英国首相布莱尔2008年在耶鲁大学毕业典礼上的演讲：耶鲁——世界公民的发源地
It is an honor to be here and to say to the Yale College Class of 2008： you did it; you came through; from all of us to you: congratulations.
我深感荣幸能够站在这里为耶鲁大学2008届毕业生发表演讲。你们成功了，你 们走过来了；我们所有人都向你们表示祝贺。
The issue you must wrestle with the threat of climate change, food scarcity, and population growth, worldwide terror based on religion，the interdependence of the world economy—my student generation would barely recognize. But the difference today is they are all essentially global in nature.
亟待你们解决的问题包括来自气候变化的威胁、食品短缺、人口激增、由宗教 引发的世界范围内的恐怖主义，以及世界经济的日益相互依赖。这些在我的学生时 代几乎都没有被意识到。但不同以往的是，今天这些问题在本质上都是全球性的。
You understand this. Yale has become a melting pot of culture, language and civilization. You are the global generation. So be global citizens.
你们都明白：耶鲁已经成为了文化、语言和文明的大熔炉。你们是全球性的一 代。因此你们要成为世界公民。
Each new generation finds the world they enter. But they fashion the world they leave. So: what do you inherit and what do you pass on?
每一代人降生在这个世界，但是他们在离开时却改变了世界。因此问题就是：你们继承什么，又将传递给下一代什么？
The history of humankind is marked by great events but written by great people. People like you. Given Yale’s record of achievement, perhaps by you.
人类历史以大事件为标志，而大事件则由伟人来谱写。就是你们来谱写。鉴于 耶鲁的辉煌历史，人类历史很可能就是由在座的你们来书写。
So to you as individuals, what wisdom, if any, have I learnt? First, in fact, keep learning. Always be alive to the possibilities of the next experience, of thinking, doing and being.
因此，我要对你们每个人说，如果我真的获得了些智慧，那么这些智慧又是什 么呢？举个例子，首先我懂得了学无止境。对可能出现的新经历、思考、行动和成 长保持清醒。
When Buddha was asked, near the end of his life, to describe his secret, he answered bluntly： “I’m awake”. So be awake.
当佛祖圆寂之前，有人问他成佛的秘诀，他坦诚相告：“我是清醒的。”所以 要时刻保持清醒。
Understand conventional wisdom, but be prepared to change it.
了解约定俗成的学识，但也要作好准备改变它。
Feel as well as analyze; use your instinct alongside your reason. Calculate too much and you will miscalculate.
感知与分析要双管齐下。同时騰直觉与理性并用。过于斤斤计较只会打错算盘。
Be prepared to fail as well as to succeed, and realize it is failure not success that defines character.
既要做好准备迎接成功也要做好准备迎接失败。要知道，是失败而不是成功塑 造人的性格。
I spent years trying to be a politician failing at every attempt and nearly gave up. I know you are thinking： I should have.
多年来我努力成为一个政治家，却总是失败，几近放弃。我知道你们怎么想 的：我本就应该放弃。
Above all, however, have a purpose in life. Life is not about living but about striving. When you get up, get up motivated. Live with a perpetual sense of urgency. And make at least part of that purpose about something bigger than you.
但是，最重要的是生活要有目标。生活不仅仅是活着而已，而是要奋力拼搏。 当你开始行动时，必须具有目的性。生活中时刻要有紧迫感。要把目标定得髙出当 前水平。
There are great careers. There are also great causes.
世界上有伟大的职业，同样也有伟大的目标。
At least let some of them into your lives. Giving lifts the heart in a way that getting never can. Maybe it really was Oscar Wilder who said:"No one ever died, saying if only I had one more day at the office.”
至少让其中一部分融人你的生活。给予可以在某种程度上提升人的心灵，这是 索取永远也不能做到的。也许正如奥斯卡王尔德所说的那样：“渴望再多工作一 天的人，不会死去。”
One small but shocking sentence: each year three million children die in Africa from preventable disease or conflict.
有一句话，短小但震撼人心：每年，在非洲有300万的儿童死于可预防的疾病或 是冲突。
The key word? Preventable.
关键词是什么？ “可预防的”。
When all is said and done, there is usually more said than done.
我们该说的说了，该做的做了，但通常说的比做得多。
Be a doer not a commentator. Seek responsibility rather than shirk it. “People often ask me about leadership” I say: leadership is about wanting the responsibility to be on your shoulders, not ignoring its weight but knowing someone has to carry it and, reaching out for that person to be you. leaders are heat-seekers not heat-deflectors.
要做一个行动者而非评论者。要承担责任而非逃避责任。人们经常问我关于领 导力的问题，我的回答是；领导能力是指希望能肩负责任，而不是忽略责任之重， 是知道必须有人站出来承担责任，然后努力成为那个承担责任的人。领导人是来承 担责任而非逃避责任的。
And luck? You have all the luck you need. You are here, at Yale, and what apart from the hats could be better? You have something else: your parents. When you are your age, you can never imagine being our age. But believe me, when you are our age we remember clearly being your age. That is why I am so careful about young men and my daughter, “don’t tell me what you are thinking. I know what you are thinking.”
那么运气呢？你们拥有所需要的所有运气。你们现在这儿，在耶鲁学习，除了戴上耶鲁大学的桂冠，你们还有拥有什么样的好运？你们还拥有其他东西：你们的 父母。在你们现在这个年纪，你们无法想象到了我们这个年纪会是什么样子。但是 相信我，当你们步入我们这个年纪，你们能够清楚地记得你们现在的事情。这就是 为什么我如此关心年轻人以及我的女儿。“不要告诉我你们在想什么。我知道你们 在想什么。”
But as a parent let me tell you something about parents. Despite all rational impulses, despite all evidence to the contrary, despite what we think you do to us and what you think we do to you—and yes, it is often hell on both sides the plain, unvarnished truth is we love you. Simply, profoundly, utterly.
作为一个父亲，让我告诉你们一些关于父母的事。尽管我们会有一些理性的冲 动，尽管也存在相反的例子，尽管我们对彼此的所作所为不满意，是的，这对我们 都很糟糕，但是显而易见的事实是我们爱你们，一种简单、深沉而绝对的爱。
I remember, back in the mists of time, my Dad greeting me off the train at Durham railway station. I was a student at Oxford. Oxford and Cambridge are for Britain kind of like Yale and Harvard, only more so. It was a big deal. I had been away for my first year and was coming home.
回顾往事，我想起我的父亲在达勒姆火车站接我时的情景。我当时是牛津大学 的学生。英国的牛津和剑桥就相当于美国的耶鲁和哈佛，或者比它们更好。那可是 件大事。我当时离家第一年在校学习归来。
I stepped off the train. My hair was roughly the length of Rumpelstiltskin’s and unwashed. I had no shoes and no shirt. My jeans were torn——and this was in the days before this became a fashion item. Worst of all, we had just moved house. Mum had thrown out the sitting room drapes. I had retrieved them and made a sleeveless long coat with them.
从火车上下来，我拖着一头长度犹如侏儒怪的脏兮兮的头发。光着脚，也没穿 衬衣，牛仔裤破旧不堪——不久前这变成一种时尚了。最糟糕的是，我们刚刚搬了 家。母亲丢掉了的客厅的窗帘，被我捡了回来做了一件无袖长外套。
My Dad greeted me. There were all his friends at the station. Beside me，their kids look paragons of respectability. He saw the drapes，and visibly winced. They did kind of stand out I took pity on him. “Dad”，I said. “There is good news. I don’t do drugs.
父亲上来迎接我。车站里都是父亲的朋友。除了我，他们的孩子看起来都很体 面。父亲看着我披个窗帘布显然愣住了。这衣服确实很引人注目。我开始觉得对不 起我的父亲了。“爸爸”，我说到：“我有个好消息告诉你，我不吸毒。”
He looked me in the eye and said: “Son，the bad news is if you are looking like this and you are not doing drugs we’ve got a real problem.”
他看着我的眼睛说：“儿子，糟糕的是，如果你不吸毒就穿成这样，那我们就真的 有大问题了。”
Your parents look at you today with love. They know how hard it is to make the grade and they respect you for making it. And tomorrow as I know, as a parent of one of this class, as you receive your graduation, their hearts will beat with the natural rhythm of pride. Pride in what you have achieved. Pride in who you are. They will be nervous for you, as you stand on the threshold of a new adventure for they know the many obstacles that lie ahead. But they will be confident that you can surmount them, for they know also the strength of character and of spirit that has taken you thus far.
今天，你们的父母满怀爱意地望着你们。他们知道你们的成绩得来不易，你 们做到了，他们为你们骄傲。作为这届毕业生的一名家长，我知道，当你们接过毕 业证书，你们的父母将很自然地自心底涌起一股自豪之情，他们为你们取得的成就 而骄傲，他们为你们而骄傲。当你们踏上一段新的征途时，你们的父母会为你们担 忧，因为他们知道前方有许多艰难险阻。但是他们相信你们能够征服这些困难，因 为他们知道，你们所具有的性格和精神的力量已经帮助你们获得了今天的成就。
To my fellow parents: I say, let us rejoice and be glad together.
我想对家长们说:我们在其中要高兴欢喜。
To the Yale College Class of 2008, I say: well done; and may blessings and good fortune be yours in the years to come.
我想对耶鲁大学2008届毕业生说：你们做得很出色，希望在未来的日子里幸福 和好运常伴你们左右。