Quoting from sources as diverse ranging as Kafka's Metamorphosis and the Harry Potter series, Mary Maples Dunn welcomed first-years at the annual Radcliffe Lecture last night.

Dunn, the interim president of Radcliffe College, presented "an extended riff" on translation and transformation to an audience of about 50 people, mostly first-years.

"You should expect to change," said Dunn, who has served as the president of Smith College and, most recently, director of the Schlesinger Library. "But do not take lightly the transformative power that you yourselves bring."

Although Dunn focused mainly on adapting to a new college environment, she noted that her words applied to changes at Radcliffe as well.

"Metamorphosis is a useful metaphor for the transformation of Radcliffe," she said. "Metamorphosis means that a step that seems sudden...is actually part of an ongoing process."

Dunn said the current merger with Harvard was only one incremental part of Radcliffe's long history.

During the 40-minute lecture, Dunn quoted from Kafka and Vladimir Nabokov as well as children's authors like Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis and J. K. Rowling, author of the popular Harry Potter books.

She emphasized two meanings of the word "translation": to transform or transmute as well as to change into another language.

However, Dunn added that there were other possible meanings.