Ambition

Perri Klass

[Lead in]

[1] In college, my friend Beth was very ambitious, not only for herself but for her friends. She was interested in foreign relations, in travel, in going to law school. “I plan to be Secretary of State someday,” she would say matter-of-factly. One mutual friend was studying literature, planning to go to graduate school; he would be the Chairman of the Yale English department. Another friend was interested in political journalism and would someday edit Time magazine. I was a biology major. And I was interested in writing fiction. we were all smart-ass (自作聪明的滑头) college freshmen, pretending the world was ours. We were smart college freshmen, and why should we limit our ambitions?

在大学, 我的朋友贝丝是非常有野心的, 不仅为自己, 也为她的朋友。她对外交关系、旅行、去法学院感兴趣。"我计划有朝一日成为国务卿," 她说得很实事求是。我们一个共同的朋友在学习文学, 计划去研究生院;他将成为耶鲁大学英语系的系主任。另一位朋友对政治新闻感兴趣, 有朝一日会编辑《时代》杂志。我是主修生物学的我对写小说感兴趣。我们都是自作聪明的滑头大学新生, 假装世界是我们的。我们是聪明的大学新生, 我们为什么要限制我们的野心？

[3] I’ve always liked ambitious people, and many of my closest friends have had grandiose (宏大的) dreams. I like such people, not because I am desperate to be buddies with a future Secretary of State but because I find ambitious people entertaining, interesting to talk to, fun to watch. And, of course, I like such people because I am ambitious myself, and I would rather not feel apologetic about it.   

我一直喜欢雄心勃勃的人, 我的许多最亲密的朋友都有宏大的。我喜欢这样的人, 不是因为我渴望和未来的国务卿做朋友, 而是因为我发现和有野心的人谈话很愉快很有趣, , 只是看着也很有乐趣。当然, 我喜欢这样的人, 因为我也是个有野心的人, 我不想对此感到愧疚。        

[4] Ambition has gotten bad press. Back in the seventeenth century, Spinoza thought ambition and lust were “nothing but species of madness, although they are not enumerated among diseases.” Especially in women, ambition has often been seen as a profoundly dislikable quality; the word “ambitious” linked to a “career woman” suggested that she was ruthless, hard as nails, clawing her way to success on top of the bleeding bodies of her friends.

野心已经有了负面报道。早在第十七世纪, 斯宾诺莎认为野心和欲望 "只是一种疯狂的物种, 虽然它们没有在疾病中被列举出来。特别是在女性中, 野心往往被视为一种十分不讨人喜欢的品质; "野心" 一词与 "职业女性" 联系在一起, 表明她是无情的, 像钉子一样坚硬, 她是在朋友们的流血的身体之上谋取成功的。

[5] Then, in the late seventies and the eighties, ambition became desirable, as books with titles like How to Stomp Your Way to Success became bestsellers. It was still a nasty sort of attribute, but nasty attributes were good because they helped you look out for number one.

然后, 在七十年代末和八十年代, 随着带着“如何踏着沉重的步子走向成功”标题的书籍成为畅销书，野心变得可取了。但它仍然是一个恶劣的属性, 但恶劣的属性是好的, 因为它们帮助你多替自己着想。

[6] But what I mean by ambition is dreaming big dreams, putting no limits on your expectations and your hopes. I don’t really like very specific, attainable  ambitions, the kind you learn to set in the career-strategy course taught by the author of How to Stomp Your Way to Success. I like big ambitions that suggest that the world could open up at any time, with work and luck and determination. The next book could hit it big. The next research project could lead to something fantastic. The next bright idea could change history.

但我所指的野心是有远大的梦想, 不去限制你的期望和希望。我真的不喜欢非常具体的, 可实现的 (可实现的) 的野心，就是你在职业战略课程中学到的，由“如何踏着沉重的步子走向成功” 的作者所教那种野心。我喜欢大的野心, 这意味着，世界可以在任何时候开放, 工作, 运气和决心。下一本书会取得巨大成就。下一个研究项目可能会带来意想不到的东西。下一个灵光一现的想法可能会改变历史。

[7] Of course, eventually you have to stop being a freshman in college. You limit your ambitions and become more realistic, wiser about your potential, your abilities, and the number of things your life can hold. Sometimes you get close to something you wanted to do, only to find it looks better from far away. Back when I was a freshman, to tell the truth, I wanted to be Jane Goodall （珍妮·古道尔）, go into the jungle to study monkeys and learn things no one had ever dreamed of. This ambition was based on an interest in biology and several National Geographic television specials; it turned out that wasn’t enough of a basis for a life. There were a number of other early ambitions that didn’t *pan out （成功） either. I was not fated （命中注定的） to live a wild, adventurous life, to travel alone to all the most exotic （异国的） parts of the world, to leave behind a string of broken hearts. Oh well, you have to grow up, at least a little.

当然, 最终你必须停止成为大学新生。你限制了你的野心, 变得更现实, 更明智, 你的潜能, 你的能力, 和你的生活能容纳多少东西。有时你会接近你想做的事情, 但却发现从远处看它看起来更好。当我还是大一的时候, 说实话, 我想成为简·古德 (珍妮·古道尔), 去丛林里学习猴子, 学习没有人梦想过的东西。这一雄心的基础是对生物学的兴趣和几个国家地理电视特辑;结果是生活的基础不够。还有许多其他早期的野心也没有成功。我不是命中注定 (命中注定的) 过着狂野、冒险的生活, 独自前往世界上最奇异的 (异国的) 的地方, 留下一串颗破碎的心。哦, 你必须长大, 至少有一点。

[11] The world is full of disappointed people. Some of them probably never had much ambition to start with; they sat back and waited for something good and feel cheated because it never happened. Some of them had very set, specific ambitions and, for one reason or another, never got what they wanted. Others got what they wanted but found it wasn’t exactly what they’d expected it to be.

这个世界充满了失望的人们。他们中的一些人可能从开始就没有什么野心;他们不采取行动, 坐等好事出现, 然后感觉被欺骗了, 因为它从未发生过。他们中的一些人有固定的特别的的野心, 然而因为某种原因, 他们从来没有得到他们想要的东西。其他人得到了他们想要的, 但发现它并不完全是他们所期望的那样。

[12] The world is also full of people so ambitious, so consumed by drive and overdrive that nothing they pass on the way to success has any value at all. Life becomes one long exercise in delayed gratification （满意）; everything you do, you’re doing only because it will one day get you where you want to be.

世界上也充满了如此雄心勃勃，被欲望驱动和超负荷消费的人，他们在成功路上经历的所有事情一点价值都没有。生活成为了一个长期的关于延迟满足的训练;你所做的一切, 只是因为有一天它会带你去到你想去的地方。

Medical training is an excellent example of delayed gratification. You spend years in medical school doing things with no obvious relationship to your future as a doctor, and then you spend years in residency, living life on a miserable schedule, staying up all night and slogging [苦干] through the day, telling yourself that one day all this will be over. It’s what you have to do to become a doctor, but it’s a lousy [非常痛苦的或不愉快的] model for life in general. There’s nothing wrong with a little delayed gratification every now and then, but a job you do only because of where it will get you—and not because you like it—means a life of muttering to yourself, “Someday this will be over.” This is bad for the disposition.

医学训练是一个很好的延迟满足的例子。你花了数年的时间在医学院做和你的未来作为一个医生没有明显的关系的事儿, , 然后你花了数年实习, 按照一个悲惨的时间表生活, 晚上熬夜和白天苦干, 告诉自己, 总有一天所有这一切都会结束。要成为一名医生，这是你必须做的。 但对于一般生活，它是一个非常痛苦的生活模式。时不时地有一点延迟满足是没有什么错的, 但是你做的工作仅仅是因为它能让你得到什么 --而不是因为你喜欢它--意味着你过着一种生活，你对自己喃喃自语的, "总有一天这会结束的。”这样做是对性情不好的。

[15] Of course, I try to be mature about it all. I don’t assign my friends Nobel Prizes or top government posts. I don’t pretend that there is room in my life for any and every kind of ambition I can imagine. Instead, I say piously （虔诚地）that all I want are three things: I want to write as well as I can, I want to have a family, and I want to be a good pediatrician （儿科医师）. And then, of course, a voice inside whispers: to write a bestseller, to have ten children, to do stunning （极好的） medical research. Fame and fortune, it whispers, fame and fortune. Even though I’m not a college freshman anymore, I’m glad to find that little voice still there, whispering sweet things in my ear.

当然, 我试着变的成熟一点。我不指派我的朋友得诺贝尔奖或高级政府职位。我不假装我的生活中存有空间来盛放我能想象到的任何和各种野心。相反, 我虔诚地说，所有我想要的就是三件事: 我想尽我所能的写作, 我想有一个家庭, 我想成为一个好的儿科医生。然后, 当然, 一个声音内耳语: 写一本畅销书, 有十孩子, 做轰动的医学研究。名声与财富, 它耳语, 名声与财富。我很庆幸。即使我不再是一个大学新生,那个小声音还在那里,在我耳边低语着甜美的东西。