第1篇 比尔.盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的励志演讲稿
比尔.盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的励志演讲稿
尊敬的bok校长,rudenstine前校长,即将上任的faust校长,哈佛集团的各位成员,监管理事会的各位理事,各位老师,各位家长,各位同学:
有一句话我等了三十年,现在终于可以说了:"老爸,我总是跟你说,我会回来拿到我的学位的!"
我要感谢哈佛大学在这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年,我就要换工作了(注:指从微软公司退休)......我终于可以在简历上写我有一个大学学位,这真是不错啊。
我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴,你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。哈佛的校报称我是"哈佛大学历史上最成功的辍学生"。我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言......在所有的失败者里,我做得最好。
但是,我还要提醒大家,我使得steve ballmer(注:微软总经理)也从哈佛商学院退学了。因此,我是个有着恶劣影响力的人。这就是为什么我被邀请来在你们的毕业典礼上演讲。如果我在你们入学欢迎仪式上演讲,那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多吧。
对我来说,哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。校园生活很有趣,我常去旁听我没选修的课。哈佛的课外生活也很棒,我在radcliffe过着逍遥自在的日子。每天我的寝室里总有很多人一直待到半夜,讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道我从不考虑第二天早起。这使得我变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头,我们互相粘在一起,做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿态。
radcliffe是个过日子的好地方。那里的女生比男生多,而且大多数男生都是理工科的。这种状况为我创造了最好的机会,如果你们明白我的意思。可惜的是,我正是在这里学到了人生中悲伤的一课:机会大,并不等于你就会成功。
我在哈佛最难忘的回忆之一,发生在1975年1月。那时,我从宿舍楼里给位于albuquerque的一家公司打了一个电话,那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。我提出想向他们出售软件。
我很担心,他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生,从而挂断电话。但是他们却说:"我们还没准备好,一个月后你再来找我们吧。"这是个好消息,因为那时软件还根本没有写出来呢。就是从那个时候起,我日以继夜地在这个小小的课外项目上工作,这导致了我学生生活的结束,以及通往微软公司的不平凡的旅程的开始。
不管怎样,我对哈佛的回忆主要都与充沛的精力和智力活动有关。哈佛的生活令人愉快,也令人感到有压力,有时甚至会感到泄气,但永远充满了挑战性。生活在哈佛是一种吸引人的特殊待遇......虽然我离开得比较早,但是我在这里的经历、在这里结识的朋友、在这里发展起来的一些想法,永远地改变了我。
但是,如果现在严肃地回忆起来,我确实有一个真正的遗憾。
我离开哈佛的时候,根本没有意识到这个世界是多么的不平等。人类在健康、财富和机遇上的不平等大得可怕,它们使得无数的人们被迫生活在绝望之中。
我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想。我也了解了很多科学上的新进展。
但是,人类最大的进步并不来自于这些发现,而是来自于那些有助于减少人类不平等的发现。不管通过何种手段--民主制度、健全的公共教育体系、高质量的医疗保健、还是广泛的经济机会--减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就。
我离开校园的时候,根本不知道在这个国家里,有几百万的年轻人无法获得接受教育的机会。我也不知道,发展中国家里有无数的人们生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病之中。
我花了几十年才明白了这些事情。
在座的各位同学,你们是在与我不同的时代来到哈佛的。你们比以前的学生,更多地了解世界是怎样的不平等。在你们的哈佛求学过程中,我希望你们已经思考过一个问题,那就是在这个新技术加速发展的时代,我们怎样最终应对这种不平等,以及我们怎样来解决这个问题。
为了讨论的方便,请想象一下,假如你每个星期可以捐献一些时间、每个月可以捐献一些钱--你希望这些时间和金钱,可以用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活有最大作用的地方。你会选择什么地方?
对melinda(注:盖茨的妻子)和我来说,这也是我们面临的问题:我们如何能将我们拥有的资源发挥出最大的作用。
在讨论过程中,melinda和我读到了文章,里面说在那些贫穷的国家,每年有数百万的儿童死于那些在美国早已不成问题的疾病。麻疹、疟疾、肺炎、乙型肝炎、黄热病、还有一种以前我从未听说过的轮状病毒,这些疾病每年导致50万儿童死亡,但是在美国一例死亡病例也没有。
我们被震惊了。我们想,如果几百万儿童正在死亡线上挣扎,而且他们是可以被挽救的,那么世界理应将用药物拯救他们作为头等大事。但是事实并非如此。那些价格还不到一美元的救命的药剂,并没有送到他们的手中。
如果你相信每个生命都是平等的,那么当你发现某些生命被挽救了,而另一些生命被放弃了,你会感到无法接受。我们对自己说:"事情不可能如此。如果这是真的,那么它理应是我们努力的头等大事。"
所以,我们用任何人都会想到的方式开始工作。我们问:"这个世界怎么可以眼睁睁看着这些孩子死去?"
答案很简单,也很令人难堪。在市场经济中,拯救儿童是一项没有利润的工作,政府也不会提供补助。这些儿童之所以会死亡,是因为他们的父母在经济上没有实力,在政治上没有能力发出声音。
但是,你们和我在经济上有实力,在政治上能够发出声音。
我们可以让市场更好地为穷人服务,如果我们能够设计出一种更有创新性的资本主义制度--如果我们可以改变市场,让更多的人可以获得利润,或者至少可以维持生活--那么,这就可以帮到那些正在极端不平等的状况中受苦的人们。我们还可以向全世界的政府施压,要求他们将纳税人的钱,花到更符合纳税人价值观的地方。
如果我们能够找到这样一种方法,既可以帮到穷人,又可以为商人带来利润,为政治家带来选票,那么我们就找到了一种减少世界性不平等的可持续的发展道路。这个任务是无限的。它不可能被完全完成,但是任何自觉地解决这个问题的尝试,都将会改变这个世界。
在这个问题上,我是乐观的。但是,我也遇到过那些感到绝望的怀疑主义者。他们说:"不平等从人类诞生的第一天就存在,到人类灭亡的最后一天也将存在。--因为人类对这个问题根本不在乎。"我完全不能同意这种观点。
我相信,问题不是我们不在乎,而是我们不知道怎么做。
此刻在这个院子里的所有人,生命中总有这样或那样的时刻,目睹人类的悲剧,感到万分伤心。但是我们什么也没做,并非我们无动于衷,而是因为我们不知道做什么和怎么做。如果我们知道如何做是有效的,那么我们就会采取行动。
改变世界的阻碍,并非人类的冷漠,而是世界实在太复杂。
为了将关心转变为行动,我们需要找到问题,发现解决办法的方法,评估后果。但是世界的复杂性使得所有这些步骤都难于做到。
即使有了互联网和24小时直播的新闻台,让人们真正发现问题所在,仍然十分困难。当一架飞机坠毁了,官员们会立刻召开新闻发布会,他们承诺进行调查、找到原因、防止将来再次发生类似事故。
但是如果那些官员敢说真话,他们就会说:"在今天这一天,全世界所有可以避免的死亡之中,只有0.5%的死者来自于这次空难。我们决心尽一切努力,调查这个0.5%的死亡原因。"
显然,更重要的问题不是这次空难,而是其他几百万可以预防的死亡事件。
我们并没有很多机会了解那些死亡事件。媒体总是报告新闻,几百万人将要死去并非新闻。如果没有人报道,那么这些事件就很容易被忽视。另一方面,即使我们确实目睹了事件本身或者看到了相关报道,我们也很难持续关注这些事件。看着他人受苦是令人痛苦的,何况问题又如此复杂,我们根本不知道如何去帮助他人。所以我们会将脸转过去。
就算我们真正发现了问题所在,也不过是迈出了第一步,接着还有第二步:那就是从复杂的事件中找到解决办法。
如果我们要让关心落到实处,我们就必须找到解决办法。如果我们有一个清晰的和可靠的答案,那么当任何组织和个人发出疑问"如何我能提供帮助"的时候,我们就能采取行动。我们就能够保证不浪费一丁点全世界人类对他人的关心。但是,世界的复杂性使得很难找到对全世界每一个有爱心的人都有效的行动方法,因此人类对他人的关心往往很难产生实际效果。
从这个复杂的世界中找到解决办法,可以分为四个步骤:确定目标,找到最高效的方法,发现适用于这个方法的新技术,同时最聪明地利用现有的技术,不管它是复杂的药物,还是最简单的蚊帐。
艾滋病就是一个例子。总的目标,毫无疑问是消灭这种疾病。最高效的方法是预防。最理想的技术是发明一种疫苗,只要注射一次,就可以终生免疫。所以,政府、制药公司、基金会应该资助疫苗研究。但是,这样研究工作很可能十年之内都无法完成。因此,与此同时,我们必须使用现有的技术,目前最有效的预防方法就是设法让人们避免那些危险的行为。
要实现这个新的目标,又可以采用新的四步循环。这是一种模式。关键的东西是永远不要停止思考和行动。我们千万不能再犯上个世纪在疟疾和肺结核上犯过的错误,那时我们因为它们太复杂,而放弃了采取行动。
在发现问题和找到解决方法之后,就是最后一步--评估工作结果,将你的成功经验或者失败经验传播出去,这样其他人就可以从你的努力中有所收获。
当然,你必须有一些统计数字。你必须让他人知道,你的项目为几百万儿童新接种了疫苗。你也必须让他人知道,儿童死亡人数下降了多少。这些都是很关键的,不仅有利于改善项目效果,也有利于从商界和政府得到更多的帮助。
但是,这些还不够,如果你想激励其他人参加你的项目,你就必须拿出更多的统计数字;你必须展示你的项目的人性因素,这样其他人就会感到拯救一个生命,对那些处在困境中的家庭到底意味着什么。
几年前,我去瑞士达沃斯旁听一个全球健康问题论坛,会议的内容有关于如何拯救几百万条生命。天哪,是几百万!想一想吧,拯救一个人的生命已经让人何等激动,现在你要把这种激动再乘上几百万倍......但是,不幸的是,这是我参加过的最最乏味的论坛,乏味到我无法强迫自己听下去。
那次经历之所以让我难忘,是因为之前我们刚刚发布了一个软件的第13个版本,我们让观众激动得跳了起来,喊出了声。我喜欢人们因为软件而感到激动,那么我们为什么不能够让人们因为能够拯救生命而感到更加激动呢?
除非你能够让人们看到或者感受到行动的影响力,否则你无法让人们激动。如何做到这一点,并不是一件简单的事。
同前面一样,在这个问题上,我依然是乐观的。不错,人类的不平等有史以来一直存在,但是那些能够化繁为简的新工具,却是最近才出现的。这些新工具可以帮助我们,将人类的同情心发挥最大的作用,这就是为什么将来同过去是不一样的。
这个时代无时无刻不在涌现出新的革新--生物技术,计算机,互联网--它们给了我们一个从未有过的机会,去终结那些极端的贫穷和非恶性疾病的死亡。
六十年前,乔治.马歇尔也是在这个地方的毕业典礼上,宣布了一个计划,帮助那些欧洲国家的战后建设。他说:"我认为,困难的一点是这个问题太复杂,报纸和电台向公众源源不断地提供各种事实,使得大街上的普通人极端难于清晰地判断形势。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。"
马歇尔发表这个演讲之后的三十年,我那一届学生毕业,当然我不在其中。那时,新技术刚刚开始萌芽,它们将使得这个世界变得更小、更开放、更容易看到、距离更近。
低成本的个人电脑的出现,使得一个强大的互联网有机会诞生,它为学习和交流提供了巨大的机会。
网络的神奇之处,不仅仅是它缩短了物理距离,使得天涯若比邻。它还极大地增加了怀有共同想法的人们聚集在一起的机会,我们可以为了解决同一个问题,一起共同工作。这就大大加快了革新的进程,发展速度简直快得让人震惊。
与此同时,世界上有条件上网的人,只是全部人口的六分之一。这意味着,还有许多具有创造性的人们,没有加入到我们的讨论中来。那些有着实际的操作经验和相关经历的聪明人,却没有技术来帮助他们,将他们的天赋或者想法与全世界分享。
我们需要尽可能地让更多的人有机会使用新技术,因为这些新技术正在引发一场革命,人类将因此可以互相帮助。新技术正在创造一种可能,不仅是政府,还包括大学、公司、小机构、甚至个人,能够发现问题所在、能够找到解决办法、能够评估他们努力的效果,去改变那些马歇尔六十年前就说到过的问题--饥饿、贫穷和绝望。
哈佛是一个大家庭。这个院子里在场的人们,是全世界最有智力的人类群体之一。
我们可以做些什么?
毫无疑问,哈佛的老师、校友、学生和资助者,已经用他们的能力改善了全世界各地人们的生活。但是,我们还能够再做什么呢?有没有可能,哈佛的人们可以将他们的智慧,用来帮助那些甚至从来没有听到过"哈佛"这个名字的人?
请允许我向各位院长和教授,提出一个请求----你们是哈佛的智力领袖,当你们雇用新的老师、授予终身教职、评估课程、决定学位颁发标准的时候,请问你们自己如下的问题:
我们最优秀的人才是否在致力于解决我们最大的问题?
哈佛是否鼓励她的老师去研究解决世界上最严重的不平等?哈佛的学生是否从全球那些极端的贫穷中学到了什么......世界性的饥荒......清洁的水资源的缺乏......无法上学的女童......死于非恶性疾病的儿童.......哈佛的学生有没有从中学到东西?
那些世界上过着最优越生活的人们,有没有从那些最困难的人们身上学到东西?
这些问题并非语言上的修辞。你必须用自己的行动来回答它们。
我的母亲在我被哈佛大学录取的那一天,曾经感到非常骄傲。她从没有停止督促我,去为他人做更多的事情。在我结婚的前几天,她主持了一个新娘进我家的仪式。在这个仪式上,她高声朗读了一封关于婚姻的信,这是她写给melinda的。那时,我的母亲已经因为癌症病入膏肓,但是她还是认为这是又一个传播她的信念的机会。在那封信的结尾,她写道:"你的能力越大,人们对你的期望也就越大。"
想一想吧,我们在这个院子里的这些人,被给予过什么--天赋、特权、机遇--那么可以这样说,全世界的人们几乎有无限的权力,期待我们做出贡献。
同这个时代的期望一样,我也要向今天各位毕业的同学提出一个忠告:你们要选择一个问题,一个复杂的问题,一个有关于人类深刻的不平等的问题,然后你们要变成这个问题的专家。如果你们能够使得这个问题成为你们职业的核心,那么你们就会非常杰出。但是,你们不必一定要去做那些大事。每个星期只用几个小时,你就可以通过互联网得到信息,找到志同道合的朋友,发现困难所在,找到解决它们的途径。
不要让这个世界的复杂性阻碍你前进。要成为一个行动主义者。将解决人类的不平等视为己任。它将成为你生命中最重要的经历之一。
在座的各位毕业的同学,你们所处的时代是一个神奇的时代。当你们离开哈佛的时候,你们拥有的技术,是我们那一届学生所没有的。你们已经了解到了世界上的不平等,我们那时还不知道这些。有了这样的了解之后,要是你再弃那些你可以帮助的人们于不顾,就将受到良心的谴责,只需一点小小的努力,你就可以改变那些人们的生活。你们比我们拥有更大的能力;你们必须尽早开始,尽可能长时期坚持下去。
知道了你们所知道的一切,你们怎么可能不采取行动呢?
我希望,30年后你们还会再回到哈佛,想起你们用自己的天赋和能力所做出的一切。我希望,在那个时候,你们用来评价自己的标准,不仅仅是你们的专业成就,而包括你们为改变这个世界深刻的不平等所做出的努力,以及你们如何善待那些远隔千山万水、与你们毫不涉及的人们,你们与他们唯一的共同点就是同为人类。
最后,祝各位同学好运。
人物评价
他享受辩论,就想听到不同观点,又总是想赢。可是好胜心和好奇心,并没有影响盖茨最终成为一个谦虚的人。(李开复评 )
比尔·盖茨盖茨是一个对技术有热情、对人类有使命感的人。他有很多财富,但他自己的生活方式很简单,这种使命感是发自内心的,而不是装出来的。(张亚勤评)
比尔·盖茨赚的钱比人类历史上所有人都多,他在努力把钱捐献出去。大多数人也许会把钱用在别的地方,或是只捐出一点点,并希望别人给他们别上勋章,而不是像比尔·盖茨那样,把全部的时间都用在寻找真正行之有效的东西。这就是他毕生的工作。(克林顿评 )
如果盖茨卖的不是软件而是汉堡,他也会成为世界汉堡大王。(巴菲特评)
他是一个非常非常聪明的家伙,而且深爱技术。(贝瑞特评 )
第2篇 比尔盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲稿
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 校长, rudenstine 前校长,即将上任的 faust 校长,哈佛集团的各位成员,监管理事会的各位理事,各位老师,各位家长,各位同学:
i’ve been waiting more than 30 years to say this: dad, i always told you i’d come back and get my degree.
有一句话我等了三十年,现在终于可以说了: “ 老爸,我总是跟你说,我会回来拿到我的学位的! ”
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.
我要感谢哈佛大学在这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年,我就要换工作了(注:指从微软公司退休) …… 我终于可以在简历上写我有一个本科学位,这真是不错啊。
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.
我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴,你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。哈佛的校报称我是 “ 哈佛大学历史上最成功的辍学生 ” 。我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言 …… 在所有的失败者里,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,我还要提醒大家,我使得 steve ballmer (注:微软总经理)也从哈佛商学院退学了。因此,我是个有着恶劣影响力的人。这就是为什么我被邀请来在你们的毕业典礼上演讲。如果我在你们入学欢迎仪式上演讲,那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多吧。
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 upat 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.
对我来说,哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。校园生活很有趣,我常去旁听我没选修的课。哈佛的课外生活也很棒,我在 radcliffe 过着逍遥自在 的日子。每天我的寝室里总有很多人一直待到半夜,讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道我从不考虑第二天早起。这使得我变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头,我们互相粘在一起,做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿态。
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.
radcliffe 是个过日子的好地方。那里的女生比男生多,而且大多数男生都是理工科的。这种状况为我创造了最好的机会,如果你们明白我的意思。可惜的是,我正是在这里学到了人生中悲伤的一课:机会大,并不等于你就会成功。
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.
我在哈佛最难忘的回忆之一,发生在 1975 年 1 月。那时,我从宿舍楼里给位于 albuquerque 的一家公司打了一个电话,那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。我提出想向他们出售软件。
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.
我很担心,他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生,从而挂断电话。但是他们却说: “ 我们还没准备好,一个月后你再来找我们吧。 ” 这是个好消息,因为那时 软件还根本没有写出来呢。就是从那个时候起,我日以继夜地在这个小小的课外项目上工作,这导致了我学生生活的结束,以及通往微软公司的不平凡的旅程的开 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.
不管怎样,我对哈佛的回忆主要都与充沛的精力和智力活动有关。哈佛的生活令人愉快,也令人感到有压力,有时甚至会感到泄气,但永远充满了挑战性。生 活在哈佛是一种吸引人的特殊待遇 …… 虽然我离开得比较早,但是我在这里的经历、在这里结识的朋友、在这里发展起来的一些想法,永远地改变了我。
but taking a serious look back … i do have one big regret.
但是,如果现在严肃地回忆起来,我确实有一个真正的遗憾。
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.
我离开哈佛的时候,根本没有意识到这个世界是多么的不平等。人类在健康、财富和机遇上的不平等大得可怕,它们使得无数的人们被迫生活在绝望之中。
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.
我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想。我也了解了很多科学上的新进展。
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,人类最大的进步并不来自于这些发现,而是来自于那些有助于减少人类不平等的发现。不管通过何种手段 —— 民主制度、健全的公共教育体系、高质量的医疗保健、还是广泛的经济机会 —— 减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就。
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.
我离开校园的时候,根本不知道在这个国家里,有几百万的年轻人无法获得接受教育的机会。我也不知道,发展中国家里有无数的人们生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病之中。
it took me decades to find out.
我花了几十年才明白了这些事情。
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.
在座的各位同学,你们是在与我不同的时代来到哈佛的。你们比以前的学生,更多地了解世界是怎样的不平等。在你们的哈佛求学过程中,我希望你们已经思考过一个问题,那就是在这个新技术加速发展的时代,我们怎样最终应对这种不平等,以及我们怎样来解决这个问题。
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?
为了讨论的方便,请想象一下,假如你每个星期可以捐献一些时间、每个月可以捐献一些钱 —— 你希望这些时间和金钱,可以用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活有最大作用的地方。你会选择什么地方?
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.
对 melinda (注:盖茨的妻子)和我来说,这也是我们面临的问题:我们如何能将我们拥有的资源发挥出最大的作用。
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.
在讨论过程中, melinda 和我读到了文章,里面说在那些贫穷的国家,每年有数百万的儿童死于那些在美国早已不成问题的疾病。麻疹、疟疾、肺
炎、乙型肝炎、黄热病、还有一种以前我从未听说过的轮状病毒,这些疾病每年导致 50 万儿童死亡,但是在美国一例死亡病例也没有。
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.
我们被震惊了。我们想,如果几百万儿童正在死亡线上挣扎,而且他们是可以被挽救的,那么世界理应将用药物拯救他们作为头等大事。但是事实并非如此。那些价格还不到一美元的救命的药剂,并没有送到他们的手中。
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.
如果你相信每个生命都是平等的,那么当你发现某些生命被挽救了,而另一些生命被放弃了,你会感到无法接受。我们对自己说: “ 事情不可能如此。如果这是真的,那么它理应是我们努力的头等大事。 ”
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,我们用任何人都会想到的方式开始工作。我们问: “ 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.
答案很简单,也很令人难堪。在市场经济中,拯救儿童是一项没有利润的工作,政府也不会提供补助。这些儿童之所以会死亡,是因为他们的父母在经济上没有实力,在政治上没有能力发出声音。
but you and i have both.
但是,你们和我在经济上有实力,在政治上能够发出声音。
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.
我们可以让市场更好地为穷人服务,如果我们能够设计出一种更有创新性的资本主义制度 —— 如果我们可以改变市场,让更多的人可以获得利润,或者至少可 以维持生活 —— 那么,这就可以帮到那些正在极端不平等的状况中受苦的人们。我们还可以向全世界的政府施压,要求他们将纳税人的钱,花到更符合纳税人价值观 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.
如果我们能够找到这样一种方法,既可以帮到穷人,又可以为商人带来利润,为政治家带来选票,那么我们就找到了一种减少世界性不平等的可持续的发展道路。这个任务是无限的。它不可能被完全完成,但是任何自觉地解决这个问题的尝试,都将会改变这个世界。
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.
在这个问题上,我是乐观的。但是,我也遇到过那些感到绝望的怀疑主义者。他们说: “ 不平等从人类诞生的第一天就存在,到人类灭亡的最后一天也将存在。 —— 因为人类对这个问题根本不在乎。 ” 我完全不能同意这种观点。
i believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.
我相信,问题不是我们不在乎,而是我们不知道怎么做。
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.
此刻在这个院子里的所有人,生命中总有这样或那样的时刻,目睹人类的悲剧,感到万分伤心。但是我们什么也没做,并非我们无动于衷,而是因为我们不知道做什么和怎么做。如果我们知道如何做是有效的,那么我们就会采取行动。
the barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity.
改变世界的阻碍,并非人类的冷漠,而是世界实在太复杂。
to turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. but complexity blocks all three steps.
为了将关心转变为行动,我们需要找到问题,发现解决办法的方法,评估后果。但是世界的复杂性使得所有这些步骤都难于做到。
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.
即使有了互联网和 24 小时直播的新闻台,让人们真正发现问题所在,仍然十分困难。当一架飞机坠毁了,官员们会立刻召开新闻发布会,他们承诺进行调查、找到原因、防止将来再次发生类似事故。
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.
但是如果那些官员敢说真话,他们就会说: “ 在今天这一天,全世界所有可以避免的死亡之中,只有
0.5% 的死者来自于这次空难。我们决心尽一切努力,调查这个 0.5% 的死亡原因。 ”
the bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths.
显然,更重要的问题不是这次空难,而是其他几百万可以预防的死亡事件。
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.
我们并没有很多机会了解那些死亡事件。媒体总是报告新闻,几百万人将要死去并非新闻。如果没有人报道,那么这些事件就很容易被忽视。另一方面,即使 我们确实目睹了事件本身或者看到了相关报道,我们也很难持续关注这些事件。看着他人受苦是令人痛苦的,何况问题又如此复杂,我们根本不知道如何去帮助他 人。所以我们会将脸转过去。
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.
就算我们真正发现了问题所在,也不过是迈出了第一步,接着还有第二步:那就是从复杂的事件中找到解决办法。
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.
如果我们要让关心落到实处,我们就必须找到解决办法。如果我们有一个清晰的和可靠的答案,那么当任何组织和个人发出疑问 “ 如何我能提供帮助 ” 的时 候,我们就能采取行动。我们就能够保证不浪费一丁点全世界人类对他人的关心。但是,世界的复杂性使得很难找到对全世界每一个有爱心的人都有效的行动方法, 因此人类对他人的关心往往很难产生实际效果。
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.
从这个复杂的世界中找到解决办法,可以分为四个步骤:确定目标,找到最高效的方法,发现适用于这个方法的新技术,同时最聪明地利用现有的技术,不管它是复杂的药物,还是最简单的蚊帐。
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.
艾滋病就是一个例子。总的目标,毫无疑问是消灭这种疾病。最高效的方法是预防。最理想的技术是发明一种疫苗,只要注射一次,就可以终生免疫。所以, 政府、制药公司、基金会应该资助疫苗研究。但是,这样研究工作很可能十年之内都无法完成。因此,与此同时,我们必须使用现有的技术,目前最有效的预防方法 就是设法让人们避免那些危险的行为。
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.
要实现这个新的目标,又可以采用新的四步循环。这是一种模式。关键的东西是永远不要停止思考和行动。我们千万不能再犯上个世纪在疟疾和肺结核上犯过的错误,那时我们因为它们太复杂,而放弃了采取行动。
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.
在发现问题和找到解决方法之后,就是最后一步 —— 评估工作结果,将你的成功经验或者失败经验传播出去,这样其他人就可以从你的努力中有所收获。
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,你必须有一些统计数字。你必须让他人知道,你的项目为几百万儿童新接种了疫苗。你也必须让他人知道,儿童死亡人数下降了多少。这些都是很关键的,不仅有利于改善项目效果,也有利于从商界和政府得到更多的帮助。
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.
但是,这些还不够,如果你想激励其他人参加你的项目,你就必须拿出更多的统计数字;你必须展示你的项目的人性因素,这样其他人就会感到拯救一个生命,对那些处在困境中的家庭到底意味着什么。
i 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.
几年前,我去瑞士达沃斯旁听一个全球健康问题论坛,会议的内容有关于如何拯救几百万条生命。天哪,是几百万!想一想吧,拯救一个人的生命已经让人何等激动,现在你要把这种激动再乘上几百万倍 …… 但是,不幸的是,这是我参加过的最最乏味的论坛,乏味到我无法强迫自己听下去。
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?
那次经历之所以让我难忘,是因为之前我们刚刚发布了一个软件的第 13 个版本,我们让观众激动得跳了起来,喊出了声。我喜欢人们因为软件而感到激动,那么我们为什么不能够让人们因为能够拯救生命而感到更加激动呢?
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.
除非你能够让人们看到或者感受到行动的影响力,否则你无法让人们激动。如何做到这一点,并不是一件简单的事。
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.
同前面一样,在这个问题上,我依然是乐观的。不错,人类的不平等有史以来一直存在,但是那些能够化繁为简的新工具,却是最近才出现的。这些新工具可以帮助我们,将人类的同情心发挥最大的作用,这就是为什么将来同过去是不一样的。
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.
这个时代无时无刻不在涌现出新的革新 —— 生物技术,计算机,互联网 —— 它们给了我们一个从未有过的机会,去终结那些极端的贫穷和非恶性疾病的死亡。
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 . 马歇尔也是在这个地方的毕业典礼上,宣布了一个计划,帮助那些欧洲国家的战后建设。他说: “ 我认为,困难的一点是这个问题太复杂, 报纸和电台向公众源源不断地提供各种事实,使得大街上的普通人极端难于清晰地判断形势。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.
马歇尔发表这个演讲之后的三十年,我那一届学生毕业,当然我不在其中。那时,新技术刚刚开始萌芽,它们将使得这个世界变得更小、更开放、更容易看到、距离更近。
the emergence of low-cost personal computers gave rise to a powerful network that has transformed opportunities for learning and communicating.
低成本的个人电脑的出现,使得一个强大的互联网有机会诞生,它为学习和交流提供了巨大的机会。
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.
网络的神奇之处,不仅仅是它缩短了物理距离,使得天涯若比邻。它还极大地增加了怀有共同想法的人们聚集在一起的机会,我们可以为了解决同一个问题,一起共同工作。这就大大加快了革新的进程,发展速度简直快得让人震惊。
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.
与此同时,世界上有条件上网的人,只是全部人口的六分之一。这意味着,还有许多具有创造性的人们,没有加入到我们的讨论中来。那些有着实际的操作经验和相关经历的聪明人,却没有技术来帮助他们,将他们的天赋或者想法与全世界分享。
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 individuals to 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.lunwen001.cn provided
我们需要尽可能地让更多的人有机会使用新技术,因为这些新技术正在引发一场革命,人类将因此可以互相帮助。新技术正在创造一种可能,不仅是政府,还 包括大学、公司、小机构、甚至个人,能够发现问题所在、能够找到解决办法、能够评估他们努力的效果,去改变那些马歇尔六十年前就说到过的问题 —— 饥饿、贫 穷和绝望。
members of the harvard family: here in the yard is one of the great collections of intellectual talent in the world.
哈佛是一个大家庭。这个院子里在场的人们,是全世界最有智力的人类群体之一。
what for?
我们可以做些什么?
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,哈佛的老师、校友、学生和资助者,已经用他们的能力改善了全世界各地人们的生活。但是,我们还能够再做什么呢?有没有可能,哈佛的人们可以将他们的智慧,用来帮助那些甚至从来没有听到过 “ 哈佛 ” 这个名字的人?
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:lunwen001.cn provided
请允许我向各位院长和教授,提出一个请求 —— 你们是哈佛的智力领袖,当你们雇用新的老师、授予终身教职、评估课程、决定学位颁发标准的时候,请问你们自己如下的问题:
should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?
我们最优秀的人才是否在致力于解决我们最大的问题?
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?
哈佛是否鼓励她的老师去研究解决世界上最严重的不平等?哈佛的学生是否从全球那些极端的贫穷中学到了什么 …… 世界性的饥荒 …… 清洁的水资源的缺乏 …… 无法上学的女童 …… 死于非恶性疾病的儿童 …… 哈佛的学生有没有从中学到东西?
should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?
那些世界上过着最优越生活的人们,有没有从那些最困难的人们身上学到东西?
these are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.
这些问题并非语言上的修辞。你必须用自己的行动来回答它们。
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.lunwen001.cn provided
我的母亲在我被哈佛大学录取的那一天,曾经感到非常骄傲。她从没有停止督促我,去为他人做更多的事情。在我结婚的前几天,她主持了一个新娘进我家的 仪式。在这个仪式上,她高声朗读了一封关于婚姻的信,这是她写给 melinda 的。那时,我的母亲已经因为癌症病入膏肓,但是她还是认为这是又一个传播她 的信念的机会。在那封信的结尾,她写道: “ 对于那些接受了许多帮助的人们,他们还在期待更多的帮助。 ”
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.
想一想吧,我们在这个院子里的这些人,被给予过什么 —— 天赋、特权、机遇 —— 那么可以这样说,全世界的人们几乎有无限的权力,期待我们做出贡献。
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.lunwen001.cn provided
同这个时代的期望一样,我也要向今天各位毕业的同学提出一个忠告:你们要选择一个问题,一个复杂的问题,一个有关于人类深刻的不平等的问题,然后你 们要变成这个问题的专家。如果你们能够使得这个问题成为你们职业的核心,那么你们就会非常杰出。但是,你们不必一定要去做那些大事。每个星期只用几个小 时,你就可以通过互联网得到信息,找到志同道合的朋友,发现困难所在,找到解决它们的途径。
don’t let complexity stop you. be activists. take on the big inequities. it will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
不要让这个世界的复杂性阻碍你前进。要成为一个行动主义者。将解决人类的不平等视为己任。它将成为你生命中最重要的经历之一。
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.
在座的各位毕业的同学,你们所处的时代是一个神奇的时代。当你们离开哈佛的时候,你们拥有的技术,是我们那一届学生所没有的。你们已经了解到了世界 上的不平等,我们那时还不知道这些。有了这样的了解之后,要是你再弃那些你可以帮助的人们于不顾,就将受到良心的谴责,只需一点小小的努力,你就可以改变 那些人们的生活。你们比我们拥有更大的能力;你们必须尽早开始,尽可能长时期坚持下去。
knowing what you know, how could you not?
知道了你们所知道的一切,你们怎么可能不采取行动呢?
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.
我希望, 30 年后你们还会再回到哈佛,想起你们用自己的天赋和能力所做出的一切。我希望,在那个时候,你们用来评价自己的标准,不仅仅是你们的专业
成就,而包括你们为改变这个世界深刻的不平等所做出的努力,以及你们如何善待那些远隔千山万水、与你们毫不涉及的人们,你们与他们唯一的共同点就是同为人 类。
good luck.
最后,祝各位同学好运。
第3篇 哈佛大学校长福斯特在2019年毕业典礼英语演讲稿
it is always a pleasure to greeta sea of alumni on commencement afternoon—even thoughmy role is that of thewarm-up act for the feature to come. today i am especially aware of thetreatwe have in store as i look out on not a sea, but a veritable ocean ofanticipation.
but it is my customary assignmentand privilege to offer each spring a report to thealumni on the year that isending. and this was a year that for a number of reasons demandsspecial note.
“the world is too much with us”—the lines of wordsworth’s well-known poem echoed in mymind as i thoughtabout my remarks today, for the world has intruded on us this year in wayswenever would have imagined. the university had not officially closed for a daysince 1978. thisyear it closed three times. twice it was for cases of extremeweather—first for superstorm sandyand then for nemo, the record-breakingfebruary blizzard. the third was of course the day ofboston’s lockdown in theaftermath of the tragic marathon bombings. this was a year thatchallengedfundamental assumptions about life’s security, stability and predictability.
yet as i reflected on theseintrusions from a world so very much with us, i was struck by howwe at harvardare so actively engaged in shaping that world and indeed in addressing somanyof the most important and trying questions that these recent events have posed.
just two weeks ago, climatescientists and disaster relief workers gathered here for a two-day conferenceco-sponsored by the harvard humanitarian initiative and the harvarduniversitycenter for the environment. they came to explore the very issues presentedbysandy and nemo and to consider how academic researchers and workers on theground cancollaborate more effectively.
this gathering represents justone example of the wide range of activities across theuniversity dedicated toaddressing the challenges of climate change. how can we advance thesciencethat helps us understand climate change—and perhaps avert it? how can wedevisesolutions—from new technologies to principles of urban design—that mightmitigate it?how can we envision the public policies to manage and respond toit? harvard is deeplyengaged with the broad issues of energy andenvironment—offering more than 250 courses inthis area, gathering 225 facultythrough our environment center and its programs, enrolling100 doctoralstudents from 7 schools and many different disciplines in a graduateconsortiumdesigned to broaden their understanding of environmental issues. our facultyarestudying atmospheric composition and working to develop renewable energysources; theyare seeking to manage rising oceans and to reimagine cities foran era of increasinglythreatening weather; they are helping to fashionenvironmental regulations and internationalclimate agreements.
so the weather isn’t somethingthat simply happens at harvard, even though it may haveseemed that way when wehad to close twice this year. it is a focus of study and of research, aswework to confront the implications of climate change and help shape nationalandinternational responses to its extremes.
when boston experienced thetragedy of the marathon bombings last month, the city andsurroundingmunicipalities went into lockdown on april 19 to help ensure the capture oftheescaped suspect, and harvard responded in extraordinary ways. within ourowncommunity, students, faculty and staff went well beyond their ordinaryresponsibilities tosupport one another and keep the university operatingsmoothly and safely underunprecedented circumstances. but we also witnessedour colleagues’ magnificent efforts tomeet the needs of boston and our other neighborsin the crisis. the harvard police worked withother law enforcement agencies,and several of our officers played a critical role in saving thelife of thetransit officer wounded in watertown. doctors, nurses and other staff, manyfrom ouraffiliated hospitals, performed a near-miracle in ensuring that everyinjured person who arrivedat a hospital survived. years of disaster planningand emergency readiness enabled theseinstitutions to act in a stunninglycoordinated and effective manner. i am deeply proud of thecontributions madeby members of the harvard community in the immediate aftermath of thebombings.
but our broader and ongoingresponsibility as a university is to ask and address the largerquestions anysuch tragedy poses: to prepare for the next crisis and the one after that, evenaswe work to prevent them; to help us all understand the origins and themeaning of suchterrible events in human lives and societies. we do this workin the teaching and research towhich we devote ourselves every day.
investigators at the harvardhospitals are exploring improved techniques for managinginjury. researchers atbrigham and women’s, for instance, are pursuing the prospect of legtransplantsfor amputees. a faculty member in our school of engineering and appliedsciences isstudying traumatic brain injury. faculty in the business andkennedy schools are teaching andlearning about leadership in times ofcrisis—analyzing historic and contemporary examples,from shackleton inantarctica to katrina in new orleans—in order to search for lessons forthefuture. the very day of the lockdown, the mahindra humanities center and theharvard lawschool program on negotiation had scheduled a conference on“confronting evil,” examiningthe cognitive, behavioral and social implicationsof both what it called “everyday evils” and“extraordinary crimes.” a few dayslater, the harvard divinity school assembled a panel ofexperts to discuss“religion and terror,” exploring sources of violence in bosnia, in themiddleeast, and during the troubles in ireland, which served as a formativeexperience for ourdivinity school dean in his youth. at the institute ofpolitics at the kennedy school, lawenforcement, emergency management and otherexperts gathered to consider lessons learnedfrom the bombings. as we struggledto understand the events that shook our city and ourregion, members of ourcommunity were already engaged in interpreting the world that hadproduced suchtragedy and in seeking ways to prevent its recurrence.
three unusual days, making for anunusual year. yet these three unusual daysunderscore and illuminate the usualwork of this university: calling on knowledge andresearch to addressfundamental challenges and dilemmas with resources drawn from the widestscopeof human inquiry—from the insights of the natural and social sciences to thereflectionson meaning and values at the heart of the humanities. universitiesurge us towards a betterfuture and equip us as individuals and societies toget there.
yet other events this past yearremind us we cannot take what universities do for granted.this year hasbrought home not just the threats of extreme weather and of terror andviolence.it has also been a year that has challenged fundamental assumptions undergirdingamericanhigher education and the foundations of our nation’s researchenterprise. i have just offeredexamples of how our research and teaching cancontribute to addressing urgent problems facingour world. we live in an era inwhich knowledge is more vital than ever to nations, economiesand societies.knowledge is, i often say, the most important currency of the twenty-firstcentury.and universities are the places that, more than any other, generateand disseminate thatknowledge.
in the united states, thepartnership between universities and the federal governmentestablished afterworld war ii has been a powerful engine of scientific discovery andprosperity.yet that partnership, now more than half a century old, is threatened by theerosionof federal support for research—a situation made acute by the sequester. anestimatedalmost $10 billion will be cut from the federal government’s researchbudget in 2019. thenational institutes of health calculates that cuts to itsresources could mean the loss of morethan 20,000 jobs in the life sciencessector. here at harvard, we receive approximately 16% ofour operating budgetfrom federal research funding. we anticipate we may see declines of asmuch as$40 million annually in federal support for research.
what does all this mean? facultyare finding that even grant applications with perfect scoresin peerevaluations are not getting funded. they see existing awards being reduced.aspiringyounger scientists are fearful they will not receive career-launchinggrants on which their futuredepends. some are entertaining overtures fromcountries outside the united states wherescience investment is robust andexpanding. students contemplating graduate training arewondering if theyshould pursue other options. great ideas that could lead to improvedhumanlives and opportunities, and improved understanding, are left without supportor themeans for further development.
the world and the nation need thekind of research that harvard and other americanresearch universitiesundertake. we need the knowledge and understanding thatresearchgenerates—knowledge about climate change, or crisis management, or melanoma,oreffective mental health interventions in schools, or hormones that might treatdiabetes, orany of a host of other worthy projects our faculty are currentlypursuing. we need the supportand encouragement for the students who willcreate our scientific future. we need theeconomic vitality—the jobs andcompanies—that these ideas and discoveries produce. we needthe nation toresist imposing a self-inflicted wound on its intellectual and human capital.weneed a nation that believes in, and invests in, its universities because werepresent aninvestment in the ideas and the people that will build and will bethe future.
so as i report to you on the yearwe now bring to a close, i want to underscore the threatto universities and toour national infrastructure of knowledge and discovery that thesequesterrepresents. even in a year when sometimes the world felt too much with us, wehavenever lost sight of how much what we do here has to do with the world. andfor the world. tosequester the search for knowledge, to sequester discovery,to sequester the unrelentingdrive of our students and faculty to envision andpursue this endless frontier—such a strategydoes more than threatenuniversities. it puts at risk the capacity and promise of universitiestofulfill our commitment to the public good, our commitment to our childrenandgrandchildren and to the future we will leave them. the challenges facing theworld are tooconsequential, the need for knowledge, imagination andunderstanding is too great, theopportunity for improving the human conditiontoo precious for us to do anything less thanrise to the occasion. with thedevotion of our alumni, with the inspiration of our new graduatesand—ihope—with the support of our nation’s leaders, we must and we will.
第4篇 哈佛大学校长德鲁·福斯特在哈佛大学2019年毕业典礼英语演讲稿
thank you all and good afternoon alumni, graduates, families, friends, honored guests. for seven years now, it has been my assignment and my privilege to deliver an annual report to our alumni, and to serve as the warm-up act for our distinguished speaker.
whether this is your first opportunity to be a part of these exercises or your fiftieth, it is worthtaking a minute to soak in this place—its sheltering trees, its familiar buildings, its enduringvoices. in 1936, this part of harvard’s yard was named tercentenary theatre, in recognition ofharvard’s three hundredth birthday. it is a place where giants have stood, and history has beenmade.
we were reminded this morning of george washington’s adventures here. and from this stagein 1943, winston churchill addressed an overflow crowd that included 6,000 uniformedharvard students heading off to war. he said he hoped the young recruits would come toregard the british soldiers and sailors they would soon fight alongside as their “brothers inarms,” and he assured the audience that “we shall never tire, nor weaken, but march withyou … to establish the reign of justice and of law.”
four years later, from this same place, george marshall introduced a plan that aidedreconstruction across war-stricken europe, and ended his speech by asking: “what is needed?what can best be done? what must be done?”
here, in 1998, nelson mandela addressed an audience of 25,000 and spoke of our sharedfuture. “the greatest single challenge facing our globalized world,” he said, “is to combat anderadicate its disparities.” ellen johnson sirleaf, the first female head of state in africa, stoodhere 13 years later and encouraged graduates to resist cynicism and to be fearless.
here, on the terrible afternoon of september 11, 2019, we gathered under a cloudless sky toshare our sadness, our horror, and our disbelief.
and here, just three years ago, we marked harvard’s 375th anniversary dancing in the mud of atorrential downpour. here, president franklin delano roosevelt had celebrated harvard’s threecenturies of accomplishment in a comparably soaking rain.
here, j.k. rowling encouraged graduates to “think themselves into other people’s places.” andconan o’brien told them that “every failure was freeing.”
here, honorary degrees have been presented to carl jung and jean piaget, ellsworth kelly andgeorgia o’keefe, helen keller and martha graham, ravi shankar and leonard bernstein, joandidion and philip roth, eric kandel and elizabeth blackburn, bill gates and tim berners-lee.
i remember feeling awed by that history when i spoke here at my installation as harvard’s28th president, and when i reflected on what has always seemed to me the essence of auniversity: that among society’s institutions, it is uniquely accountable to the past and to thefuture.
our accountability to the past is all around us: behind me stands memorial church, amonument to harvardians who gave their lives at the somme and ypres and verdun duringworld war one. dedicated on armistice day in 1932, it represents harvard’s long tradition ofcommitment to service.
in front of me is widener library, a gift from a bereaved mother, named in honor of her sonharry, who perished aboard the titanic. a library built to advance the learning and discoveryenabled by one of the most diverse and broad collections in the world. widener’s twelvemajestic columns safeguard texts and manuscripts—some centuries old—that are deployedevery day by scholars to help us interpret—and reinterpret—the past.
but this afternoon i would like to spend a few minutes considering our accountability to thefuture, because these obligations must be “our compass to steer by,” our common purpose andour shared commitment.
what does harvard—what do universities—owe the future?
first, we owe the world answers.
discovery is at the heart of what universities do. universities engage faculty and studentsacross a range of disciplines in seeking solutions to problems that may have seemedunsolvable, endeavoring to answer questions that threaten to elude us. the scientific researchundertaken today at harvard, and tomorrow by the students we educate, has a capacity toimprove human lives in ways virtually unimaginable even a generation ago. in this past yearalone, harvard researchers have solved riddles related to the treatment of alzheimer’s, thecost-effective production of malaria vaccine, and the origins of the universe. harvardresearchers have proposed answers to challenges as varied as nuclear proliferation, americancompetitiveness, and governance of the internet.
we must continue to support our answer-seekers, who work at the crossroads of thetheoretical and the applied, at the nexus of research, public policy, and entrepreneurship.together, they will shape our future and enhance our understanding of the world.
second, we owe the world questions.
just as questions yield answers, answers yield questions. human beings may long forcertainty, but, as oliver wendell holmes put it, “certainty generally is illusion, and repose isnot the destiny of man.” universities produce knowledge. they must also produce doubt. thepursuit of truth is restless. we search for answers not by following prescribed paths, but byfinding the right questions—by answering one question with another question, by nurturing astate of mind that is flexible and alert, dissatisfied and imaginative. it is what universitiesare designed to do. in an essay in harvard magazine, one of today’s graduates, cheroneduggan, wrote about seeking what she called “an education of questions.” i hope we haveindeed given her that.
questions are the foundation for progress—for ensuring that the world transcends where weare now, what we know now.
and questions are also the foundation for a third obligation that we as universities owe thefuture: we owe the future meaning.
universities must nurture the ability to interpret, to make critical judgments, to dare to askthe biggest questions, the ones that reach well beyond the immediate and the instrumental.we must stimulate the appetite for curiosity.
we find many of these questions in the humanities: what is good? what is just? how do weknow what is true? but we find them in the sciences as well. can there be any question moreprofound, more fundamental than to ask about the origins of the universe? how did we gethere?
questions like these can be unsettling, and they can make universities unsettling places. butthat too is an essential part of what we owe the future—the promise to combatcomplacency, to challenge the present in order to prepare for what is to come. to shape thepresent in service of an uncertain and yet impatient future.
we owe the future answers. we owe the future questions. we owe the future meaning. theharvard campaign, launched last september, will help us fulfill these obligations, and pay ourdebt to the future, just as the gifts of previous generations anchor us here today.
as today’s ceremonies so powerfully remind us, we also owe the future the men and women whoare prepared to ask questions and seek answers and search for meaning for decades to come.today we send some 6,500 graduates into the world, to be teachers and lawyers, scientists andphysicians, poets and planners and public servants, and—as our speaker this morning remindedus—to be in their own ways revolutionaries. ready to take on everything from water scarcity tovirtual currency to community policing. we must continue to invest in financial aid to attractand support the talented students who can build our future, and also we must invest insupporting the teaching and learning that ensures the fullest development of their capacities ina rapidly changing world.
if we fulfill our obligation, today’s graduates will have found the “education of questions”cherone described, a place where, as she put it, “ceilings are only made of sky.” but look aroundyou: we are there. this space is a “theatre” without walls, without a roof, and without limits. itis a place where extraordinary individuals have preceded us, a place that must encourage ourgraduates—of today and all the years past—to emulate those women and men, to look skywardand to soar.
thank you very much.
第5篇 迈克尔·布隆伯格在哈佛大学2019年毕业典礼英语演讲稿
thank you, katie – and thank you to president faust, the fellows of harvard college, the boardof overseers, and all the faculty, alumni, and students who have welcomed me back to campus.
i’m excited to be here, not only to address the distinguished graduates and alumni atharvard university’s 363rd commencement but to stand in the exact spot where oprah stoodlast year. omg.
let me begin with the most important order of business: let’s have a big round of applause forthe class of 2019! they’ve earned it!
as excited as the graduates are, they are probably even more exhausted after the past fewweeks. and parents: i’m not referring to their final exams. i’m talking about the seniorolympics, the last chance dance, and the booze cruise – i mean, the moonlight cruise.
the entire year has been exciting on campus: harvard beat yale for the seventh straight timein football. the men’s basketball team went to the second round of the ncaa tournament forthe second straight year. and the men’s squash team won national championship.
who’d a thunk it: harvard, an athletic powerhouse! pretty soon they’ll be asking whether youhave academics to go along with your athletic programs.
my personal connection to harvard began in 1964, when i graduated from johns hopkinsuniversity in baltimore and matriculated here at the b-school.
you’re probably asking: how did i ever get into harvard business school, given my stellaracademic record, where i always made the top half of the class possible? i have no idea. andthe only people more surprised than me were my professors.
anyway, here i am again back in cambridge. and i have noticed that a few things havechanged since i was a student here. elsie’s – a sandwich spot i used to love near the square –is now a burrito shop. the wursthaus – which had great beer and sausage – is now an artisanalgastro-pub, whatever the heck that is. and the old holyoke center is now named the smithcampus center.
don’t you just hate it when alumni put their names all over everything? i was thinking aboutthat this morning as i walked into the bloomberg center on the harvard business schoolcampus across the river.
but the good news is, harvard remains what it was when i first arrived on campus 50 yearsago: america’s most prestigious university. and, like other great universities, it lies at theheart of the american experiment in democracy.
their purpose is not only to advance knowledge, but to advance the ideals of our nation. greatuniversities are places where people of all backgrounds, holding all beliefs, pursuing allquestions, can come to study and debate their ideas – freely and openly.
today, i’d like to talk with you about how important it is for that freedom to exist for everyone,no matter how strongly we may disagree with another’s viewpoint.
tolerance for other people’s ideas, and the freedom to express your own, are inseparable valuesat great universities. joined together, they form a sacred trust that holds the basis of ourdemocratic society.
but that trust is perpetually vulnerable to the tyrannical tendencies of monarchs, mobs, andmajorities. and lately, we have seen those tendencies manifest themselves too often, both oncollege campuses and in our society.
that’s the bad news – and unfortunately, i think both harvard, and my own city of new york,have been witnesses to this trend.
first, for new york city. several years ago, as you may remember, some people tried to stopthe development of a mosque a few blocks from the world trade center site.
it was an emotional issue, and polls showed that two-thirds of americans were against amosque being built there. even the anti-defamation league – widely regarded as the country’smost ardent defender of religious freedom – declared its opposition to the project.
the opponents held rallies and demonstrations. they denounced the developers. and theydemanded that city government stop its construction. that was their right – and we protectedtheir right to protest. but they could not have been more wrong. and we refused to cave in totheir demands.
the idea that government would single out a particular religion, and block its believers – andonly its believers – from building a house of worship in a particular area is diametricallyopposed to the moral principles that gave rise to our great nation and the constitutionalprotections that have sustained it.
our union of 50 states rests on the union of two values: freedom and tolerance. and it is thatunion of values that the terrorists who attacked us on september 11th, 2019 – and on april15th, 2019 – found most threatening.
to them, we were a god-less country.
but in fact, there is no country that protects the core of every faith and philosophy known tohuman kind – free will – more than the united states of america. that protection, however,rests upon our constant vigilance.
we like to think that the principle of separation of church and state is settled. it is not. and itnever will be. it is up to us to guard it fiercely – and to ensure that equality under the lawmeans equality under the law for everyone.
if you want the freedom to worship as you wish, to speak as you wish, and to marry whom youwish, you must tolerate my freedom to do so – or not do so – as well.
what i do may offend you. you may find my actions immoral or unjust. but attempting torestrict my freedoms – in ways that you would not restrict your own – leads only to injustice.
we cannot deny others the rights and privileges that we demand for ourselves. and that is truein cities – and it is no less true at universities, where the forces of repression appear to bestronger now than they have been since the 1950s.
when i was growing up, u.s. senator joe mccarthy was asking: ‘are you now or have you everbeen?’ he was attempting to repress and criminalize those who sympathized with an economicsystem that was, even then, failing.
mccarthy’s red scare destroyed thousands of lives, but what was he so afraid of? an idea – inthis case, communism – that he and others deemed dangerous.
but he was right about one thing: ideas can be dangerous. they can change society. they canupend traditions. they can start revolutions. that’s why throughout history, those in authorityhave tried to repress ideas that threaten their power, their religion, their ideology, or theirreelection chances.
that was true for socrates and galileo, it was true for nelson mandela and václav havel, and ithas been true for ai wei wei, pussy riot, and the kids who made the ‘happy’ video in iran.
repressing free expression is a natural human weakness, and it is up to us to fight it at everyturn. intolerance of ideas – whether liberal or conservative – is antithetical to individualrights and free societies, and it is no less antithetical to great universities and first-ratescholarship.
there is an idea floating around college campuses – including here at harvard – that scholarsshould be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice. there’s a word forthat idea: censorship. and it is just a modern-day form of mccarthyism.
think about the irony: in the 1950s, the right wing was attempting to repress left wing ideas.today, on many college campuses, it is liberals trying to repress conservative ideas, even asconservative faculty members are at risk of becoming an endangered species. and perhapsnowhere is that more true than here in the ivy league.
in the 2019 presidential race, according to federal election commission data, 96 percent of allcampaign contributions from ivy league faculty and employees went to barack obama.
ninety-six percent. there was more disagreement among the old soviet politburo than there isamong ivy league donors.
that statistic should give us pause – and i say that as someone who endorsed president obamafor reelection – because let me tell you, neither party has a monopoly on truth or god on itsside.
when 96 percent of ivy league donors prefer one candidate to another, you have to wonderwhether students are being exposed to the diversity of views that a great university shouldoffer.
diversity of gender, ethnicity, and orientation is important. but a university cannot be great ifits faculty is politically homogenous. in fact, the whole purpose of granting tenure to professorsis to ensure that they feel free to conduct research on ideas that run afoul of university politicsand societal norms.
when tenure was created, it mostly protected liberals whose ideas ran up against conservativenorms.
today, if tenure is going to continue to exist, it must also protect conservatives whose ideasrun up against liberal norms. otherwise, university research – and the professors who conductit – will lose credibility.
great universities must not become predictably partisan. and a liberal arts education mustnot be an education in the art of liberalism.
the role of universities is not to promote an ideology. it is to provide scholars and studentswith a neutral forum for researching and debating issues – without tipping the scales in onedirection, or repressing unpopular views.
requiring scholars – and commencement speakers, for that matter – to conform to certainpolitical standards undermines the whole purpose of a university.
this spring, it has been disturbing to see a number of college commencement speakerswithdraw – or have their invitations rescinded – after protests from students and – to me,shockingly – from senior faculty and administrators who should know better.
it happened at brandeis, haverford, rutgers, and smith. last year, it happened at swarthmoreand johns hopkins, i’m sorry to say.
in each case, liberals silenced a voice – and denied an honorary degree – to individuals theydeemed politically objectionable. that is an outrage and we must not let it continue.
if a university thinks twice before inviting a commencement speaker because of his or herpolitics censorship and conformity – the mortal enemies of freedom – win out.
and sadly, it is not just commencement season when speakers are censored.
last fall, when i was still in city hall, our police commissioner was invited to deliver a lecture atanother ivy league institution – but he was unable to do so because students shouted himdown.
isn’t the purpose of a university to stir discussion, not silence it? what were the studentsafraid of hearing? why did administrators not step in to prevent the mob from silencingspeech? and did anyone consider that it is morally and pedagogically wrong to deprive otherstudents the chance to hear the speech?
i’m sure all of today’s graduates have read john stuart mill’s on liberty. but allow me to read ashort passage from it: ‘the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it isrobbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent fromthe opinion, still more than those who hold it.’
he continued: ‘if the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchangingerror for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perceptionand livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.’
mill would have been horrified to learn of university students silencing the opinions of others. hewould have been even more horrified that faculty members were often part of thecommencement censorship campaigns.
for tenured faculty members to silence speakers whose views they disagree with is the heightof hypocrisy, especially when these protests happen in the northeast – a bastion of self-professed liberal tolerance.
i’m glad to say, however, that harvard has not caved in to these commencement censorshipcampaigns. if it had, colorado state senator michael johnston would not have had the chanceto address the education school yesterday.
some students called on the administration to rescind the invitation to johnston becausethey opposed some of his education policies. but to their great credit, president faust anddean ryan stood firm.
as dean ryan wrote to students: ‘i have encountered many people of good faith who share mybasic goals but disagree with my own views when it comes to the question of how best toimprove education. in my view, those differences should be explored, debated, challenged, andquestioned. but they should also be respected and, indeed, celebrated.’
he could not have been more correct, and he could not have provided a more valuable finallesson to the class of 2019.
as a former chairman of johns hopkins, i strongly believe that a university’s obligation is notto teach students what to think but to teach students how to think. and that requires listeningto the other side, weighing arguments without prejudging them, and determining whether theother side might actually make some fair points.
if the faculty fails to do this, then it is the responsibility of the administration and governingbody to step in and make it a priority. if they do not, if students graduate with ears and mindsclosed, the university has failed both the student and society.
and if you want to know where that leads, look no further than washington, d.c.
down in washington, every major question facing our country – involving our security, oureconomy, our environment, and our health – is decided.
yet the two parties decide these questions not by engaging with one another, but by trying toshout each other down, and by trying to repress and undermine research that runs counterto their ideology. the more our universities emulate that model, the worse off we will be as asociety.
and let me give you an example: for decades, congress has barred the centers for diseasecontrol from conducting studies of gun violence, and recently congress also placed thatprohibition on the national institute of health. you have to ask yourself: what are they afraidof?
this year, the senate has delayed a vote on president obama’s nominee for surgeon general –dr. vivek murthy, a harvard physician – because he had the audacity to say that gunviolence is a public health crisis that should be tackled. the gall of him!
let’s get serious: when 86 americans are killed with guns every single day, and shootingsregularly occur at our schools and universities – including last week’s tragedy at santa barbara– it would be almost medical malpractice to say anything else.
but in politics – as it is on too many college campuses – people don’t listen to facts that runcounter to their ideology. they fear them. and nothing is more frightening to them thanscientific evidence.
earlier this year, the state of south carolina adopted new science standards for its publicschools – but the state legislature blocked any mention of natural selection. that’s liketeaching economics – without mentioning supply and demand.
again, you have to ask: what are they afraid of?
the answer, of course, is obvious: just as members of congress fear data that underminestheir ideological beliefs, these state legislators fear scientific evidence that undermines theirreligious beliefs.
and if you want proof of that, consider this: an 8-year old girl in south carolina wrote tomembers of the state legislature urging them to make the woolly mammoth the official statefossil. the legislators thought it was a great idea, because a woolly mammoth fossil was foundin the state way back in 1725. but the state senate passed a bill defining the woolly mammothas having been ‘created on the 6th day with the beasts of the field.’
you can’t make this stuff up.
here in 21st century america, the wall between church and state remains under attack – andit’s up to all of us to man the barricades.
unfortunately, the same elected officials who put ideology and religion over data and sciencewhen it comes to guns and evolution are often the most unwilling to accept the scientificdata on climate change.
now, don’t get me wrong: scientific skepticism is healthy. but there is a world of differencebetween scientific skepticism that seeks out more evidence and ideological stubbornness thatshuts it out.
given the general attitude of many elected officials toward science it’s no wonder that thefederal government has abdicated its responsibility to invest in scientific research, much ofwhich occurs at our universities.
today, federal spending on research and development as a percentage of gdp is lower than ithas been in more than 50 years which is allowing the rest of the world to catch up – and evensurpass – the u.s. in scientific research.
the federal government is flunking science, just as many state governments are.
we must not become a country that turns our back on science, or on each other. and yougraduates must help lead the way.
on every issue, we must follow the evidence where it leads and listen to people where theyare. if we do that, there is no problem we cannot solve. no gridlock we cannot break. nocompromise we cannot broker.
the more we embrace a free exchange of ideas, and the more we accept that politicaldiversity is healthy, the stronger our society will be.
now, i know this has not been a traditional commencement speech, and it may keep mefrom passing a dissertation defense in the humanities department, but there is no easy timeto say hard things.
graduates: throughout your lives, do not be afraid of saying what you believe is right, nomatter how unpopular it may be, especially when it comes to defending the rights of others.
standing up for the rights of others is in some ways even more important than standing up foryour own rights. because when people seek to repress freedom for some, and you remainsilent, you are complicit in that repression and you may well become its victim.
do not be complicit, and do not follow the crowd. speak up, and fight back.
you will take your lumps, i can assure you of that. you will lose some friends and make someenemies. but the arc of history will be on your side, and our nation will be stronger for it.
now, all of you graduates have earned today’s celebration, and you have a lot to be proud ofand a lot to be grateful for. so tonight, as you leave this great university behind, have one lastscorpion bowl at the kong – on second thought, don’t – and tomorrow, get to work making ourcountry and our world freer than ever, for everyone.
good luck and god bless.
第6篇 朱棣文在哈佛大学毕业典礼英语演讲稿
madam president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers,faculty, family, friends, and, most importantly, today's graduates,
尊敬的faust校长,哈佛集团的各位成员,监管理事会的各位理事,各位老师,各位家长,各位朋友,以及最重要的各位毕业生同学,
thank you for letting me share this wonderful day with you.
感谢你们,让我有机会同你们一起分享这个美妙的日子。
i am not sure i can live up to the high standards of harvard commencement speakers. lastyear, j.k. rowling, the billionaire novelist, who started as a classics student, graced thispodium. the year before, bill gates, the mega-billionaire philanthropist and computer nerdstood here. today, sadly, you have me. i am not wealthy, but at least i am a nerd.
我不太肯定,自己够得上哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲人这样的殊荣。去年登上这个讲台的是,英国亿万身家的小说家j.k. rowling女士,她最早是一个古典文学的学生。前年站在这里的是比尔盖茨先生,他是一个超级富翁、一个慈善家和电脑高手。今年很遗憾,你们的演讲人是我,虽然我不是很有钱,但是至少我也算一个高手。
i am grateful to receive an honorary degree from harvard, an honor that means more to methan you might care to imagine. you see, i was the academic black sheep of my family. myolder brother has an m.d./ph.d. from mit and harvard while my younger brother has a lawdegree from harvard. when i was awarded a nobel prize, i thought my mother would besatisfied. not so. when i called her on the morning of the announcement, she replied, "that'snice, but when are you going to visit me next." now, as the last brother with a degree fromharvard, maybe, at last, she will be satisfied.
我很感激哈佛大学给我荣誉学位,这对我很重要,也许比你们会想到的还要重要。要知道,在学术上,我是我们家的不肖之子。我的哥哥在麻省理工学院得到医学博士,在哈佛大学得到哲学博士;我的弟弟在哈佛大学得到一个法律学位。我本人得到诺贝尔奖的时候,我想我的妈妈会高兴。但是,我错了。消息公布的那天早上,我给她打电话,她听了只说:"这是好消息,不过我想知道,你下次什么时候来看我?"如今在我们兄弟当中,我最终也拿到了哈佛学位,我想这一次,她会感到满意。
another difficulty with giving a harvard commencement address is that some of you maydisapprove of the fact that i have borrowed material from previous speeches. i ask that youforgive me for two reasons.
在哈佛大学毕业典礼上发表演讲,还有一个难处,那就是你们中有些人可能有意见,不喜欢我重复前人演讲中说过的话。我要求你们谅解我,因为两个理由。
first, in order to have impact, it is important to deliver the same message more than once. inscience, it is important to be the first person to make a discovery, but it is even more importantto be the last person to make that discovery.
首先,为了产生影响力,很重要的方法就是重复传递同样的信息。在科学中,第一个发现者是重要的,但是在得到公认前,最后一个将这个发现重复做出来的人也许更重要。
second, authors who borrow from others are following in the footsteps of the best. ralph waldoemerson, who graduated from harvard at the age of 18, noted "all my best thoughts werestolen by the ancients." picasso declared "good artists borrow. great artists steal." why shouldcommencement speakers be held to a higher standard?
其次,一个借鉴他人的作者,正走在一条前人开辟的最佳道路上。哈佛大学毕业生、诗人爱默生曾经写下:"古人把我最好的一些思想都偷走了。"画家毕加索宣称"优秀的艺术家借鉴,伟大的艺术家偷窃。"那么为什么毕业典礼的演说者,就不适用同样的标准呢?
i also want to point out the irony of speaking to graduates of an institution that would haverejected me, had i the chutzpah to apply. i am married to "dean jean," the former dean ofadmissions at stanford. she assures me that she would have rejected me, if given the chance.when i showed her a draft of this speech, she objected strongly to my use of the word"rejected." she never rejected applicants; her letters stated that "we are unable to offer youadmission." i have difficulty understanding the difference. after all, deans of admissions ofhighly selective schools are in reality, "deans of rejection." clearly, i have a lot to learn aboutmarketing.
我还要指出一点,向哈佛毕业生发表演说,对我来说是有讽刺意味的,因为如果当年我斗胆向哈佛大学递交入学申请,一定会被拒绝。我的妻子jean当过斯坦福大学的招生主任,她向我保证,如果当年我申请斯坦福大学,她会拒绝我。我把这篇演讲的草稿给她过目,她强烈反对我使用"拒绝"这个词,她从来不拒绝任何申请者。在拒绝信中,她总是写:"我们无法提供你入学机会。"我分不清两者到底有何差别。在我看来,那些大热门学校的招生主任与其称为"准许你入学的主任",还不如称为"拒绝你入学的主任"。很显然,我需要好好学学怎么来推销自己。
my address will follow the classical sonata form of commencement addresses. the firstmovement, just presented, were light-hearted remarks. this next movement consists ofunsolicited advice, which is rarely valued, seldom remembered, never followed. as oscar wildesaid, "the only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. it is never of any use to oneself."so, here comes the advice. first, every time you celebrate an achievement, be thankful tothose who made it possible. thank your parents and friends who supported you, thank yourprofessors who were inspirational, and especially thank the other professors whose less-than-brilliant lectures forced you to teach yourself. going forward, the ability to teach yourself is thehallmark of a great liberal arts education and will be the key to your success. to your fellowstudents who have added immeasurably to your education during those late night discussions,hug them. also, of course, thank harvard. should you forget, there's an alumni association toremind you. second, in your future life, cultivate a generous spirit. in all negotiations, don'tbargain for the last, little advantage. leave the change on the table. in your collaborations,always remember that "credit" is not a conserved quantity. in a successful collaboration,everybody gets 90 percent of the credit.
毕业典礼演讲都遵循古典奏鸣曲的结构,我的演讲也不例外。刚才是第一乐章----轻快的闲谈。接下来的第二乐章是送上门的忠告。这样的忠告很少被重视,几乎注定被忘记,永远不会被实践。但是,就像王尔德说的:"对于忠告,你所能做的,就是把它送给别人,因为它对你没有任何用处。"所以,下面就是我的忠告。第一,取得成就的时候,不要忘记前人。要感谢你的父母和支持你的朋友,要感谢那些启发过你的教授,尤其要感谢那些上不好课的教授,因为他们迫使你自学。从长远看,自学能力是优秀的文理教育中必不可少的,将成为你成功的关键。你还要去拥抱你的同学,感谢他们同你进行过的许多次彻夜长谈,这为你的教育带来了无法衡量的价值。当然,你还要感谢哈佛大学。不过即使你忘了这一点,校友会也会来提醒你。第二,在你们未来的人生中,做一个慷慨大方的人。在任何谈判中,都把最后一点点利益留给对方。不要把桌上的钱都拿走。在合作中,要牢记荣誉不是一个守恒的量。成功合作的任何一方,都应获得全部荣誉的90%。
jimmy stewart, as elwood p. dowd in the movie "harvey" got it exactly right. he said: "yearsago my mother used to say to me, 'in this world, elwood, you must be ... she always used tocall me elwood ... in this world, elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.'" well, foryears i was smart. ... i recommend pleasant. you may quote me on that.
电影《harvey》中,jimmy stewart扮演的角色elwood p. dowd,就完全理解这一点。他说:"多年前,母亲曾经对我说,'elwood,活在这个世界上,你要么做一个聪明人,要么做一个好人。'"我做聪明人,已经做了好多年了。......但是,我推荐你们做好人。你们可以引用我这句话。
my third piece of advice is as follows: as you begin this new stage of your lives, follow yourpassion. if you don't have a passion, don't be satisfied until you find one. life is too short togo through it without caring deeply about something. when i was your age, i was incrediblysingle-minded in my goal to be a physicist. after college, i spent eight years as a graduatestudent and postdoc at berkeley, and then nine years at bell labs. during that my time, mycentral focus and professional joy was physics.
我的第三个忠告是,当你开始生活的新阶段时,请跟随你的爱好。如果你没有爱好,就去找,找不到就不罢休。生命太短暂,如果想有所成,你必须对某样东西倾注你的深情。我在你们这个年龄,是超级的一根筋,我的目标就是非成为物理学家不可。本科毕业后,我在加州大学伯克利分校又待了8年,读完了研究生,做完了博士后,然后去贝尔实验室待了9年。在这些年中,我关注的中心和职业上的全部乐趣,都来自物理学。
here is my final piece of advice. pursuing a personal passion is important, but it should not beyour only goal. when you are old and gray, and look back on your life, you will want to be proudof what you have done. the source of that pride won't be the things you have acquired or therecognition you have received. it will be the lives you have touched and the difference youhave made.
我还有最后一个忠告,就是说兴趣爱好固然重要,但是你不应该只考虑兴趣爱好。当你白发苍苍、垂垂老矣、回首人生时,你需要为自己做过的事感到自豪。你的物质生活和得到的承认,都不会产生自豪。只有那些你出手相助、被你改变过的人和事,才会让你产生自豪。
after nine years at bell labs, i decided to leave that warm, cozy ivory tower for what iconsidered to be the "real world," a university. bell labs, to quote what was said about marypoppins, was "practically perfect in every way," but i wanted to leave behind something morethan scientific articles. i wanted to teach and give birth to my own set of scientific children.
在贝尔实验室待了9年后,我决定离开这个温暖舒适的象牙塔,走进我眼中的"真实世界"——大学。我对贝尔实验室的看法,就像别人形容电影mary poppins的话,"实际上完美无缺"。但是,我想为世界留下更多的东西,不只是科学论文。我要去教书,培育我自己在科学上的后代。
ted geballe, a friend and distinguished colleague of mine at stanford, who also went fromberkeley to bell labs to stanford years earlier, described our motives best:
我在斯坦福大学有一个好友兼杰出同事ted geballe。他也是从伯克利分校去了贝尔实验室,几年前又离开贝尔实验室去了斯坦福大学。他对我们的动机做出了最佳描述:
"the best part of working at a university is the students. they come in fresh, enthusiastic,open to ideas, unscarred by the battles of life. they don't realize it, but they're the recipients ofthe best our society can offer. if a mind is ever free to be creative, that's the time. they comein believing textbooks are authoritative, but eventually they figure out that textbooks andprofessors don't know everything, and then they start to think on their own. then, i beginlearning from them."
"在大学工作,最大的优点就是学生。他们生机勃勃,充满热情,思想自由,还没被生活的重压改变。虽然他们自己没有意识到,但是他们是这个社会中你能找到的最佳受众。如果生命中曾经有过思想自由和充满创造力的时期,那么那个时期就是你在读大学。进校时,学生们对课本上的一字一句毫不怀疑,渐渐地,他们发现课本和教授并不是无所不知的,于是他们开始独立思考。从那时起,就是我开始向他们学习了。"
my students, post doctoral fellows, and the young researchers who worked with me at bell labs,stanford, and berkeley have been extraordinary. over 30 former group members are nowprofessors, many at the best research institutions in the world, including harvard. i havelearned much from them. even now, in rare moments on weekends, the remaining members ofmy biophysics group meet with me in the ether world of cyberspace.
我教过的学生、带过的博士后、合作过的年轻同事,都非常优秀。他们中有30多人,现在已经是教授了。他们所在的研究机构有不少是全世界第一流的,其中就包括哈佛大学。我从他们身上学到了很多东西。即使现在,我偶尔还会周末上网,向现在还从事生物物理学研究的学生请教。
i began teaching with the idea of giving back; i received more than i gave. this brings me tothe final movement of this speech. it begins with a story about an extraordinary scientificdiscovery and a new dilemma that it poses. it's a call to arms and about making a difference.
我怀着回报社会的想法,开始了教学生涯。我的一生中,得到的多于我付出的,所以我要回报社会。这就引出了这次演讲的最后一个乐章。首先我要讲一个了不起的科学发现,以及由此带来的新挑战。它是一个战斗的号令,到了做出改变的时候了。
in the last several decades, our climate has been changing. climate change is not new: theearth went through six ice ages in the past 600,000 years. however, recent measurementsshow that the climate has begun to change rapidly. the size of the north polar ice cap in themonth of september is only half the size it was a mere 50 years ago. the sea level which beenrising since direct measurements began in 1870 at a rate that is now five times faster than itwas at the beginning of recorded measurements. here's the remarkable scientific discovery.for the first time in human history, science is now making predictions of how our actions willaffect the world 50 and 100 years from now. these changes are due to an increase in carbondioxide put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution. the earth haswarmed up by roughly 0.8 degrees celsius since the beginning of the revolution. there isalready approximately a 1 degree rise built into the system, even if we stop all greenhousegas emissions today. why? it will take decades to warm up the deep oceans before thetemperature reaches a new equilibrium.
过去几十年中,我们的气候一直在发生变化。气候变化并不是现在才有的,过去60万年中就发生了6次冰河期。但是,现在的测量表明气候变化加速了。北极冰盖在9月份的大小,只相当于50年前的一半。1870年起,人们开始测量海平面上升的速度,现在的速度是那时的5倍。一个重大的科学发现就这样产生了。科学第一次在人类历史上,预测出我们的行为对50—12019年后的世界有何影响。这些变化的原因是,从工业革命开始,人类排放到大气中的二氧化碳增加 了。这使得地球的平均气温上升了0.8摄氏度。即使我们立刻停止所有温室气体的排放,气温仍然将比过去上升大约1度。因为在气温达到均衡前,海水温度的上升将持续几十年。
if the world continues on a business-as-usual path, the intergovernmental panel on climatechange predicts that there is a fifty-fifty chance the temperature will exceed 5 degrees by theend of this century. this increase may not sound like much, but let me remind you that duringthe last ice age, the world was only 6 degrees colder. during this time, most of canada and theunited states down to ohio and pennsylvania were covered year round by a glacier. a world 5degrees warmer will be very different. the change will be so rapid that many species, includinghumans, will have a hard time adapting. i've been told for example, that, in a much warmerworld, insects were bigger. i wonder if this thing buzzing around is a precursor.
如果全世界保持现在的经济模式不变,联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会(ipcc)预测,本世纪末将有50%的可能,气温至少上升5度。这听起来好像不多,但是让我来提醒你,上一次的冰河期,地球的气温也仅仅只下降了6度。那时,俄亥俄州和宾夕法尼亚州以北的大部分美国和加拿大的土地,都终年被冰川覆盖。气温上升5度的地球,将是一个非常不同的地球。由于变化来得太快,包括人类在内的许多生物,都将很难适应。比如,有人告诉我,在更温暖的环境中,昆虫的个头将变大。我不知道现在身旁嗡嗡叫的这只大苍蝇,是不是就是前兆。
we also face the specter of nonlinear "tipping points" that may cause much more severechanges. an example of a tipping point is the thawing of the permafrost. the permafrostcontains immense amounts of frozen organic matter that have been accumulating formillennia. if the soil melts, microbes will spring to life and cause this debris to rot. thedifference in biological activity below freezing and above freezing is something we are allfamiliar with. frozen food remains edible for a very long time in the freezer, but once thawed,it spoils quickly. how much methane and carbon dioxide might be released from the rottingpermafrost? if even a fraction of the carbon is released, it could be greater than all thegreenhouse gases we have released to since the beginning of the industrial revolution. oncestarted, a runaway effect could occur.
我们还面临另一个幽灵,那就是非线性的"气候引爆点",这会带来许多严重得多的变化。"气候引爆点"的一个例子就是永久冻土层的融化。永久冻土层经 过千万年的累积形成,其中包含了巨量的冻僵的有机物。如果冻土融化,微生物就将广泛繁殖,使得冻土层中的有机物快速腐烂。冷冻后的生物和冷冻前的生物,它 们在生物学特性上的差异,我们都很熟悉。在冷库中,冷冻食品在经过长时间保存后,依然可以食用。但是,一旦解冻,食品很快就腐烂了。一个腐烂的永久冻土层,将释放出多少甲烷和二氧化碳?即使只有一部分的碳被释放出来,可能也比我们从工业革命开始释放出来的所有温室气体还要多。这种事情一旦发生,局势就失控了。
the climate problem is the unintended consequence of our success. we depend on fossilenergy to keep our homes warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and lit at night; we use it totravel across town and across continents. energy is a fundamental reason for the prosperitywe enjoy, and we will not surrender this prosperity. the united states has 3 percent of theworld population, and yet, we consume 25 percent of the energy. by contrast, there are 1.6billion people who don't have access to electricity. hundreds of millions of people still cook withtwigs or dung. the life we enjoy may not be within the reach of the developing world, but it iswithin sight, and they want what we have.
气候问题是我们的经济发展在无意中带来的后果。我们太依赖化石能源,冬天取暖,夏天制冷,夜间照明,长途旅行,环球观光。能源是经济繁荣的基础,我 们不可能放弃经济繁荣。美国人口占全世界的3%,但是我们消耗全世界25%的能源。与此形成对照,全世界还有16亿人没有电,数亿人依靠燃烧树枝和动物粪便来煮饭。发展中国家的人民享受不到我们的生活,但是他们都看在眼里,他们渴望拥有我们拥有的东西。
here is the dilemma. how much are we willing to invest, as a world society, to mitigate theconsequences of climate change that will not be realized for at least 100 years? deeply rooted inall cultures, is the notion of generational responsibility. parents work hard so that their childrenwill have a better life. climate change will affect the entire world, but our natural focus is onthe welfare of our immediate families. can we, as a world society, meet our responsibility tofuture generations?
这就是新的挑战。全世界作为一个整体,我们到底愿意付出多少,来缓和气候变化?这种付出至少在12019年内,都不会有明显效果。代际责任深深植根于所有文化中。家长努力工作,为了让他们的孩子有更好的生活。气候变化将影响整个世界,但是我们的天性使得我们只关心个人家庭的福利。我们能不能把全世界看作一个整体?能不能为未来的人们承担起责任?
while i am worried, i am hopeful we will solve this problem. i became the director of thelawrence berkeley national laboratory, in part because i wanted to enlist some of the bestscientific minds to help battle against climate change. i was there only four and a half years,the shortest serving director in the 78-year history of the lab, but when i left, a number ofvery exciting energy institutes at the berkeley lab and uc berkeley had been established.
虽然我忧心忡忡,但是还是对未来抱乐观态度,这个问题将会得到解决。我同意出任劳伦斯-伯克利国家实验室主任,部分原因是我想招募一些世界上最好的科学家,来研究气候变化的对策。我在那里干了4年半,是这个实验室78年的历史中,任期最短的主任,但是当我离任时,在伯克利实验室和伯克利分校,一些非常激动人心的能源研究机构已经建立起来了。
i am extremely privileged to be part of the obama administration. if there ever was a timeto help steer america and the world towards a path of sustainable energy, now is the time. themessage the president is delivering is not one of doom and gloom, but of optimism andopportunity. i share this optimism. the task ahead is daunting, but we can and will succeed.
能够成为奥巴x施政团队的一员,我感到极其荣幸。如果有一个时机,可以引导美国和全世界走上可持续能源的道路,那么这个时机就是现在。总统已经发出 信息,未来并非在劫难逃,而是乐观的,我们依然有机会。我也抱有这种乐观主义。我们面前的任务令人生畏,但是我们能够并且将会成功。
we know some of the answers already. there are immediate and significant savings in energyefficiency and conservation. energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit lyingon the ground. for example, we have the potential to make buildings 80 percent moreefficient with investments that will pay for themselves in less than 15 years. buildingsconsume 40 percent of the energy we use, and a transition to energy efficient buildings willcut our carbon emissions by one-third.
我们已经有了一些答案,可以立竿见影地节约能源和提高能源使用效率。它们不是挂在枝头的水果,而是已经成熟掉在地上了,就看我们愿不愿意捡起来。比 如,我们有办法将楼宇的耗电减少80%,增加的投资在2019年内就可以收回来。楼宇的耗电占我们能源消费的40%,节能楼宇的推广将使我们二氧化碳的释放减 少三分之一。
we are revving up the remarkable american innovation machine that will be the basis of anew american prosperity. we will invent much improved methods to harness the sun, thewind, nuclear power, and capture and sequester the carbon dioxide emitted from our powerplants. advanced bio-fuels and the electrification of personal vehicles make us less dependenton foreign oil.
我们正在加速美国这座巨大的创新机器,这将是下一次美国大繁荣的基础。我们将大量投资有效利用太阳能、风能、核能的新方法,大量投资能够捕获和隔离电厂废气中的二氧化碳的方法。先进的生物燃料和电力汽车将使得我们不再那么依赖外国的石油。
in the coming decades, we will almost certainly face higher oil prices and be in a carbon-constrained economy. we have the opportunity to lead in development of a new, industrialrevolution. the great hockey player, wayne gretzky, when asked, how he positions himself onthe ice, he replied," i skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it's been." americashould do the same.
在未来的几十年中,我们几乎肯定会面对更高的油价和更严厉的二氧化碳限制排放政策。这是一场新的工业革命,美国有机会充当领导者。伟大的冰上曲棍球选手wayne gretzky被问到,他如何在冰上跑位,回答说:"我滑向球下一步的位置,而不是它现在的位置。"美国也应该这样做。
the obama administration is laying a new foundation for a prosperous and sustainableenergy future, but we don't have all of the answers. that's where you come in. in this address,i am asking you, the harvard graduates, to join us. as our future intellectual leaders, take thetime to learn more about what's at stake, and then act on that knowledge. as future scientistsand engineers, i ask you to give us better technology solutions. as future economists andpolitical scientists, i ask you to create better policy options. as future business leaders, i askthat you make sustainability an integral part of your business.
奥巴x政府正在为美国的繁荣和可持续能源,打下新的基础。但是我们无法为所有问题都找到答案。这就需要你们的参与。在本次演讲中,我请求在座各位哈佛毕业生加入我们。你们是我们未来的智力领袖,请花时间加深理解目前的危险局势,然后采取相应的行动。你们是未来的科学家和工程师,我要求你们给我们更好的技术方案。你们是未来的经济学家和政治学家,我要求你们创造更好的政策选择。你们是未来的企业家,我要求你们将可持续发展作为你们业务中不可分割的一部分。
finally, as humanists, i ask that you speak to our common humanity. one of the cruelestironies about climate change is that the ones who will be hurt the most are the most innocent:the worlds poorest and those yet to be born.
最后,你们是人道主义者,我要求你们为了人道主义说话。气候变化带来的最残酷的讽刺之一,就是最受伤害的人,恰恰就是最无辜的人----那些世界上最穷的人们和那些还没有出生的人。
the coda to this last movement is borrowed from two humanists.
这个最后乐章的完结部是引用两个人道主义者的话。
the first quote is from martin luther king. he spoke on ending the war in vietnam in 1967,but his message seems so fitting for today's climate crisis:
第一段引语来自马丁路德金。这是1967年他对越南战争结束的评论,但是看上去非常适合用来评论今天的气候危机。
"this call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race,class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind.this oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by thenietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessityfor the survival of man ... we are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today.we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. in this unfolding conundrum of life andhistory, there is such a thing as being too late."
"我呼吁全世界的人们团结一心,抛弃种族、肤色、阶级、国籍的隔阂;我呼吁包罗一切、无条件的对全人类的爱。你会因此遭受误解和误读,信奉尼采哲学的世人会认定你是一个软弱和胆怯的懦夫。但是,这是人类存在下去的绝对必需。......我的朋友,眼前的事实就是,明天就是今天。此刻,我们面临最紧急的情况。在变幻莫测的生活和历史之中,有一样东西叫做悔之晚矣。"
the final message is from william faulkner. on december 10th, 1950, his nobel prize banquetspeech was about the role of humanists in a world facing potential nuclear holocaust.
第二段引语来自威*福克纳。1950年12月10月,他在诺贝尔奖获奖晚宴上发表演说,谈到了世界在核战争的阴影之下,人道主义者应该扮演什么样的角色。
"i believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. he is immortal, not because healone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capableof compassion and sacrifice and endurance. the poet's, the writer's, duty is to write aboutthese things. it is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him ofthe courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice whichhave been the glory of his past."
"我相信人类不仅能忍耐,而且会获胜。人类是不朽的,这不是因为万物当中仅仅他会无穷尽的呼喊,而是因为他有一个灵魂,有同情心、牺牲精神和忍耐力。诗人和作家的责任就是写这些东西。他们的特权正是通过鼓舞人类,唤起人类原有的荣耀----勇气、荣誉、希望、自尊、怜悯之心和牺牲精神,去帮助人类学会忍耐。"
graduates, you have an extraordinary role to play in our future. as you pursue your privatepassions, i hope you will also develop a passion and a voice to help the world in ways bothlarge and small. nothing will give you greater satisfaction.
各位毕业生同学,你们在我们的未来中扮演举足轻重的角色。当你们追求个人的志向时,我希望你们也会发扬奉献精神,积极发声,在大大小小各个方面帮助改进这个世界。这会给你们带来最大的满足感。
please accept my warmest congratulations. may you prosper, may you help preserve and saveour planet for your children, and all future children of the world.
最后,请接受我最热烈的祝贺。希望你们成功,也希望你们保护和拯救我们这个星球,为了你们的孩子,以及未来所有的孩子。
20位用户关注