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Now, a certain amount of self-absorption is in our nature.
关注自己是我们天性的一部分。
As Harvard's own E.O. Wilson has recently written, and I quote him,
就像哈佛大学的行政主任最近写道的，
"We are an insatiably curious species -- provided the subjects are our personal selves and people we would know or would like to know."
“我们是一种无法被满足的充满好奇心的物种，好奇的对象是我们自己，我们认识的人和想要认识的人。”
But I want to underscore two troubling aspects of this obsession with ourselves.
但是我想要指出两个在关注自己时出现的令人担忧的问题。
The first is it undermines our sense of responsibility to others
首先，过度关注自身会弱化我们对其他人的责任感，
the ethos of service at the heart of Thomas Shepard's phrase describing Harvard's enduring commitment to graduate students who are "enlarged" to be about more than themselves.
托马斯·谢帕德曾说，哈佛一直以来都致力于培养出不仅仅关注自身的学生，而对他人的责任感正是他这一想法的核心。
Not just enlarged for their own sake and betterment -- but enlarged toward others and toward the world.
他希望学生的学习不仅仅是为了让自己变得更好，更要让他人、让世界变得更好。
This is part of the essence of what this university has always strived to be.
这正是我们这所学校一直以来的追求。
Our students and faculty have embodied that spirit through their work to serve in our neighborhood and around the world.
我们的学生和全体教员在为邻居和整个世界提供帮助时都贯彻了这一点。
From tutoring at the Harvard Ed Portal in Allston to working in Liberia to mitigate the Ebola crisis,
从对奥尔斯顿早申门户的指导，到帮助缓和利比亚的埃博拉危机，
they make a difference in the lives of countless individuals.
他们给无数人的生活带去了巨大改变。
The Dexter Gate across the Yard invites students to "Enter to grow in wisdom. Depart to serve better thy country and thy kind."
我校的Dexter Gate上写着：“入学是为了增长知识。毕业是为了更好地服务国家和人民。”
Today, some 6,500 graduates go forth. May each of them remember that it is in some way to serve.
今天，大约有6500名学生即将毕业。我希望你们每一个人都牢记自己的使命。
There is yet another danger we should note as well.
还有第二个危险信号我们也应该注意。
Self-absorption may obscure not only our responsibilities to others but our dependence upon them.
过度关注自身不仅会弱化我们对他人的责任感，还会减少我们对他们的依赖。
And this is troubling for Harvard, for higher education and for fundamental social institutions whose purposes and necessity we forget at our peril.
而这对哈佛大学、对高等教育、对基础社会机构来说都不是好事，如果我们忘记它们的目的性和必要性，危险就会降临。
