比爾蓋茨在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講
今天小編想和大家一起閱讀的是比爾蓋茨在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講，是中英文版哦，有興趣的小伙伴們過來閱讀吧。
President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates: I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: “Dad, I always told you I’d come back and get my degree.”
尊敬的博克校長，前校長魯?shù)撬固�，即將上任的佛斯特校長，哈佛集團(tuán)和監(jiān)察理事會的各位成員。各位老師，各位家長，各位同學(xué)：有句話我憋了30年，今天終于能一吐為快了：““爸 我沒騙你吧，文憑到手了!”
I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I’ll be changing my job next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my résumé.
我由衷地感謝哈佛這個時(shí)候給我這個榮譽(yù)。明年我要換工作(退休)。 我終于能在簡歷里注明自己有大學(xué)學(xué)歷了。
I applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me “Harvard’s most successful dropout.” I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … I did the best of everyone who failed.
我要恭喜今年的畢業(yè)生們，因?yàn)槟銈儺厴I(yè)比我順利多了。其實(shí)我倒是很樂意克萊姆森把我喚作“哈佛大學(xué)最成功的輟學(xué)生”。這大概是我脫穎而出的法寶……我是輟學(xué)生中的領(lǐng)頭羊。
But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.
我還要檢討一下史蒂夫-鮑爾默也是受我蠱惑從商學(xué)院退學(xué)。我劣跡斑斑。這就是為什么我會受邀參加畢業(yè)演講。如果是開學(xué)典禮，恐怕今天的人會少很多。
Harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was fascinating. I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn’t even signed up for. And dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn’t worry about getting up in the morning. That’s how I came to be the leader of the antisocial group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.
哈佛是我生命里的一段非凡經(jīng)歷。校園生活格外充實(shí)，我旁聽過很多沒有選過的課程。住宿的日子也很爽我當(dāng)時(shí)住在拉德克利夫的柯里爾宿舍，總是很多人在我的寢室討論到深夜。 大家知道我屬于夜行動物。就這樣，我成為了這堆人的頭目。我們粘在一起，擺出拒絕社交的姿態(tài)。
Radcliffe was a great place to live. There were more women up there, and most of the guys were science-math types. That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean. This is where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success.
拉德克利夫是個好地方。那里的女生比男生多，男生們大多都是科學(xué)怪人。所以我的機(jī)會來了，你懂的�？赏瑫r(shí)我也明白了一個道理——機(jī)會大也不能保證成功。
One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, When I made a call from Currier House to a company in Albuquerque that had begun making the world’s first personal computers. I offered to sell them software.
1975年1月在哈佛打出的一通電話讓我畢生難忘。我打給位于阿爾伯克基的一個公司，那家公司當(dāng)時(shí)著手制造世界上第一臺個人電腦。我說我想出售軟件給他們。
I worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang up on me. Instead they said: “We’re not quite ready, come see us in a month,” which was a good thing, because we hadn’t written the software yet. From that moment, I worked day and night on this little extra credit project that marked the end of my college education and the beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.
我擔(dān)心他們會因?yàn)槲覍W(xué)生身份而掛掉電話。但他們只是說：“現(xiàn)在還沒有準(zhǔn)備好 請一個月后再聯(lián)系我們。”我長舒一口氣，壓根我們就沒開工。從那時(shí)起 我不分晝夜地趕工 它是我大學(xué)生活結(jié)束的標(biāo)志，也是微軟偉大旅程的開始。
What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence. It could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. It was an amazing privilege and though I left early, I was transformed by my years at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked on.
哈佛的獨(dú)特氛圍讓我充滿精力和智慧。這里的日子可能振奮快樂、也可能令人退縮沮喪，但永遠(yuǎn)充滿了挑戰(zhàn)，神奇的體驗(yàn)!雖然我提前離開了這里，但是這段經(jīng)歷對我影響重大。
But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret.
不過說心里話……我確實(shí)有一點(diǎn)遺憾。
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world - the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
我離開哈佛時(shí)，根本沒有意識到這個世界是多么地不平等。健康、財(cái)富、機(jī)遇差異懸殊，數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的人生活在絕望之中。
I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.
我在哈佛觸摸著經(jīng)濟(jì)政治中的新思想，探索科學(xué)技術(shù)的未知前沿。
But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
但是，人類的進(jìn)步不在于這些新發(fā)現(xiàn)，而在于如何運(yùn)用這些發(fā)現(xiàn)減少社會不公。不管是通過民主政策、健全的公共教育、高質(zhì)量的醫(yī)療保健還是廣泛的商機(jī)，消除不平等始終是人類最大的目標(biāo)。
I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries. It took me decades to find out.
離開校園的時(shí)候，根本不知道在美國上百萬年輕人沒有接受教育的機(jī)會。也對發(fā)展中國家被貧困和病痛折磨的人們一無所知。我花了幾十年才明白這些事情。
You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you’ve had a chance to think about how – in this age of accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.
如今，在座的各位應(yīng)該比我更了解世界上的這些不平等現(xiàn)象。在你們的求學(xué)之路上我希望你們已經(jīng)思考過這個問題——如何在這個高速發(fā)展的時(shí)代解決不平等現(xiàn)象。
Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?
試想一下如果你每周捐出幾個小時(shí)，幾塊錢，來參與一項(xiàng)能夠拯救生命和提高生活品質(zhì)的項(xiàng)目，你會如何選擇?
For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.
我和妻子梅琳達(dá)就面臨著這樣一個問題：怎樣才能充分利用我們擁有的資源。
During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country. Measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever. One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year- none of them in the United States.
舉棋不定時(shí)我們讀到一篇文章，文章里說在貧困的國家里，每年有數(shù)百萬，兒童死于于美國早已戰(zhàn)勝的疾病——麻疹、瘧疾、肺炎、乙肝、黃熱病，還有一種從未聽說的輪狀病毒每年會奪走五十萬兒童的生命，而在美國沒有一例死亡病例。
We were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren’t being delivered.
當(dāng)時(shí)我們就震驚了。我以為全世界會不遺余力地拯救這些在死亡線上掙扎的兒童們，然而這些不值錢的救命藥卻沒有送到他們手中。
If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to ourselves: “This can’t be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.”
如果你堅(jiān)信人生而平等，把生命分等級的做法簡直令人發(fā)指。我們對自己說：“這絕不可能。但萬一這是真的，那么這將成為我們慈善事業(yè)的首要任務(wù)。
So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked: “How could the world let these children die?”
于是我們開始行動了 我相信這也會是你們的選擇。我們疑惑：“這個世界怎么可以眼睜睜看著這些孩子死去?”
The answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system. But you and I have both. We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism.
答案簡單卻殘酷。市場經(jīng)濟(jì)中，拯救兒童沒有利潤，政府也不會給予補(bǔ)貼。父母無財(cái)無權(quán) 孩子們就死了。我們不一樣，我們可以讓市場更好地為窮人服務(wù)，如果我們可以改進(jìn)現(xiàn)有資本主義制度。
If we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.
改善市場環(huán)境，讓更多的人賺到錢、維持生計(jì)，緩解苦難。給世界各地的政府施壓 讓他們把納稅人的錢花到最值得的地方。采取一些既滿足滿足窮人的需求，又能帶來商業(yè)利潤并為政治家?guī)磉x票的措施。
If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world.This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.
采取一些既滿足滿足窮人的需求，又能帶來商業(yè)利潤并為政治家?guī)磉x票的措施，我們就摸索到了減少世界不平等的可持續(xù)發(fā)展道路。然而這項(xiàng)任務(wù)并沒有終點(diǎn)，我們也許無法徹底解決。但只要不懈努力，就可以改變世界。
I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: “Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just … don’t … care.” I completely disagree.
我始終保持樂觀。但也聽到過消極的言論。他們認(rèn)為：“這種不平等現(xiàn)象會伴隨我們一生，因?yàn)槿藗兡曔@一切。”但我不茍同。
I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with. All of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing, not because we didn’t care, but because we didn’t know what to do. If we had known how to help, we would have acted.
雖然我們不知道該如何幫助他們，但我們絕對有這份心。我們都有過這樣的經(jīng)歷，看到令人心碎的悲劇，卻沒有伸出援手。不是因?yàn)槔淠?而是我們不知道該怎么做。如果我們知道如何去幫，就一定會采取行動。
The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity. To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.
阻礙援助步伐的并非冷漠，而是世界太復(fù)雜。要把愛心轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樾袆�，我們首先要發(fā)掘問題，然后尋找解決方案，并且監(jiān)測效果。然而世界的復(fù)雜性阻礙著這些步驟的實(shí)施。
Even with the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news, it is still a complex enterprise to get people to truly see the problems. When an airplane crashes, officials immediately call a press conference. They promise to investigate, determine the cause, and prevent similar crashes in the future.
即使有了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和24小時(shí)不間斷的新聞，人們?nèi)匀缓茈y看到真正的問題。一架飛機(jī)發(fā)生墜毀事故，官員們會立刻召開新聞發(fā)布會，承諾調(diào)查起因，以避免今后發(fā)生類似的事故。
But if the officials were brutally honest, they would say: “Of all the people in the world who died today from preventable causes, one half of one percent of them were on this plane. We’re determined to do everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of the one half of one percent.” The bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths.
但如果那些官員敢講真話，他們會說：“全世界每天會有好多人含恨而終，這起空難只是冰山一角。我們會不惜一切代價(jià)解決削平這一角冰山，此外的問題我們無力解決。” 可是與空難相比，那些奪走數(shù)百萬生命的問題則更為嚴(yán)重。
We don’t read much about these deaths. The media covers what’s new – and millions of people dying is nothing new. So it stays in the background, where it’s easier to ignore. But even when we do see it or read about it, it’s difficult to keep our eyes on the problem. It’s hard to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don’t know how to help. And so we look away.
事實(shí)上那些人的死輕如鴻毛，司空見慣，連媒體都不屑于報(bào)道。更無法吸引我們的注意。即使我們知道了 它也很難刺痛我們的神經(jīng)。世間最痛苦的事莫過于看著他人經(jīng)受苦難的卻無能為力，于是我們選擇了逃避。
If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution.
發(fā)現(xiàn)問題，只是邁出了第一步，接下來我們還要：尋找解決方案。
Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks “How can I help?,” then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes it hard for their caring to matter.
如果不想讓愛心變成空談，就必須找到問題的解決方案。如果有清晰可靠的方案，那么政府或個人組織就能立刻采取行動，將愛心落實(shí)。但是世界的復(fù)雜性使找尋方案的過程無比艱難 于是愛心才淪為空談。
Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have whether it’s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.
打破復(fù)雜性需要四個步驟：確定目標(biāo)、找到最有效的途徑、尋找最理想的技術(shù)，并合理利用現(xiàn)有技術(shù)。無論是制作復(fù)雜的藥物，還是利用簡單的蚊帳，都行。
The AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.
以艾滋病為例。我們的目標(biāo)是消滅它。最有效的途徑是預(yù)防，最理想的技術(shù)是注射一劑疫苗實(shí)現(xiàn)終身免疫。所以現(xiàn)在政府、制藥公司、基金會都在資助疫苗的研究。但可能要十幾年才能研究出來，所以目前的最好的預(yù)防措施就是避開那些可能傳播艾滋病的行為。
Pursuing that goal starts the four-step cycle again. This is the pattern. The crucial thing is to never stop thinking and working – and never do what we did with malaria and tuberculosis in the 20th century – which is to surrender to complexity and quit.
四步循環(huán)直達(dá)目標(biāo)。記住永遠(yuǎn)不要停止思考和行動——永遠(yuǎn)不要像人們在20世紀(jì)對待瘧疾和肺結(jié)核那樣，向疾病投降。
The final step – after seeing the problem and finding an approach – is to measure the impact of your work and share your successes and failures so that others learn from your efforts.
在發(fā)現(xiàn)問題并找到解決方法后，還需監(jiān)測結(jié)果，并與他人分享成功的經(jīng)驗(yàn)和失敗的教訓(xùn)，讓別人也能從中受益。
You have to have the statistics, of course. You have to be able to show that a program is vaccinating millions more children. You have to be able to show a decline in the number of children dying from these diseases. This is essential not just to improve the program, but also to help draw more investment from business and government.
當(dāng)然，你還得有統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)。用來證明你的項(xiàng)目為上百萬兒童接種了疫苗，證明這些孩子的死亡率降低了。這不僅有利于項(xiàng)目的改進(jìn)，也有助于吸引更多的企業(yè)和政府投資。
But if you want to inspire people to participate, you have to show more than numbers. You have to convey the human impact of the work – so people can feel what saving a life means to the families affected.
但如果想吸引更多的人參與進(jìn)來，光靠數(shù)字還遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠。你需要展示出項(xiàng)目承載的價(jià)值，讓他們明白挽救一個生命對其家庭的意義。
Remember going to Davos some years back and sitting on a global health panel that was discussing ways to save millions of lives. Millions! Think of the thrill of saving just one person’s life – then multiply that by millions. Yet this was the most boring panel I’ve ever been on – ever. So boring even I couldn’t bear it.
我記得幾年前去達(dá)沃斯參加全球健康討論會，關(guān)于如何挽救數(shù)百萬人的生命。數(shù)百萬人!只要想想挽救一條生命帶來的震撼，再把這種震撼乘上幾百萬倍是什么感覺!然而，那是我見過的最無聊的討論會。
What made that experience especially striking was that I had just come from an event where we were introducing version 13 of some piece of software, and we had people jumping and shouting with excitement. I love getting people excited about software – but why can’t we generate even more excitement for saving lives?
之所以銘記在心是因?yàn)槲易罱鼌⒓拥囊豢钴浖l(fā)布會的現(xiàn)場氛圍異常火爆。人們激動地歡呼雀躍。看到人們因?yàn)檐浖d奮，我也很開心——但我們?yōu)槭裁礋o法對挽救生命更感興趣呢?
You can’t get people excited unless you can help them see and feel the impact. And how you do that – is a complex question.
除非人們能感知到行動的影響力，否則人們就不會動心。如何做到這一點(diǎn)并不簡單。
Still, I’m optimistic. Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever. They are new – they can help us make the most of our caring – and that’s why the future can be different from the past.
盡管如此，我還是很樂觀。是的，不平等現(xiàn)象一直存在，但我們總會想出新的解決辦法。新技術(shù)可以幫助我們傳播愛心，我對未來充滿信心。
The defining and ongoing innovations of this age – biotechnology, the computer, the Internet--give us a chance we’ve never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.
創(chuàng)新技術(shù)不斷涌現(xiàn)，比如生物技術(shù)、計(jì)算機(jī)、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)。讓我們有機(jī)會終結(jié)救極度貧困和非惡性死亡。
Sixty years ago, George Marshall came to this commencement and announced a plan to assist the nations of post-war Europe. He said: “I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. It is virtually impossible at this distance to grasp at all the real significance of the situation.”
六十年前，喬治-馬歇爾在哈佛的畢業(yè)典禮上宣布了一項(xiàng)協(xié)助戰(zhàn)后歐洲的計(jì)劃。他說：“我認(rèn)為推動這項(xiàng)計(jì)劃的困難在于，報(bào)紙和廣播源源不斷地提供各種事實(shí)，使得公眾難以清晰地判斷形勢。事實(shí)上，經(jīng)過層層傳播，想要真正地把握形勢，是根本不可能的。
Thirty years after Marshall made his address, as my class graduated without me, technology was emerging that would make the world smaller, more open, more visible, less distant.
馬歇爾發(fā)表演講三十年后，我的同學(xué)畢業(yè)了，科技開始發(fā)展，這個世界變得更小、更開放、更透明、人們之間的關(guān)系拉得更近。
The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.
低成本個人電腦和互聯(lián)網(wǎng)為人們提供了更多學(xué)習(xí)和交流的機(jī)會。
The magical thing about this network is not just that it collapses distance and makes everyone your neighbor. It also dramatically increases the number of brilliant minds we can have working together on the same problem and that scales up the rate of innovation to a staggering degree.
神奇的是，網(wǎng)絡(luò)不僅縮短了人與人之間的距離，也增加了精英們集思廣益共同解決難題的機(jī)會。加快了創(chuàng)新的規(guī)模和速度。
At the same time, for every person in the world who has access to this technology, five people don’t. That means many creative minds are left out of this discussion smart people with practical intelligence and relevant experience who don’t have the technology to hone their talents or contribute their ideas to the world.
然而世界上只有六分之一的人能夠接觸互聯(lián)網(wǎng)，很多精英不能參與我們的討論，很多人無法把它們解決問題的智慧和經(jīng)驗(yàn)分享出 來。
We need as many people as possible to have access to this technology, because these advances are triggering a revolution in what human beings can do for one another.They are making it possible not just for national governments, but for universities, corporations, smaller organizations, and even individualsto see problems, see approaches, and measure the impact of their efforts to address the hunger, poverty, and desperation George Marshall spoke of 60 years ago.
如今，新技術(shù)將引發(fā)一場革命，讓盡可能多的人與世界接軌，科技不僅為政府，也為大學(xué)、企業(yè)、小團(tuán)體甚至個人帶來了機(jī)會，而今這些機(jī)構(gòu)和個人能夠運(yùn)用科技找到有效的解決60年前喬治•馬歇爾談到的饑荒、貧困和絕望。
Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world. What for?
各位哈佛大家庭的成員，你們是世界上少有的精英。我們?yōu)槭裁匆瞎?
There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name?
毫無疑問，我們的教員、學(xué)生、校友都曾盡其所能改善全球人類的生活。我們還能更進(jìn)一步嗎?哈佛能夠?yàn)椴恢拦鹈麣獾哪吧朔瞰I(xiàn)智慧，伸出援助之手嗎?
Let me make a request of the deans and the professors the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves: Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?
請?jiān)洪L和教授接受我的不情之請，各位哈佛大學(xué)的精英領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者們，在你們雇用新教員、授予教授終身教職、評估課程安排和決定學(xué)位要求時(shí)，請問自己一個問題：最優(yōu)秀的人才是否應(yīng)該致力于解決人類的困境?
Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world’s worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school the children who die from diseases we can cure?
哈佛是否應(yīng)該鼓勵教授解決世界上存在的嚴(yán)重不平等?哈佛的學(xué)生是不是應(yīng)該多關(guān)注一些全球貧富不均、糧食短缺、水資源稀缺、女童輟學(xué)的問題?以及那些因無法接受有效治療而死亡的孩子?
Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?
世界上最衣食無憂的人是否應(yīng)該了解那些掙扎在死亡邊緣的人們的生活?
These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.
這并非言語修辭，這些問題只能用行動回答。
My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here – never stopped pressing me to do more for others. A few days before my wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter about marriage that she had written to Melinda. My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: “From those to whom much is given, much is expected.”
我的母親一直為我考上哈佛而自豪，也一直督促我回報(bào)社會。我結(jié)婚的前幾天的儀式上，她高聲朗讀自己寫給我妻子的信。當(dāng)時(shí)我母親已經(jīng)是癌癥晚期，但她堅(jiān)持要用這個機(jī)會表達(dá)自己的觀點(diǎn)。信的最后 她念道：“獲益越多，責(zé)任越大。”
When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.
想想我們獲得了什么——天賦，特權(quán)，機(jī)遇——世界寄予殷切的期望。
In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue –a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it.If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal.But you don’t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.
我希望每位畢業(yè)生承擔(dān)起這樣一種責(zé)任—— 參與解決人類不平等的問題，如果你獻(xiàn)身這項(xiàng)事業(yè)，你的影響力將會是驚人的。既便不打算以此為業(yè)，你一樣可以有所作為。每周只需要花幾個小時(shí)，就可以利用互聯(lián)網(wǎng)獲取信息、找到志同道合的朋友、設(shè)法解決一兩個問題。
Don't let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
不要畏難，盡管放手去做。它將是你生命中最寶貴經(jīng)歷。
You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time.As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.
這是一個神奇的時(shí)代。今天的科技是我年輕時(shí)不曾體驗(yàn)的。你們對不平等現(xiàn)象的認(rèn)識遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過我們這代人。面對這種不平等，你們更容易受良心的譴責(zé)。行動起來，時(shí)不我待。
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities … on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
30年后當(dāng)你再次回到哈佛的時(shí)候，我希望看到你用自己的天賦和精力做了哪些事。不僅用專業(yè)成就來衡量成功，還要看你是如何解決人類根深蒂固的不平等問題。你是怎樣對待那些與你相隔萬里、迥然不同的人的。
Good luck.
同學(xué)們，祝你們好運(yùn)!