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 wante d 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
