第一篇：励志美联英语 奥斯卡最佳剧作家索尔金雪城大学毕业演讲
小编给你一个美联英语官方免费试听课申请链接： http://m.meten.com/test/waijiao.aspx?tid=16-73675-0 美联英语提供：奥斯卡最佳剧作家索尔金雪城大学毕业演讲
Thank you very much.谢谢，谢谢大家。
Madam Chancellor, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the faculty and administration, parents and friends, honored guests and graduates, thank you for inviting me to speak today at this magnificent Commencement ceremony.校长、校董会委员、所有教职员、各位家长和朋友、各位来宾和毕业生，感谢你们今天邀请我在这个盛大的毕业典礼上演讲。
There's a story about a man and a woman who have been married for 40 years.One evening at dinner the woman turns to her husband and says, “You know, 40 years ago on our wedding day you told me that you loved me and you haven't said those words since.” They sit in silence for a long moment before the husband says “If I change my mind, I'll let you know.”
我先说个关于一对结婚40年夫妻的故事。某天晚餐时，妻子转头对丈夫说，“你知道吗?40年前，我们结婚那天，你对我说你爱我，之后就不曾再说过这句话。”沉默了许久后，丈夫终于开口，“如果我改变了主意，会让你知道。”
Well, it's been a long time since I sat where you sit, and I can remember looking up at my teachers with great admiration, with fondness, with gratitude and with
love.Some of the teachers who were there that day are here this day and I wanted to let them know that I haven't changed my mind.好了，我像你们这样坐在台下是很久以前的事了，我还记得自己满怀敬佩、感激与喜爱之情看着台上的老师，当时有些老师今天也在场。我想让他们知道，我对他们的感激之情不曾改变。
There's another story.Two newborn babies are lying side by side in the hospital and they glance at each other.Ninety years later, through a remarkable coincidence, the two are back in the same hospital lying side by side in the same hospital room.They look at each other and one of them says, “So what'd you think?”
再说另一个故事。两位新生儿并肩躺在医院的育儿室里，彼此对看了一眼。90年后，在一个不可思议地巧合下，两人并肩躺在同一家医院的病房里。他们看着对方，其中一位说，“好吧，你感觉如何?”
It's going to be a very long time before you have to answer that question, but time shifts gears right now and starts to gain speed.Just ask your parents whose heads, I promise you, are exploding right now.They think they took you home from the maternity ward last month.They think you learned how to walk last week.They don't understand how you could possibly be getting a degree in something today.They listened to “Cats in the Cradle” the whole car ride here.你们很久以后才需要回答这个问题。但物换星移，时间飞快流逝，只要问你们的父母就知道。我向你们保证，现在他们的思绪必定乱成一团。在他们记忆里，彷佛上个月才将你从产房带回家，彷佛你上星期才学会走路，他们不明白你们怎么可能今天就取得某个学位。他们一路听着“摇篮里的猫”前来这里。
I'd like to say to the parents that I realized something while I was writing this speech: the last teacher your kids will have in college will be me.And that thought scared the hell out of me.Frankly, you should feel exactly the same way.But I am the father of an 11-year-old daughter, so I do know how proud you are today, how proud your daughters and your sons make you every day, and that they did just learn how to walk last week, that you'll never not be there for them, that you love them more than they'll ever know and that it doesn’t matter how many degrees get put in their hand, they will always be dumber than you are.我想告诉各位家长，我在写这篇演讲稿时领悟到的一件事：你们孩子大学里最后一位老师将会是我。这个念头令我胆颤心惊。老实说，你们也应该有相同感觉。但我是一位11岁女儿的父亲，所以我确实了解你们今天是多么骄傲;你们的儿女时时刻刻让你们 感到多么自豪;他们确实上星期才学会走路;你永远不需要为了参加他们的毕业典礼而来到这里;他们永远不知道你有多么爱他;无论他们拿到多少个学位，他们永远比你笨。
And make no mistake about it, you are dumb.You're a group of incredibly well-educated dumb people.I was there.We all were there.You're barely functional.There are some screw-ups headed your way.I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups, but the screw-ups, they're a-coming for ya.It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.这是无庸置疑地，你们确实是傻子。你们是一群受过良好教育的傻子。我经历过这个阶段，我们全都经历过这个阶段。你们几乎做不成什么大事。总会有一些愚蠢的想法牵引着你的决定，我希望我能告诉你们避开这些愚蠢想法的诀窍，但你依然逃不开这些愚蠢的想法，这就是导致生命变得无法预知、让你显得超级愚蠢的罪魁祸首。
Today is May 13th and today you graduate.Growing up, I looked at my future as a timeline of graduations in which every few years, I'd be given more freedom and reward as I passed each milestone of childhood.When I get my driver's license, my life will be like this;when I'm a senior, my life will be like that;when I go off to college, my life will be like this;when I move out of the dorms, my life will be like that;and then finally, graduation.And on graduation day, I had only one goal left, and that was to be part of professional theater.We have this in common, you and I—we want to be able to earn a living doing what we love.Whether you're a writer, mathematician, engineer, architect, butcher, baker or candlestick maker, you want an invitation to the show.今天是5月13日，你们毕业的日子。成长过程中，每隔几年，毕业就成了标记我未来人生进程的时间轴。每当我走过一个童年的里程碑，就得到更多的自由和奖励。当我拿到驾照时，生活会像这样;当我升上高中时，生活会像那样;当我念大学时，生活会像这样;当我搬出宿舍时，生活会像那样;然后我终于毕业。毕业那天，我只剩下一个目标，就是成为专业剧团的一员。这是你们和我的共同点，我们都希望从事自己感兴趣的工作，无论是作家、数学家、工程师、建筑师、屠夫、面包师傅或烛台制造商，你们都希望登上属于自己的舞台。
Today is May 13th, and today you graduate, and today you already know what I know: to get where you're going, you have to be good, and to be good where you're going, you have to be damned good.Every once in a while, you'll succeed.Most of the time you'll fail, and most of the time the circumstances will be well beyond your control.今天是5月13日，你们毕业的日子，我明白的道理你们也都明白。想达成目标，你必
须有好的表现;希望能有所成就，你必须拿出超乎寻常的好表现。偶尔你能侥幸成功，大多时候则难免经历失败;大多时候，情况并非你所能掌控。
When we were casting my first movie, “A Few Good Men,” we saw an actor just 10 months removed from the theater training program at UCLA.We liked him very much and we cast him in a small, but featured role as an endearingly dimwitted Marine corporal.The actor had been working as a Domino's Pizza delivery boy for 10 months, so the news that he'd just landed his first professional job and that it was in a new movie that Rob Reiner was directing, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, was met with happiness.But as is often the case in show business, success begets success before you've even done anything, and a week later the actor's agent called.The actor had been offered the lead role in a new, as-yet-untitled Milos Forman film.He was beside himself.He felt loyalty to the first offer, but Forman after all was offering him the lead.We said we understood, no problem, good luck, we'll go with our second choice.Which, we did.And two weeks later, the Milos Forman film was scrapped.Our second choice, who was also making his professional debut, was an actor named Noah Wyle.Noah would go on to become one of the stars of the television series “ER” and hasn't stopped working since.I don't know what the first actor is doing, and I can't remember his name.Sometimes, just when you think you have the ball safely in the end zone, you're back to delivering pizzas for Domino's.Welcome to the NFL.当我第一部电影《军官与魔鬼》开拍时，剧组里有位十个月前才修完加州大学洛杉矶分校戏剧表演课程的演员。他很讨人喜欢，我们让他担任一个不是很重要、但十分显眼的角色
-一位傻气而讨喜的海军下士。这位演员在Domino披萨担任了10个月的外送员，所以首次获得参与一部新电影演出的机会令他十分兴奋。这部电影由Rob Reiner导演，汤姆.克鲁斯和杰克.尼克逊主演。但如同演艺圈经常发生的情形：在你还来不及完成任何事之前，成功的机会便接踵而来。一 星期后，这位演员的经纪人致电给剧组：米洛斯·福尔曼一部尚未命名的电影邀请这位演员担任主角。他欣喜若狂，虽然他认为应该对第一个机会展现忠诚，但毕竟福尔曼让他担任主角。我们回复说，我们了解，没问题，祝你好运，我们将采用第二顺位的角色选择，我们确实这么做了。两星期后，米洛斯·福尔曼这部影片停拍，我们的第二选择——也是一位职业生涯中首次获得演出机会的演员，这位演员名叫Noah Wyle。Noah之后成为电视影集《急诊室的春天》主角之一，至今仍在演艺圈大放异彩。我不知道第一位演员现况如何，甚至想不起他的名字。有时候，就在你以为自己安全达阵时，却得回到Domino送披萨。欢迎来到野蛮世界。
In the summer of 1983, after I graduated, I moved to New York to begin my life as a struggling writer.I got a series of survival jobs that included bartending, ticket-taking, telemarketing, limo driving, and dressing up as a moose to pass out leaflets in a mall.I ran into a woman who'd been a senior here when I was a freshman.I asked her how it was going and how she felt Syracuse had prepared her for the early stages of her career.She said, “Well, the thing is, after three years you start to forget everything they taught you in college.But once you've done that, you'll be fine.” I laughed because I thought it was funny and also because I wanted to ask her out, but I also think she was wrong.1983年毕业后那个夏天，我搬到纽约，开始艰苦的写作生涯。我做过许多赖以糊口的 工作，包括酒保、收票员、电话推销员、豪华轿车司机、穿着麋鹿装在商场里发传单。我曾遇见一位雪城大学的学姐，我问她近况如何，她认为雪城大学对她早期职业生涯提供了什么帮助。她说，“嗯，事实上，毕业三年后，你就会开始把学校所教的全都忘光;但一旦到了这个阶段，你就会开始渐入佳境。”我忍不住大笑，因为我觉得这十分荒谬，也有部分原因是我想约她出去。但我还是认为她的想法并不正确。
As a freshman drama student—and this story is now becoming famous—I had a play analysis class—it was part of my requirement.The professor was Gerardine Clark.If anybody was wondering, the drama students are sitting over there.The play analysis class met for 90 minutes twice a week.We read two plays a week and we took a 20-question true or false quiz at the beginning of the session that tested little more than whether or not we'd read the play.The problem was that the class was at 8:30 in the morning, it met all the way down on East Genesee, I lived all the way up at Brewster/Boland, and I don't know if you've noticed, but from time to time the city of Syracuse experiences inclement weather.All this going to class and reading and walking through snow, wind chill that's apparently powered by jet engines, was having a negative effect on my social life in general and my sleeping in particular.At one point, being quizzed on “Death of a Salesman,” a play I had not read, I gave an answer that indicated that I wasn't aware that at the end of the play the salesman dies.And I failed the class.I had to repeat it my sophomore year;it was depressing, frustrating and deeply embarrassing.And it was without a doubt the single most significant event that occurred in my evolution as a writer.I showed up my sophomore year and I went to class, and I paid attention, and we read plays
and I paid attention, and we discussed structure and tempo and intention and obstacle, possible improbabilities, improbable impossibilities, and I paid attention, and by God when I got my grades at the end of the year, I'd turned that F into a D.I'm joking: it was pass/fail.当我身为戏剧系大一新生时-这个故事已越来越出名-我修了一堂戏剧分析课-这是必修课程之一，指导教授是 Gerardine Clark。如果有人想知道这些欢呼是怎么回事，戏剧系学生坐在那里。戏剧分析课每周上两次，每次九十分钟，每星期得研读两部剧本，每堂课开始时，会举行一场二十题是非题的小考，测验我们是否预习了剧本。问题是，这是早上八点三十分的课，上课地点在East Genesee街尾，我住在Brewster/Boland街 头。不知道你们是否注意到，雪城市的气候经常十分恶劣，我总是得在风雪交加中前往学校上课，刺骨的寒风简直像从喷射机引擎中喷出似的，这对我的社交生活产生不少负面影响，尤其是睡眠质量。某次小考的内容是关于《推销员之死》，我并未事先预习这出 戏剧，我写出的答案显示，我不知道剧终时那位推销员是不是死了。这门课没有及格。我不得不在大二时重修，这令我十分沮丧、深感羞愧。毫无疑问地，这是我迈向作家之路过程中最刻骨铭心的事。大二时，我孜孜不倦地参与这门课程，用心研读剧本，讨论每一部剧本的架构、节奏、寓意及转折点，反复地 思考探索。我投注了全副心力，确实，当我在期末收到成绩单时，成绩从F进步到D。开个玩笑;这堂课只有过与不过的分别。
But I stood at the back of the Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington watching a pre-Broadway tryout of my plays, knowing that when the curtain came down, I could go back to my hotel room and fix the problem in the second act with the tools that Gerry Clark gave me.Eight years ago, I was introduced to Arthur Miller at a Dramatists Guild function and we spent a good part
of the evening talking.A few weeks later when he came down with the flu he called and asked if I could fill in for him as a guest lecturer at NYU.The subject was “Death of a Salesman.” You made a good decision coming to school here.但当我站在华盛顿肯尼迪表演艺术中心的Eisenhower剧场，观看我的剧作在进驻百老汇之前举行的试演时，心里想着，落幕之后，我就能回酒店房间，使用从Gerry Clark(其著作曾改编成著名戏剧)作品学到的技巧，修改第二幕的瑕疵。八年前，阿瑟.米勒(美国传奇剧作家)将我引介给美京剧作家协会，当晚我们相谈 甚欢。几星期后，他罹患流行感冒，打电话问我是否能代替他出席纽约大学的客座演讲，演讲主题正是《推销员之死》。来雪城大学念书确实是明智的选择。
I've made some bad decisions.I lost a decade of my life to cocaine addiction.You know how I got addicted to cocaine? I tried it.The problem with drugs is that they work, right up until the moment that they decimate your life.Try cocaine, and you'll become addicted to it.Become addicted to cocaine, and you will either be dead, or you will wish you were dead, but it will only be one or the other.My big fear was that I wasn't going to be able to write without it.There was no way I was going to be able to write without it.Last year I celebrated my 11-year anniversary of not using coke.Thank you.In that 11 years, I've written three television series, three movies, a Broadway play, won the Academy Award and taught my daughter all the lyrics to “Pirates of Penzance.” I have good friends.我曾误入歧途。因为古柯碱成瘾，浪费了生命中宝贵的十年。你们知道我怎么会染上古柯碱毒瘾吗?我只是试了一口。毒品最大的问题在于它们确实有用，直到摧毁你人生那一刻。只要试一 口，你就万劫不复。一旦染上毒瘾，你不是吸毒而死，就是生不如死，但总是逃
不出这两 种悲惨的命运。我最大的恐惧是，没有它我会失去写作灵感，没有它我根本无法写作。上个月我庆祝了戒毒11周年。谢谢。这11年来，我写了三部电视系列影集、三部电影、一出百老汇戏剧、荣获奥斯卡奖，并教会我女儿整出《彭赞斯的海盗》(音乐剧)的歌词。我有许多好朋友。
You'll meet a lot of people who, to put it simply, don't know what they're talking about.In 1970 a CBS executive famously said that there were four things that we would never, ever see on television: a divorced person, a Jewish person, a person living in New York City and a man with a moustache.By 1980, every show on television was about a divorced Jew who lives in New York City and goes on a blind date with Tom Selleck.你会遇见许多人，简单来说，总是满口胡言。1970年代，CBS将一句名言奉为圭臬：有四种角色绝不可能出现 在电视屏幕上-离婚的人、犹太人、纽约居民和蓄胡男子。到了1980年代，每部电视节目的内容都是描写住在纽约市的离婚犹太人，并和汤姆·谢立克(知名演员，蓄胡)进行盲目约会。
Develop your own compass, and trust it.Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.My junior and senior years at Syracuse, I shared a five-bedroom apartment at the top of East Adams with four roommates, one of whom was a fellow theater major named Chris.Chris was a sweet guy with a sly sense of humor and a sunny stage presence.He was born out of his time, and would have felt most at home playing Mickey Rooney's sidekick in “Babes on Broadway.” I had subscriptions back then to Time and Newsweek.Chris used to enjoy making fun of what he felt was an odd interest in world events that
had nothing to do with the arts.I lost touch with Chris after we graduated and so I'm not quite certain when he died.But I remember about a year and a half after the last time I saw him, I read an article in Newsweek about a virus that was burning its way across the country.The Centers for Disease Control was calling it “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome” or AIDS for short.And they were asking the White House for $35 million for research, care and cure.The White House felt that $35 million was way too much money to spend on a disease that was only affecting homosexuals, and they passed.Which I'm sure they wouldn't have done if they'd known that $35 million was a steal compared to the $2 billion it would cost only 10 years later.Am I saying that Chris would be alive today if only he'd read Newsweek? Of course not.But it seems to me that more and more we've come to expect less and less of each other, and that's got to change.Your friends, your family, this school expect more of you than vocational success.掌握自己的指南针，并相信它;勇于冒险、不怕失败;记住，第一位冲破高墙的人总不免受伤。我大三和大四时，在 East Adams街尽头和四位室友分租一栋五间卧室的公寓，其中一位名叫Chris的室友主修戏剧。Chris是个可爱的家伙，有着狡黠幽默感，总是在舞台上扮阳光男孩角色。他生不逢时，最擅长扮演《百老汇的小鬼》中Mickey Rooney伙伴那种角色。当时我订阅了《时代杂志》和《新闻周刊》;Chris感兴趣的是一些千奇百怪、跟艺术无关的事物。毕业后，我与Chris失去联络，所以不确定Chris是何时过世的。但我记得，大约在最后一次见到他一年半之后，我在《新闻周刊》上读到一篇文章，关于某种病毒正在全国蔓延的报导，疾病控制与预防中心称它为“获得性免疫缺陷综合症”，简称艾滋病。他们向白宫申请3500万美元的研究、照护和治疗经费，白宫认为，将3500万美元花 在某
种只会感染同性恋的疾病上太过昂贵，拒绝了这项申请。我敢肯定，如果他们知道，比起10年后花在治疗上的20亿美元，3500万美元不过是九牛一毛，当初就不会拒绝。我的意思是，只要Chris阅读《新闻周刊》，今天就能好好活着吗?当然不是。但在我看来，当我们期待越多，了解的就越少，这是必须改变 的现象。你的朋友、你的家人、这所学校对你的期待，不仅是职场上的成就。
Today is May 13th and today you graduate and the rules are about to change, and one of them is this: Decisions are made by those who show up.Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world.Don't ever forget that you're a citizen of this world, and there are things you can do to lift the human spirit, things that are easy, things that are free, things that you can do every day.Civility, respect, kindness, character.You're too good for schadenfreude, you're too good for gossip and snark, you're too good for intolerance—and since you're walking into the middle of a presidential election, it's worth mentioning that you're too good to think people who disagree with you are your enemy.Unless they went to Georgetown, in which case, they can go to hell.今天是5月13日，你们毕业的日子，代表你必须做出某些改变，其中一个原则如下：挺身而出者才有机会做出改变，别忘了你是这个世界的公民。别忘了你是这个世界的公民，你可以做些提升人类心灵层面的事，这些事并不困难，不过是举手之劳，随时随地都能进行。文明、尊重、善良、品格;你们不会幸灾乐祸;你们不会散播谣言、危言耸听;你们不会心胸狭窄、缺乏宽容。既然你们都可能迈向竞选总统之途，这句话值得 一提：你们不会视反对者为敌人，除非是来自乔治敦大学的人(雪城大学的死对头)。若碰上这种情况，就叫他们下地狱吧!
Don't ever forget that a small group of thoughtful people can change the world.It's the only thing that ever has.Rehearsal's over.You're going out there now, you're going to do this thing.How you live matters.You're going to fall down, but the world doesn't care how many times you fall down, as long as it's one fewer than the number of times you get back up.别忘了，一群深思熟虑的人可以改变世界，这是唯一的真理。人生的排练已经结束，你们即将走出校门，开创真实人生，重要的是，你如何经营自己的人生。失败在所难免，但这个世界并不在乎你曾经失败过多少次，只要你能一次又一次地重新站起来。
For the class of 2012, I wish you joy.I wish you health and happiness and success, I wish you a roof, four walls, a floor and someone in your life that you care about more than you care about yourself.Someone who makes you start saying “we” where before you used to say “I” and “us” where you used to say “me.” I wish you the quality of friends I have and the quality of colleagues I work with.Baseball players say they don't have to look to see if they hit a home run, they can feel it.So I wish for you a moment—a moment soon—when you really put the bat on the ball, when you really get a hold of one and drive it into the upper deck, when you feel it.When you aim high and hit your target, when just for a moment all else disappears, and you soar with wings as eagles.The moment will end as quickly as it came, and so you'll have to have it back, and so you'll get it back no matter what the obstacles.A lofty prediction, to be sure, but I flat out guarantee it.2012年毕业生，祝福你们常怀喜悦，祝福你们健康、幸福、成功，祝福你们拥有幸福美满的家庭，拥有某个你在 乎他胜过自己的人，某个能与你共享生活中一切喜怒哀乐的人，希望你们拥有跟我朋友和同事一样优秀的伙伴。棒球选手说，他们不需要紧盯着球，就能感觉自己击出了全垒打。我期待有那么一天-在不久的将来-你们真正击中那颗球。掌握这个机会，更上一层楼，真正拥有这份感受。当你拥有崇高目标，并尽力达成时，在一刻，一切艰辛都将烟消云散，你将如鹰般展翅翱翔。这个瞬间稍纵即逝，所以你必须继续往目标迈进，你必须继续往目标迈进，不论途中遭遇多少阻碍。这确实是个崇高的目标，但只要付出努力，必定能够达成。
第二篇：励志美联英语 比尔盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲
小编给你一个美联英语官方免费试听课申请链接： http://m.meten.com/test/waijiao.aspx?tid=16-73675-0 美联英语提供：比尔盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲
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.”
尊敬的博克校长，前校长鲁登斯坦，即将上任的佛斯特校长，哈佛集团和监察理事会的各位成员。各位老师，各位家长，各位同学：有句话我憋了30年，今天终于能一吐为快了：““爸 我没骗你吧，文凭到手了!”
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.我由衷地感谢哈佛这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年我要换工作(退休)。我终于能在简历里注明自己有大学学历了。
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.我要恭喜今年的毕业生们，因为你们毕业比我顺利多了。其实我倒是很乐意克莱姆森把我唤作“哈佛大学最成功的辍学生”。这大概是我脱颖而出的法宝……我是辍学生中的领头
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.我还要检讨一下史蒂夫-鲍尔默也是受我蛊惑从商学院退学。我劣迹斑斑。这就是为什么我会受邀参加毕业演讲。如果是开学典礼，恐怕今天的人会少很多。
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经历。校园生活格外充实，我旁听过很多没有选过的课程。住宿的日子也很爽我当时住在拉德克利夫的柯里尔宿舍，总是很多人在我的寝室讨论到深夜。大家知道我属于夜行动物。就这样，我成为了这堆人的头目。我们粘在一起，摆出拒绝社交的姿态。
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.拉德克利夫是个好地方。那里的女生比男生多，男生们大多都是科学怪人。所以我的机
会来了，你懂的。可同时我也明白了一个道理——机会大也不能保证成功。
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电话让我毕生难忘。我打给位于阿尔伯克基的一个公司，那家公司当时着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。我说我想出售软件给他们。
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.我担心他们会因为我学生身份而挂掉电话。但他们只是说：“现在还没有准备好 请一个月后再联系我们。”我长舒一口气，压根我们就没开工。从那时起 我不分昼夜地赶工 它是我大学生活结束的标志，也是微软伟大旅程的开始。
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.哈佛的独特氛围让我充满精力和智慧。这里的日子可能振奋快乐、也可能令人退缩沮丧，但永远充满了挑战，神奇的体验!虽然我提前离开了这里，但是这段经历对我影响重大。
But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret.不过说心里话……我确实有一点遗憾。
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.我离开哈佛时，根本没有意识到这个世界是多么地不平等。健康、财富、机遇差异悬殊，数以百万计的人生活在绝望之中。
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.我在哈佛触摸着经济政治中的新思想，探索科学技术的未知前沿。
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，人类的进步不在于这些新发现，而在于如何运用这些发现减少社会不公。不管是通过民主政策、健全的公共教育、高质量的医疗保健还是广泛的商机，消除不平等始终是人类最大的目标。
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.离开校园的时候，根本不知道在美国上百万年轻人没有接受教育的机会。也对发展中国
家被贫困和病痛折磨的人们一无所知。我花了几十年才明白这些事情。
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，在座的各位应该比我更了解世界上的这些不平等现象。在你们的求学之路上我希望你们已经思考过这个问题——如何在这个高速发展的时代解决不平等现象。
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?
试想一下如果你每周捐出几个小时，几块钱，来参与一项能够拯救生命和提高生活品质的项目，你会如何选择?
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.我和妻子梅琳达就面临着这样一个问题：怎样才能充分利用我们拥有的资源。
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.举棋不定时我们读到一篇文章，文章里说在贫困的国家里，每年有数百万，儿童死于于
美国早已战胜的疾病——麻疹、疟疾、肺炎、乙肝、黄热病，还有一种从未听说的轮状病毒每年会夺走五十万儿童的生命，而在美国没有一例死亡病例。
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.当时我们就震惊了。我以为全世界会不遗余力地拯救这些在死亡线上挣扎的儿童们，然而这些不值钱的救命药却没有送到他们手中。
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.”
如果你坚信人生而平等，把生命分等级的做法简直令人发指。我们对自己说：“这绝不可能。但万一这是真的，那么这将成为我们慈善事业的首要任务。
So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it.We asked: “How could the world let these children die?”
于是我们开始行动了 我相信这也会是你们的选择。我们疑惑：“这个世界怎么可以眼睁睁看着这些孩子死去?”
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.答案简单却残酷。市场经济中，拯救儿童没有利润，政府也不会给予补贴。父母无财无权 孩子们就死了。我们不一样，我们可以让市场更好地为穷人服务，如果我们可以改进现有资本主义制度。
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.改善市场环境，让更多的人赚到钱、维持生计，缓解苦难。给世界各地的政府施压 让他们把纳税人的钱花到最值得的地方。采取一些既满足满足穷人的需求，又能带来商业利润并为政治家带来选票的措施。
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.采取一些既满足满足穷人的需求，又能带来商业利润并为政治家带来选票的措施，我们就摸索到了减少世界不平等的可持续发展道路。然而这项任务并没有终点，我们也许无法彻底解决。但只要不懈努力，就可以改变世界。
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.我始终保持乐观。但也听到过消极的言论。他们认为：“这种不平等现象会伴随我们一
生，因为人们漠视这一切。”但我不苟同。
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.虽然我们不知道该如何帮助他们，但我们绝对有这份心。我们都有过这样的经历，看到令人心碎的悲剧，却没有伸出援手。不是因为冷漠 而是我们不知道该怎么做。如果我们知道如何去帮，就一定会采取行动。
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.阻碍援助步伐的并非冷漠，而是世界太复杂。要把爱心转变为行动，我们首先要发掘问题，然后寻找解决方案，并且监测效果。然而世界的复杂性阻碍着这些步骤的实施。
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.即使有了互联网和24小时不间断的新闻，人们仍然很难看到真正的问题。一架飞机发生坠毁事故，官员们会立刻召开新闻发布会，承诺调查起因，以避免今后发生类似的事故。
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.但如果那些官员敢讲真话，他们会说：“全世界每天会有好多人含恨而终，这起空难只是冰山一角。我们会不惜一切代价解决削平这一角冰山，此外的问题我们无力解决。” 可是与空难相比，那些夺走数百万生命的问题则更为严重。
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.事实上那些人的死轻如鸿毛，司空见惯，连媒体都不屑于报道。更无法吸引我们的注意。即使我们知道了 它也很难刺痛我们的神经。世间最痛苦的事莫过于看着他人经受苦难的却无能为力，于是我们选择了逃避。
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.发现问题，只是迈出了第一步，接下来我们还要：寻找解决方案。
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.如果不想让爱心变成空谈，就必须找到问题的解决方案。如果有清晰可靠的方案，那么
政府或个人组织就能立刻采取行动，将爱心落实。但是世界的复杂性使找寻方案的过程无比艰难 于是爱心才沦为空谈。
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.打破复杂性需要四个步骤：确定目标、找到最有效的途径、寻找最理想的技术，并合理利用现有技术。无论是制作复杂的药物，还是利用简单的蚊帐，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.以艾滋病为例。我们的目标是消灭它。最有效的途径是预防，最理想的技术是注射一剂疫苗实现终身免疫。所以现在政府、制药公司、基金会都在资助疫苗的研究。但可能要十几年才能研究出来，所以目前的最好的预防措施就是避开那些可能传播艾滋病的行为。
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.四步循环直达目标。记住永远不要停止思考和行动——永远不要像人们在20世纪对待疟疾和肺结核那样，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.在发现问题并找到解决方法后，还需监测结果，并与他人分享成功的经验和失败的教训，让别人也能从中受益。
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.当然，你还得有统计数据。用来证明你的项目为上百万儿童接种了疫苗，证明这些孩子的死亡率降低了。这不仅有利于项目的改进，也有助于吸引更多的企业和政府投资。
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参与进来，光靠数字还远远不够。你需要展示出项目承载的价值，让他们明白挽救一个生命对其家庭的意义。
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.我记得几年前去达沃斯参加全球健康讨论会，关于如何挽救数百万人的生命。数百万人!只要想想挽救一条生命带来的震撼，再把这种震撼乘上几百万倍是什么感觉!然而，那是我见过的最无聊的讨论会。
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?
之所以铭记在心是因为我最近参加的一款软件发布会的现场氛围异常火爆。人们激动地欢呼雀跃。看到人们因为软件兴奋，我也很开心——但我们为什么无法对挽救生命更感兴趣呢?
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.除非人们能感知到行动的影响力，否则人们就不会动心。如何做到这一点并不简单。
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.尽管如此，我还是很乐观。是的，不平等现象一直存在，但我们总会想出新的解决办法。新技术可以帮助我们传播爱心，我对未来充满信心。
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.创新技术不断涌现，比如生物技术、计算机、互联网。让我们有机会终结救极度贫困和非恶性死亡。
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，乔治-马歇尔在哈佛的毕业典礼上宣布了一项协助战后欧洲的计划。他说：“我认为推动这项计划的困难在于，报纸和广播源源不断地提供各种事实，使得公众难以清晰地判断形势。事实上，经过层层传播，想要真正地把握形势，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.马歇尔发表演讲三十年后，我的同学毕业了，科技开始发展，这个世界变得更小、更开放、更透明、人们之间的关系拉得更近。
The emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.低成本个人电脑和互联网为人们提供了更多学习和交流的机会。
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，网络不仅缩短了人与人之间的距离，也增加了精英们集思广益共同解决难题的机会。加快了创新的规模和速度。
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够接触互联网，很多精英不能参与我们的讨论，很多人无法把它们解决问题的智慧和经验分享出 来。
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，新技术将引发一场革命，让尽可能多的人与世界接轨，科技不仅为政府，也为大学、企业、小团体甚至个人带来了机会，而今这些机构和个人能够运用科技找到有效的解决60年前乔治•马歇尔谈到的饥荒、贫困和绝望。
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员，你们是世界上少有的精英。我们为什么要上哈佛?
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?
毫无疑问，我们的教员、学生、校友都曾尽其所能改善全球人类的生活。我们还能更进一步吗?哈佛能够为不知道哈佛名气的陌生人奉献智慧，伸出援助之手吗?
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?
请院长和教授接受我的不情之请，各位哈佛大学的精英领导者们，在你们雇用新教员、授予教授终身教职、评估课程安排和决定学位要求时，请问自己一个问题：最优秀的人才是否应该致力于解决人类的困境?
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?
哈佛是否应该鼓励教授解决世界上存在的严重不平等?哈佛的学生是不是应该多关注一些全球贫富不均、粮食短缺、水资源稀缺、女童辍学的问题?以及那些因无法接受有效治疗而死亡的孩子?
Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?
世界上最衣食无忧的人是否应该了解那些挣扎在死亡边缘的人们的生活?
These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.这并非言语修辞，这些问题只能用行动回答。
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.”
我的母亲一直为我考上哈佛而自豪，也一直督促我回报社会。我结婚的前几天的仪式上，她高声朗读自己写给我妻子的信。当时我母亲已经是癌症晚期，但她坚持要用这个机会表达自己的观点。信的最后 她念道：“获益越多，责任越大。”
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.想想我们获得了什么——天赋，特权，机遇——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.我希望每位毕业生承担起这样一种责任—— 参与解决人类不平等的问题，如果你献身这项事业，你的影响力将会是惊人的。既便不打算以此为业，你一样可以有所作为。每周只需要花几个小时，就可以利用互联网获取信息、找到志同道合的朋友、设法解决一两个问题。
Don't let complexity stop you.Be activists.Take on the big inequities.It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.不要畏难，尽管放手去做。它将是你生命中最宝贵经历。
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.这是一个神奇的时代。今天的科技是我年轻时不曾体验的。你们对不平等现象的认识远远超过我们这代人。面对这种不平等，你们更容易受良心的谴责。行动起来，时不我待。
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年后当你再次回到哈佛的时候，我希望看到你用自己的天赋和精力做了哪些事。不
仅用专业成就来衡量成功，还要看你是如何解决人类根深蒂固的不平等问题。你是怎样对待那些与你相隔万里、迥然不同的人的。
Good luck.同学们，祝你们好运
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