In the race for president—This is Yale’s Moment
总统的角逐—见证耶鲁的辉煌
Conspiracy theorists have noted that for the last 15 years every occupant of the White Hose had held a degree from Yale University.
诡辩型理论家发现，过去15年的白宫主人都是出身于耶鲁大学。
Indeed, there has been a Yalie on the ticket in every U.S. Presidential race for the last 32 years, running either for president or vice president.
的确，过去的32年间，在总统角逐的清单上我们总能够见到耶鲁的影子，无论是总统还是副总统。
During the primary season, three of the Democratic contenders hoping to wrest the presidency from Yale man George W. Bush were also Yale men: John Kerry, Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman. And now, Yale’s run will continue no matter who wins in November.
（我们又将发现）在与出身耶鲁的现任总统乔治·W·布什角逐下界总统的民主党阵营中的初选名单中的三位后选人也都是耶鲁人：约翰·克里，霍华德·林以及乔·李柏门。现今看来，无论是谁将在11月份胜出，耶鲁的辉煌都将保持下去。
With Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush waiting in the wings, who knows how long this will continue? How about Barbara Bush, Yale’ 04, versus Anne Dean, ’06, in a decade or two?
随着希拉里·克林顿与杰布·布什的双双进入，耶鲁的这种优势能够保持多长时间呢？（如果再加上）巴巴拉·布什与安·林也分别于04年，06年先后在耶鲁取得学位，（这种优势能保持）10年？数10年？
Furthermore, both Kerry and Bush were members of America’s most famous college club, the secret society of Skull and Bones. Even though it accepts only 15 seniors a year, “Bones” can claim all of Yale’s White House occupants: William Howard Taft, George H.W. Bush, and his son, fueling the conspiratorial fires of the secret manipulation of American society by sinister elites.
而且，克里和布什都是美国最著名的校园俱乐部“骷髅会”的成员。即使此俱乐部每年只接纳15名优秀成员，出身于“骷髅会”的白宫人员如威廉·霍华德·塔夫脱，老布什，小布什以及他的儿子等所谓的精英分子，也有能力完全控制美国整个社会。
Yale and Harvard are neck and neck in the number of past presidents, though Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton had Yale law degree and were not Yale undergraduates. If Kerry wins, Yale will surge ahead, although some might argue that Harvard’s two Adamses, two Roosevelts and John F. Kennedy might have a qualitative edge.
在过去的总统名单中，尽管格拉德·福特与比尔·克林顿都拥有耶鲁的法学位，而实际上他们非耶鲁的学士生，耶鲁与哈佛之间的较量也只能算并驾齐驱，不分伯仲，打了个平手。（这次）如果克里胜出的话，那么耶鲁将继续领跑，也许这时有人会说，哈佛拥有两个亚当斯，两个罗斯福和约翰·F·肯尼迪，这已是绝对的优势。
But, clearly, this is Yale’s moment, and it is fair to ask why.
但是，很显然，现在是耶鲁的时代，这是不容质疑的。
When F. Scott Fitzgerald was looking at colleges he found Harvard sort of indoors. He found Yale brisk and energetic like a day in October.
斯科特先生考察了所有大学以后发现，哈佛是一种倾向于学问型的，而耶鲁则生气勃勃，精力充沛，如同十月天。
But Princeton, he wrote, was lazy and aristocratic like a day in June, and so he chose Princeton.
他继续写道，而普林斯顿给人就仿佛身处六月给人懒散而不乏贵族气息，于是他选择了后者。
Fitzgerald’s description of Yale was apt Yale has often seemed more driven than its rivals. Alexandra Robbins, author of a book about skull and Bones, quotes Italian scholar and Yale professor Thomas Bergin, who wrote in 1982 that while no one “seemed in a hurry” at Cornell, Yale was always in high gear. Yet, he continued, “as much work seemed to get done in the one place as the other… the difference it seemed to me was that the old, puritanical imperatives of service, competition and awards still linger in New Haven,” the Connecticut town where Yale is located.
斯科特先生有关耶鲁的描述是完全中肯的，相对于其对手，耶鲁人给人的感觉像是身受重大使命感，正如亚历山德拉·罗宾斯先生在其著作《骷髅会》中所引用意大利学者耶鲁大学教授托马斯·宾格1982年著作中的文字所描述的那样：在康奈尔你见不到匆忙匆忙的，而耶鲁给人的感觉犹如高速运转的齿轮。至今，他又补充道：“好象总是有做不完的事情要去做，，，这些特点在我看来，其实就是纽黑文的老耶鲁所传承的有关古老清教主义的服务，竞争以及奖赏等教诲的文化底蕴，”对于现今的康涅狄格所在的新耶鲁。
Yale was founded in 1701, 65 years after Harvard, by dissident Harvard men who thought that Harvard was losing its religious fervor.
耶鲁大学建立于1701年，比哈佛大学相对来说比较晚65年。有这样的观点，哈佛正在失去她的宗教热诚。
Old Yale encapsulated a tradition of manliness and honor. It is hard to imagine those ancient heroes of boys’ literature, Dink Stover and Frank Merriwell, going anywhere but Yale. Whereas individualism might flourish at Harvard, Yale stressed team play, conformity and the Roman virtues.
老耶鲁有着刚毅和荣誉的传统。很难想象那些有关古代英雄如Dink Stover和Frank Merriwell的少儿读物流行于除了耶鲁以外的任何地方。相对于哈佛时兴的个人主义，而耶鲁更加崇尚的是古罗马美德，团队合作，共同进取。
Although Yale owes much to Oxford and Cambridge, many of its traditions grew out of America’s fascination with German education in the early 19th century. The anthem of Yale, “Bright College Years,” is the same tune, but not the words, that the German officers sing in “Casablanca” when they are drowned out by the rest of the customers singing the “Marseillaise” at Rick’s Café.
也许耶鲁更应该感激牛津与剑桥，它的传统更多地继承了前者，而非19世纪早期美国所痴迷的德国教育传统。如耶鲁的校歌《Bright College Years》，尽管作词不一样，但其曲调与影片《卡萨布兰卡》德国人所唱的风格却是相同的，影片中Rick的咖啡屋里，一群纳粹军官在唱歌，于是余下的法国人唱《马赛曲》压过了他们。
Yale’s secret societies, of which Skull and Bones is the oldest (1842), were born in the tradition of early 19th-century German romanticism that inspired Wagner. Although dueling with sabers never made it to New Haven, the Yale societies still share a lot with their German counterparts.
在耶鲁众多的社团当中，“骷髅会”要算是最早的了，它的建立启发于19世纪早期瓦格纳时代的德国传统。尽管在纽黑文你看不见决斗的场景，但是耶鲁各种社团还是继承了德国很多传统。
The secrecy part certainly has lent an aura to Yale’s senior societies and to Yale’s mystique. It is no coincidence that the statue of America’s first spy, Yale man Nathan Hale, that graces the old campus in the New Haven is replicated at CIA headquarters in Virginia.
毫无疑问，这些秘密活动给耶鲁的高年级社团增添了色彩，也强化了耶鲁的神秘气氛。美国的第一个间谍，耶鲁毕业生内生·黑尔的雕像为纽黑文校园增辉添彩，而佛吉尼亚的中央情报局也有一尊雕像复制品，这一点绝非巧合。
Yale was changing fast when Bush and Kerry were experiencing their college years. The university was becoming more egalitarian more diverse, leading up to the admission of women in 1969, the year after Bush graduated, Skull and Bones didn’t follow suit until 1991.
耶鲁在克里与布什就读的时期正经历着巨大的变化，那时学校更加崇尚平等主义和多元化，并且于1969年抢先准许女生入学，而此时正是布什从耶鲁毕业。直到1991年，所谓的“骷髅会”随之消失。
Yale is more of a meritocracy and more intellectual now, but a faint penumbra of the old “puritanical imperatives of service” remains. On a bright autumn day in New Haven that last line of the college song, “For God For country and for Yale,” may not seem quite the classic definition of anticlimax that it is.
尽管耶鲁现在更富有知识界精华和知识分子，但是仍然笼罩在淡淡的老清教主义的服务精神的气氛中。在纽黑文的校园里，秋季里明亮的阳光射在校歌的最后一行上，“为了上帝，为了国家以及为了耶鲁！”经典的曲调也许不再经典。
（李泽龙译初稿）