回帖下载完整视频及双语文档：
Language and Beyond
Ren Wen
Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, BFSU
September 26, 2021
始于语言，超越语言
任文
北京外国语大学高级翻译学院
2021年9月26日
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Alumni, faculty, students,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
尊敬的阁下，
各位来宾，
亲爱的校友、老师、同学们，
女士们，先生们：
Good morning! It is a great honor to speak on behalf of the 1,400 faculty and staff of BFSU.
大家上午好！非常荣幸能代表北京外国语大学的1400名教职员工发言。
Standing in this historic moment, we are filled with delight, pride, and a sense of accomplishment of BFSU, a university whose odyssey begins with language and reaches for the oceans and stars, and for the minds and hearts.
在这一历史性时刻，我们为北外的成就倍感自豪和喜悦。北外的征程起始于语言，抵达星辰与大海，触及思想与心灵。
In 1918, the linguist and philosopher Wittgenstein famously wrote: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” We negotiate the world by talking about things around us in words and sentences that construct meaning, informing the unfathomable by pondering it in the language we know, having our feelings heeded by telling our story in our own words. What is indescribable linguistically falls out of our realm of existence, into one that lies enigmatically far beyond. If we are allowed to take Wittgenstein’s point to an extreme, limited linguistic knowledge would indicate a life of insularity, one to which numerous possibilities are denied. However, generations of men and women at BFSU have been endeavoring to push back the frontiers of the world by learning and using many languages. This, to me, is what makes the university truly great, for we are a community promising to make the world a better place.
1918年，语言学家、哲学家维特根斯坦写下一句名言：“我语言的极限即是我世界的界限”。我们与世界对话，用可以构建意义的词句谈论周遭万物；用已知的语言沉思，理解深不可测的事物；用自己的话语讲述故事，让感受得到关注。无法用语言描述的事物会脱离我们存在的疆域，陷入遥远神秘的所在。若将维特根斯坦的观点推向极致，那么语言知识的有限便意味着生活的狭隘，无数可能性将不复存在。然而，数代北外人孜孜不倦，致力通过学习、使用多种语言来扩展世界的边界。对我而言，这就是我们这所大学真正伟大的原因所在：我们是个致力于让世界变得更加美好的集体。
First and foremost, BFSU is a learning community. Through the languages we learn, we and our students are able to converse with countless individuals we could not possibly meet in person, and discover that although our existential experiences may differ, our emotions and psychology share much in common. What we gain in this process of learning is the ability to imagine and to empathize—the defining character that makes us fully human. We read Cicero, Dante. We watch Shakespeare, Ibsen. We listen to Tagore, Adunis. We study Mikhail Bakhtin and Karl Marx, while continuing to converse with Confucius, Wang Yangming and Feng Youlan. Through learning, reading, and introspection, our students learn to dismiss pride and prejudice with sense and sensibility. They are breaking the boundaries of the self and see the worlds beyond their own.
首先，北外是个学习的集体。通过学习语言，我们和学生得以与无数无法亲身相见的人对话，发现尽管我们的生命体验可能不尽相同，但情感和心理却多有相通。在这一过程中，我们获得了想象力和同理心——正是这些决定性特质让我们成为真正意义上的人。我们品读西塞罗和但丁，欣赏莎士比亚和易卜生，倾听泰戈尔和阿多尼斯，研究巴赫金和马克思，并继续与孔子、王阳明和冯友兰对谈。通过学习、阅读和内省，我们的学生用理智与情感赶走傲慢与偏见。他们正打破自我的疆域，看到自我以外的广阔世界。
BFSU is also, in more ways than one, a thinking community. We think in languages, and we teach our students to think critically. Language thus becomes an indispensable vessel or incubator for human intellect. But we are also keenly aware that language is far more than a simple container. According to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, language doesn't just give people a way to express their thoughts—it determines their thoughts. While this hypothesis may be contentious, we at least know that language influences the thinking of its users. Each language represents a different mode of thinking and a unique way of looking at the universe. When we start to think not only in languages, but also about languages, we are better able to differentiate fact from opinion, break away from a single frame of reference, disentangle ourselves from the “language game”, as Wittgenstein would call it, and embrace the ultimate reality of human existence that, too often, lies beyond words. Language is essentially an intriguing system of signs around which our conception of the world is structured, and the realization of this brings enormously liberating potentials.
在多种意义上，北外也是思考的集体。我们用语言思考，也教导学生要批判性地思考。语言由此成为人类智慧不可或缺的容器和孵化器。但我们也敏锐地察觉，语言远不单单是个容器。萨丕尔-沃夫假说认为，语言不仅给予人类表达思想的方式，也决定着人类思想。虽然这一假说颇有争议，但我们至少得知语言会影响使用者的思维。每一种语言都代表着不同的思维模式和看待宇宙的独特方式。当我们不仅使用语言思考而且开始思考语言本身，就更能分辨事实与观点，摆脱单一的参照体系，从维特根斯坦所说的“语言游戏”中解脱，欣然接受人类存在的终极现实，而这种现实往往超越语言。语言在本质上是个引人着迷的符号系统，我们对世界的理解围绕这一系统构建；认识到这一点将为解放思想带来巨大潜力。
More importantly, BFSU is a speaking community. We cultivate our students to be narrators and story-tellers. Stories define what a nation is and what it might become. Equipped with multiple languages and modes of thinking, our students emulate to tell and retell stories handed down from Yan’an in 1941, stories about China and beyond, stories from antiquity to the present, and stories of countless dreams, in numerous languages. They hone their skills to narrate in modes of discourse that speak to the minds and hearts of those who listen. The competence of narration is part and parcel of the competence of leadership. As future world leaders, our students are also learning to create new stories, stories depicting the blueprints of tomorrow, stories about “a community of shared future for mankind.” A wise saying has it that “Great stories happen to those who can tell them.” This is because stories are endowed with a transformative power. As our students grow to be more capable story-tellers, they become intertwined with the stories they narrate and create.
更重要的是，北外是言说的集体。我们将学生培养为叙述者和故事讲述者。故事定义一个民族的过去、现在和未来。我们的学生掌握多种语言和不同的思维方式，学会用不同语言讲述并重述1941年自延安传承的故事、古今中外的故事，以及无数梦想的故事。他们磨练用多种话语方式叙事的技能，与听者的心灵和思想沟通。叙述能力构成领导力的重要部分。作为未来世界的领导者，我们的学生也在学习创造全新的故事，描绘明日蓝图的故事，讲述“人类命运共同体”的故事。有句至理名言这样说道：“伟大的故事发生在会讲故事的人身上”，这是因为故事具有一种变革性的力量。我们的学生不断成长为更会讲故事的人，也与自己讲述和创造的故事融为一体。
Ladies and gentlemen, the German literary giant Goethe once remarked, “Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.” Learning and using foreign languages is ultimately a journey of self-discovery. By observing and understanding cultures and peoples different from our own, we are better able to examine and contemplate who we are and where we should be heading to.
女士们，先生们，德国文学巨匠歌德曾说：“那些对外语一无所知的人，对自己的母语也一无所知。”学习和使用外语本质上是一次自我发现之旅。通过观察和了解不同文化和民族，就能更好地审视并思索我们是谁，该去往何处。
The Latin origin of the English word “university” is universitas, which means one or a whole. For BFSU, this is both a “yes” and “no”. No, we are not one, we are many. We teach 101 languages. We are home to international students and faculty from across the globe. We embrace pluralistic ways of thinking. We recount rich and diverse stories. But yes, we are also one, an integrated whole. We are one family and one community aspiring to build a world marked by linguistic and cultural diversity, a world of peace, progress, prosperity.
英语university一词来自拉丁语universitas，意思是“一个”或“一个整体”。对北外而言，这亦真亦假。我们不是“一个”，而是“许多”：我们教授101种语言，我们的师生来自世界各地，我们拥抱多元思维方式，讲述丰富多彩的故事。但同时，我们也是“一个”，一个统一的整体。我们是一个家庭、一个集体，渴望创造一个拥有语言和文化多样性的世界，一个和平、进步、繁荣的世界。
Ladies and gentlemen, this is BFSU, a university whose odyssey begins with language and goes far beyond, a university that endeavors to influence the world and knows no bounds. Thank you.
这就是北京外国语大学，一所始于语言，又超越语言的大学；一所致力于影响世界，永无止境的大学。谢谢大家！
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发表于 2021-10-10 11:12:34
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