要杞人忧天以致心神不宁。
众多的恐惧，源自疲乏和孤独。
要既不踰矩，又善待自己。
你是宇宙的孩子，身份不次于树木和星星;
身处这里是你的权利。
不管你是否明白它的奥秘，
毫无疑问宇宙在按其规律展现自己。
因此，不管在你心中宇宙是什么模样，和他和睦相处吧。
也不管你怎样劳累和胸怀大志，在生命的烦嚣和困惑中，
要保持心灵上的安宁。
不管经历了多少伪善、苦役、和破碎的梦，世界依然是美丽的。要保持轻松开朗。要努力让自己快乐。
