经典名人英语演讲稿47：选择塑造人生（Amazon杰夫·贝索斯普林斯顿大学演讲） mp3
But that I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy—they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.
但是今天我想对你们说的是，天赋和选择不同。聪明是一种天赋，而善良是一种选择。天赋得来很容易——毕竟它们与生俱来。而选择却颇为艰难。如果一不小心你可能被天赋所诱惑，这可能会损害到你做出的选择。
This is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I’m confident that’s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever, the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.
在应各位都拥有许多夭赋。我确信你们的天赋之一就是拥有精明能干的头脑。我之所以如此确信，是因为入学竞争十分激烈，如果你们不能表现出聪明智慧，便没有资格进入这所学校。
Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans, plodding as we are, will astonish ourselves. We’ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we’ll assemble small machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but inevitable news that we’ve synthesized life. In the coming years, we’ll not only synthesize it, but engineer it to specifications. I believe you’ll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton—all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.
你们的聪明才智必定会派上用场，因为你们将在一片充满奇迹的土地上前进。我们人类尽管缓步前行，却终将令自己大吃一惊。我们能够想方设法制造各种清洁能源，也能够一个原子一个原子地纽装微型机械，使之穿过细胞壁，然后修复细胞。注个月，有一件非凡的而不可避免的事情发生了，那就是人类终于合成了生命。在未来几年，我们不仅会合成生命，还会按说明书驱动它们。我相信你们甚至会看到我们读懂人类的大脑。儒勒·凡尔纳、马克·吐温、伽利略、牛顿——所有那些充满好奇之心的人都希望能够活到现在。作为文明人，我们会拥有如此之多的天赋，就像是坐在我面前的你们，每一个生命个体都拥有许多独特的夭赋。
How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?
你们要如何运用这些天赋呢？你们会为自己的夭赋感到骄傲，还是会为自己的选择感到骄傲？
Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life—the life you author from scratch on your own-begins.
明天，非常现实地说，你们的人生——从零开始塑造的自己的人生——即将开启。
How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
你们将如何运用自己的天赋？你们又将做出怎样的抉择？
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
你们是被惯性所引导，还是追随自己内心的热情？
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
你们会墨守成规，还是勇于创新？
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
你们会选择安逸的生活，还是选择一个奉献与冒险的生活？
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
你们会屈从于批评，还是会坚守信念？
Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?
你们会掩饰错误，还是会坦诚道歉？
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
你们会因害怕拒绝而掩饰内心，还是会在面对爱情时勇往直前？
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
你们想要波澜不惊，还是想妥搏击风浪？
When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
你们会在严峻的现实之下选择放弃，还是继续前行？
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
你们要做愤世嫉俗者，还是踏实的建设者？
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?
你们要不计一切代价地展示聪明，还是选择善良？
I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!
我要冒险做一个预测。在你们80岁时，只有你一个人静静对内心诉说着你的人生故事，其中最为充实、最有意义的那段讲述，会被你们做出的一系列决定所填满。最后，是选择塑造了我们的人生。为你自己塑造一个伟大的人生故事吧！谢谢，祝你们好运！