比尔·盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

liver411

比尔·盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

　　2007年6月7日

　　阮一峰 译

　　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 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。

　　

liver411

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和我读到了一篇文章，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。

　　

liver411

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。
"

　　

liver411

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. 

　　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: 

　　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 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。