I'm Harvard's Most Successful Dropout

　　我是哈佛最成功的辍学生--比尔.盖茨在哈佛大学接受荣誉学位时的演讲

　　Thank you. President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust,

　　谢谢.博克校长、鲁登斯坦前校长、即将就任的福斯特校长、

　　members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates.

　　哈佛理事会和督学委员会各位成员、各位教职员工、各位父母,特别是各位毕业生:

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

　　"父亲,我一直对您说我会回到哈佛拿到我自己的学位."为了说这句话,我等了三十多年.

　　I want to thank Harvard for this honor.

　　我要感谢哈佛给了我这个荣誉.

　　I'll be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.

　　我明年要换工作了,最终能在简历写上一个大学学位是一件不错的事.

　　I applaud the graduates for taking a much more direct route to your degrees.

　　我为通过更直接的途径获得学位的毕业生喝彩.

　　For my part, I'm just happy that the Crimson called me "Harvard's most successful dropout."

　　而对我来说,哈佛校报称我为"哈佛历史上最成功的辍学生",这也让我同样感到高兴.

　　I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class. I did the best of everyone who failed.

　　我想这样我就成了我这个特别届别的毕业生中作告别演讲的不二人选.我是失败者中最为成功的.

　　But taking a serious look back, I do have one big regret.

　　但认真回顾过去,我确实有着一大遗憾.

　　I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world-

　　当我离开哈佛时,我并没真正有意识到这个世界存在着可怕的不平等现象.

　　the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.

　　人们在享受医疗保健、财富和机会等方面存在着严重不均,这让数百万人生活在绝望之中.

　　I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics.

　　我在哈佛学到了很多经济和政治方面的新思想,

　　I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

　　了解到很多科学上的重大进步.

　　But humanity's greatest advances are not in its discoveries-but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.

　　可是,人类的最大进步并不体现在发现和发明上,而是如何利用它们来消除不平等.

　　Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity,

　　不管通过何种方式--民主、强大的公共教育、优质的医疗保健,或者广泛的经济机会--

　　reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.

　　减少不平等才是人类的最大成就.

　　I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country.

　　当我离开校园时,并不知道美国有数百万的青少年享受不到受教育的机会,

　　And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.

　　我也不知道在发展中国家有数百万人生活在极度的贫困之中,受疾病威胁.

　　It took me decades to find out.

　　我用了几十年的时间才明白了这些.

　　You graduates came to Harvard at a different time.

　　你们来哈佛的时代与我完全不同,

　　You know more about the world's inequities than the classes that came before.

　　你们比之前的学生更了解这个世界上存在的不平等.

　　In your years here, I hope you've had a chance to think about how, in this age of accelerating technology,

　　我希望你们过去几年都曾经认真想过,在科技飞速发展的时代,

　　we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

　　应当如何应对这样的不平等,以及如何解决这些问题.

　　Now, this task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge can change the world.

　　这是一个没有尽头的任务,永远也不会做完,但只要我们自觉行动起来迎接这个挑战,就可以改变这个世界.

　　Yes, inequity has been with us forever, but the new tools we have to cut through complexity have not been with us forever.

　　确实,不平等现象一直与我们相伴,但以前我们没有解决这个复杂问题的新工具.

　　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.

　　这是些新的工具,它们可以帮助我们尽可能地发挥我们的爱心.而正是因为如此,未来才会与过去有所不同.

　　The defining and ongoing innovations of this age-biotechnology, the personal computer, and the Internet-

　　这个时代特有的,并不断发展的新发明--生物科学、个人电脑、互联网--

　　give us a chance we've never had before to end extreme poverty and end death from preventable disease.

　　这些都给予我们前所未有的机会消灭贫困,消灭可预防性疾病造成的死亡.

　　In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue,

　　秉承这个时代带给人类的希望,我想敦促在座的每一位毕业生,接受一个问题的挑战,

　　a complex problem-a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. Don't let complexity stop you.

　　这是一个复杂的问题,那就是极度的不平等现象,并成为这方面的专家.不要让问题的复杂性成为你的障碍.

　　Be activists. Take on big inequities. I feel sure it will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

　　行动起来,向重大不平等现象发起挑战.我肯定这会成为你生命中最了不起的经历之一.

　　You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time.

　　你们这些正在成熟的毕业生处于一个了不起的时代.

　　As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had.

　　就在你们离开哈佛的时候,你们掌握了我们这届学生未曾掌握的技术手段.

　　You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have.

　　你们了解全球的不平等现象,这也是我们当时做不到的.

　　And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience

　　有了这种意识,你很可能就会有明事理的良心.

　　that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with modest effort.

　　如果无需花多大的努力你就可以改变某些人的生活,但你却对他们置之不理,那你会受到良心的谴责.

　　You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.

　　你们比我们有更多的优势,必须更早开始行动,并坚持更久.

　　And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now

　　我希望你们在30年后再回到哈佛,

　　and reflect on what you've done with your talent and your energy.

　　回顾你们发挥自己的才能和精力所做的一切.

　　I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone,

　　我希望你们不仅仅是以自己职业上的成就来评价自己,

　　but also on how well you have addressed the world's deepest inequities,

　　还要以你们如何处理世界上最深重的不平等现象,

　　on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

　　以你们如何对待那些与你们相距遥远,同为人类一员,但除了此以外并没有共同点的人来衡量自己的成功.

　　Good luck.

　　祝你们好运.

本文选自《移动英语通》的博客，点击查看博客原文