最高法院首席大法官給初中畢業生的贈言

Success, he reminded them, comes to those who are unafraid to fail. "And if you did fail, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, it might be time to think about doing something else."
希望你們不要害怕失敗。但是如果屢屢失敗，不妨改弦更張。

"From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly," Roberts said, "so that you will come to learn the value of justice."
希望你們將來受到不公正的待遇，讓你們學到正義的價值。

Betrayal "will teach you the importance of loyalty."
朋友的背棄讓你們學懂情義的重要。

Loneliness will instruct people not to "take friends for granted."
體驗了孤寂便不會輕視友情。

Pain will cause someone "to learn compassion."
從痛苦可以學到憐憫。

"I wish you bad luck - again, from time to time - so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life," Roberts said. "And understand that your success is not completely deserved, and that the failure of others is not completely deserved, either."
惡運隨時發生，因此要珍惜人生中的機緣。

"But you are also privileged young men, and if you weren't privileged when you came here, you're privileged now because you have been here," Roberts said. "My advice is: Don't act like it."

He urged them, at their next school, to introduce themselves to the people  "raking the leaves, shoveling the snow or emptying the trash." Learn their names, smile and call them by name. " The worst thing that will happen is you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello," he said.
你們養尊處優，但是對勞工階級要友善和尊重。

"You’ve been at a school with just boys. Most of you will be going to a school with girls," Roberts said.  "I have no advice for you."
你們念的是男校。將來的學校會有女生。我沒有什麼忠告。

"May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young."
讓你建造天梯
步步高升
青春永保

The wishes expressed by Dylan for his son, Jesse, are "beautiful, they’re timeless, they’re universal," Roberts said.
上引Bob Dylan 給兒子的曲詞瑰麗感人、超越時空、放諸四海皆準。

資料來源和視頻：

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/the-best-thing-chief-justice-roberts-wrote-this-term-wasnt-a-supreme-court-opinion/2017/07/02/b80a5afa-5e6e-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.efb9cd79c701

John G. Roberts 夫婦都是晚婚，沒有生育，一子一女都是領養的。兒子傑克屬於好動型(hyperactive) ，在小布什總統宣佈提名為首席大法官的嚴肅儀式中，其時四歲的Jack 照樣手舞足動、自得其樂，沒有人製止他。

六月中，傑克在新罕布夏州的加丁根山男校初中畢業，大法官致詞贈言15分鐘，字字珠璣。

中國傳統的贈言往往是善誦善禱，例如"一帆風順、平步青雲"。又例如1957年11月毛澤東在莫斯科大學對中國留學生的贈言說："你們青年人朝氣蓬勃，好像早晨八九點鐘的太陽。中國的前途是你們的，世界的前途是你們的，希望寄托在你們身上！" （當然了，愛講偉大空話的偉大領袖轉過身來便胡搞大躍進、三麵紅旗丶人民公社、文革，把中國人民整得死去活來。）

大法官的贈言另闢蹊徑、樸實無華、思維清新。他引用的是流行歌手的曲詞，並戲稱 Bob Dylan 為哲人。

英語 "privileged " 通常被譯為"特權階級"，例如早年在北京101中念書的鄧樸方之輩。大法官把兒子及其同學稱為"privileged young men", "養尊處優"的譯法比較適宜。而大法官勸勉小鬼們對勞工階級友善和尊重，平實可行；反觀偉大領袖的讀書無用論、關閉學校、把青年人驅逐到農村去、"向貧下中農學習"、荒廢了十年學校教育，誰去理睬？