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 alwaystold 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 myjob next year … and it will be nice to finally have a college degreeon 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 routeto 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 Ballmerto drop out of business school. I'm a bad influence. That's why I wasinvited 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 up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn't worry about
getting up in the morning. That's how I came to be the leader of the anti-social group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.
　　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.

      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.

     Members of the Harvard Family: Here in the Yard is one of thegreat 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:
　　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."

　　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，对他们的期待也更多。"

　　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利，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.
　　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 nowand 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.