大學畢業演講稿英文大綱

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:

尊敬的bok校長，rudenstine前校長，即將上任的faust校長，哈佛集團的各位成員，監管理事會的各位理事，各位老師，各位家長，各位同學：

i've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: "dad, i always told you i'd come back and get my degree."

有一句話我等了三十年，現在終於可以説了：“老爸，我總是跟你説，我會回來拿到我的學位的!”

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 resume.

我要感謝哈佛大學在這個時候給我這個榮譽。明年，我就要換工作了(注：指從微軟公司退休)……我終於可以在簡歷上寫我有一個本科學位，這真是不錯啊。

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.

我為今天在座的各位同學感到高興，你們拿到學位可比我簡單多了。哈佛的校報稱我是“哈佛大學歷史上最成功的輟學生”。我想這大概使我有資格代表我這一類學生髮言……在所有的失敗者裏，我做得最好。

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.

但是，我還要提醒大家，我使得steve ballmer(注：微軟總經理)也從哈佛商學院退學了。因此，我是個有着惡劣影響力的人。這就是為什麼我被邀請來在你們的畢業典禮上演講。如果我在你們入學歡迎儀式上演講，那麼能夠堅持到今天在這裏畢業的人也許會少得多吧。

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 anti-social group. we clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.

對我來説，哈佛的求學經歷是一段非凡的經歷。校園生活很有趣，我常去旁聽我沒選修的課。哈佛的課外生活也很棒，我在radcliffe過着逍遙自在的日子。每天我的寢室裏總有很多人一直待到半夜，討論着各種事情。因為每個人都知道我從不考慮第二天早起。這使得我變成了校園裏那些不安分學生的頭頭，我們互相粘在一起，做出一種拒絕所有正常學生的姿態。

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.

radcliffe是個過日子的好地方。那裏的女生比男生多，而且大多數男生都是理工科的。這種狀況為我創造了最好的機會，如果你們明白我的意思。可惜的是，我正是在這裏學到了人生中悲傷的一課：機會大，並不等於你就會成功。

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.

我在哈佛最難忘的回憶之一，發生在1975年1月。那時，我從宿舍樓裏給位於albuquerque的一家公司打了一個電話，那家公司已經在着手製造世界上第一台個人電腦。我提出想向他們出售軟件。

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.

我很擔心，他們會發覺我是一個住在宿舍的學生，從而掛斷電話。但是他們卻説：“我們還沒準備好，一個月後你再來找我們吧。”這是個好消息，因為那時軟件還根本沒有寫出來呢。就是從那個時候起，我日以繼夜地在這個小小的課外項目上工作，這導致了我學生生活的結束，以及通往微軟公司的不平凡的旅程的開 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.

不管怎樣，我對哈佛的回憶主要都與充沛的精力和智力活動有關。哈佛的生活令人愉快，也令人感到有壓力，有時甚至會感到泄氣，但永遠充滿了挑戰性。生活在哈佛是一種吸引人的特殊待遇……雖然我離開得比較早，但是我在這裏的經歷、在這裏結識的朋友、在這裏發展起來的一些想法，永遠地改變了我。

but taking a serious look back … i do have one big regret.

但是，如果現在嚴肅地回憶起來，我確實有一個真正的遺憾。

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.

我離開哈佛的時候，根本沒有意識到這個世界是多麼的不平等。人類在健康、財富和機遇上的不平等大得可怕，它們使得無數的人們被迫生活在絕望之中。

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.

我在哈佛學到了很多經濟學和政治學的新思想。我也瞭解了很多科學上的新進展。

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，人類最大的進步並不來自於這些發現，而是來自於那些有助於減少人類不平等的發現。不管通過何種手段——民主制度、健全的公共教育體系、高質量的醫療保健、還是廣泛的經濟機會——減少不平等始終是人類最大的成就。

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.

我離開校園的時候，根本不知道在這個國家裏，有幾百萬的年輕人無法獲得接受教育的機會。我也不知道，發展中國家裏有無數的人們生活在無法形容的貧窮和疾病之中。

it took me decades to find out.

我花了幾十年才明白了這些事情。

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.

在座的各位同學，你們是在與我不同的時代來到哈佛的。你們比以前的學生，更多地瞭解世界是怎樣的不平等。在你們的哈佛求學過程中，我希望你們已經思考過一個問題，那就是在這個新技術加速發展的時代，我們怎樣最終應對這種不平等，以及我們怎樣來解決這個問題。

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?

為了討論的方便，請想象一下，假如你每個星期可以捐獻一些時間、每個月可以捐獻一些錢——你希望這些時間和金錢，可以用到對拯救生命和改善人類生活有最大作用的地方。你會選擇什麼地方?

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.

對melinda(注：蓋茨的妻子)和我來説，這也是我們面臨的問題：我們如何能將我們擁有的資源發揮出最大的作用。

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.

在討論過程中，melinda和我讀到了一篇文章，裏面説在那些貧窮的國家，每年有數百萬的兒童死於那些在美國早已不成問題的疾病。麻疹、瘧疾、肺炎、乙型肝炎、黃熱病、還有一種以前我從未聽説過的輪狀病毒，這些疾病每年導致50萬兒童死亡，但是在美國一例死亡病例也沒有。

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.

我們被震驚了。我們想，如果幾百萬兒童正在死亡線上掙扎，而且他們是可以被挽救的，那麼世界理應將用藥物拯救他們作為頭等大事。但是事實並非如此。那些價格還不到一美元的救命的藥劑，並沒有送到他們的手中。

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."

如果你相信每個生命都是平等的，那麼當你發現某些生命被挽救了，而另一些生命被放棄了，你會感到無法接受。我們對自己説：“事情不可能如此。如果這是真的，那麼它理應是我們努力的頭等大事。”

so we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. we asked: "how could the world let these children die?"

所以，我們用任何人都會想到的方式開始工作。我們問：“這個世界怎麼可以眼睜睜看着這些孩子死去?”

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.

答案很簡單，也很令人難堪。在市場經濟中，拯救兒童是一項沒有利潤的工作，政府也不會提供補助。這些兒童之所以會死亡，是因為他們的父母在經濟上沒有實力，在政治上沒有能力發出聲音。

but you and i have both.

但是，你們和我在經濟上有實力，在政治上能夠發出聲音。

we can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – 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.

我們可以讓市場更好地為窮人服務，如果我們能夠設計出一種更有創新性的資本主義制度——如果我們可以改變市場，讓更多的人可以獲得利潤，或者至少可 以維持生活——那麼，這就可以幫到那些正在極端不平等的狀況中受苦的人們。我們還可以向全世界的政府施壓，要求他們將納税人的錢，花到更符合納税人價值觀的地方。

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.

如果我們能夠找到這樣一種方法，既可以幫到窮人，又可以為商人帶來利潤，為政治家帶來選票，那麼我們就找到了一種減少世界性不平等的可持續的發展道路。這個任務是無限的。它不可能被完全完成，但是任何自覺地解決這個問題的嘗試，都將會改變這個世界。

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.

在這個問題上，我是樂觀的。但是，我也遇到過那些感到絕望的懷疑主義者。他們説：“不平等從人類誕生的第一天就存在，到人類滅亡的最後一天也將存在。——因為人類對這個問題根本不在乎。”我完全不能同意這種觀點。

i believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.

我相信，問題不是我們不在乎，而是我們不知道怎麼做。

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.

此刻在這個院子裏的所有人，生命中總有這樣或那樣的時刻，目睹人類的悲劇，感到萬分傷心。但是我們什麼也沒做，並非我們無動於衷，而是因為我們不知道做什麼和怎麼做。如果我們知道如何做是有效的，那麼我們就會採取行動。

the barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.

改變世界的阻礙，並非人類的冷漠，而是世界實在太複雜。

to turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. but complexity blocks all three steps.

為了將關心轉變為行動，我們需要找到問題，發現解決辦法的方法，評估後果。但是世界的複雜性使得所有這些步驟都難於做到。

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.

即使有了互聯網和24小時直播的新聞台，讓人們真正發現問題所在，仍然十分困難。當一架飛機墜毀了，官員們會立刻召開新聞發佈會，他們承諾進行調查、找到原因、防止將來再次發生類似事故。

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."

但是如果那些官員敢説真話，他們就會説：“在今天這一天，全世界所有可以避免的死亡之中，只有0.5%的死者來自於這次空難。我們決心盡一切努力，調查這個0.5%的死亡原因。”

the bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths.

顯然，更重要的問題不是這次空難，而是其他幾百萬可以預防的死亡事件。

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.

我們並沒有很多機會了解那些死亡事件。媒體總是報告新聞，幾百萬人將要死去並非新聞。如果沒有人報道，那麼這些事件就很容易被忽視。另一方面，即使 我們確實目睹了事件本身或者看到了相關報道，我們也很難持續關注這些事件。看着他人受苦是令人痛苦的，何況問題又如此複雜，我們根本不知道如何去幫助他人。所以我們會將臉轉過去。

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.

就算我們真正發現了問題所在，也不過是邁出了第一步，接着還有第二步：那就是從複雜的事件中找到解決辦法。

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.

如果我們要讓關心落到實處，我們就必須找到解決辦法。如果我們有一個清晰的和可靠的答案，那麼當任何組織和個人發出疑問“如何我能提供幫助”的時 候，我們就能採取行動。我們就能夠保證不浪費一丁點全世界人類對他人的關心。但是，世界的複雜性使得很難找到對全世界每一個有愛心的人都有效的行動方法，因此人類對他人的關心往往很難產生實際效果。