Matt Damon’s Commencement address: “There’s more at stake today than in any story ever told.”

导读：2016年6月3日，“心灵捕手”马特·达蒙在片中饰演的威尔所在的名校麻省理工学院（MIT）毕业典礼上发表了演讲。除了秀一下跟他好友本·阿弗莱克的恩爱，马达也掏心窝地当起人生导师，不过谁能想到这位有着非凡成就、实打实的演技派，甚至没有正儿八经的从大学毕业？而马达用鸡汤告诉我们——失败是走向成功的最好盔甲！这篇演讲就要说，如何跳脱校园，走向世界，实现个人价值，能给他人带来惊喜。文章真的很长，同学们在听课之前，可以先看整个视频，关于演讲的翻译和重点词汇我也会给到笔记里，今晚要给大家重点讲解的段落，也是马达做过的特有魅力的几件事位于演讲稿的16-21，24-27， 29-34；37-40 这几个段落请同学们好好认真的预习哟～～

[1] Thank you. Thank you, President Reif — and thank you, Class of 2016!
It’s an honor to be part of this day — an honor to be here with you, with your friends, your professors, and your parents. But let’s be honest — It’s an honor I didn’t earn. Let’s just put that out there. I mean, I’ve seen the list of previous commencement speakers: Nobel Prize winners. The UN Secretary General. President of the World Bank. President of the United States.

Translation:
非常感谢校长，同时也感谢MIT所有2016届毕业生! 今天是属于你们的荣耀时刻;今天是你们与益友、良师、父母共同庆祝的荣耀时刻;今天我很荣幸可以见证这一荣耀时刻。但是，坦白说，我配不上这份荣耀。我来之前看过MIT邀请的历届毕业演讲嘉宾名单，他们有诺贝尔奖得主、联合国秘书长、世界银行行长、美国总统。

[2] And who did you get? The guy who did the voice for a cartoon horse.
If you’re wondering which cartoon horse: that’s “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”
Definitely one of my best performances ... as a cartoon horse. Look, I don’t even have a college degree. As you might have heard, I went to Harvard. I just didn’t graduate from Harvard. I got pretty close, but I started to get movie roles and didn’t finish all my courses. I put on a cap and gown and walked with my class; my Mom and Dad were there and everything; I just never got an actual degree. You could say I kind of fake graduated.

Points:
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron 小马王
Translation:
你们这届毕业生等来的是谁呢，不过是一个为卡通马配音的家伙。哪匹卡通马?好吧，就是《小马王斯比瑞特》(Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron)里的那匹。不得不说，作为一匹马，我在里面的表现还不错。我甚至连大学都没毕业。你或许听说过我之前就读于哈佛大学，但是我中途退学了。我曾经离哈佛大学的学位仅一步之遥，但后来我爱上了电影，就逐渐荒废了学业。我也经历过你们今天的一切：穿上学士服和同学一块儿参加毕业典礼;带着父母一块儿听毕业演讲;唯一不同的是我没有领到学位证。你们可以叫我伪毕业生。

[3] So you can imagine how excited I was when President Reif called to invite me to speak at the MIT commencement. Then you can imagine how sorry I was to learn that the MIT commencement speaker does not get to go home with a degree.
So yes, today, for the second time in my life, I am fake graduating from a college in my hometown. My Mom and Dad are here again… And this time I brought my wife and four kids. Welcome, kids, to Dad’s fake graduation. You must be so proud. So as I said, my Mom is here. She’s a professor, so she knows the value of an MIT degree. She also knows that I couldn’t have gotten in here. I mean, Harvard, yes. Or a safety school — like Yale.

Translation:
所以接到赖夫校长的邀请时，我欣喜若狂。同时作为一个没有学位证的演讲嘉宾，我又惴惴不安。好吧，今天就算是我人生第二次混进毕业典礼。很荣幸成为一名家乡大学的伪毕业生。同样，今天我父母又一次来参加我的“毕业典礼”。这一次，我还带来了我的妻子和孩子。宝贝，欢迎来参加爸爸的“毕业典礼”。给爸爸加油哦。没错，我妈妈今天也来了。她是一名教授，她知道MIT学位的含金量。我妈妈也知道我这点能耐是拿不到MIT的毕业证书的。我是说，我连哈佛的毕业证书都没拿到。好吧，或许我也就配得上耶鲁了。

[4] Look, I’m not running for any kind of office. I can say ... pretty much whatever I want. No, I couldn’t have gotten in here, but I did grow up here. Grew up in the neighborhood, in the shadow of this imposing place. My brother Kyle and I, and my friend Ben Affleck—brilliant guy, good guy, never really amounted to much — we all grew up here, in Central Square, children of this sometimes rocky marriage between this city and its great institutions. To us, MIT was kind of The Man ... This big, impressive, impersonal force ... That was our provincial, knee-jerk, teenage reaction, anyway.

Points: institution n. 机构 制度
Translation:
我不属于任何官僚机构，所以我今天可以畅所欲言。我没有机会去MIT读书，但我是在这里长大的。我小时候住在学校附近，在MIT光环的笼罩下成长。我和哥哥凯尔(Kyle)以及我的好朋友本·阿弗莱克(Ben Affleck)从小一块在中央广场(Central Square)玩耍，这座城市和这所伟大的学校共同塑造了我们。我们当时年少轻狂，MIT则以一种高大威武的雄性魅力吸引着我们。

[5] Then Ben and I shot a movie here. One of the scenes in Good Will Hunting was based on something that actually happened to my brother. Kyle was visiting a physicist we knew at MIT, and he was walking down the Infinite Corridor. He saw those blackboards that line the halls. So my brother, who’s an artist, picked up some chalk and wrote an incredibly elaborate, totally fake, version of an equation.
It was so cool and so completely insane that no one erased it for months. This is true. Anyway, Kyle came back and he said, you guys, listen to this ... They’ve got blackboards running down the hall! Because these kids are so smart they just need to, you know, drop everything and solve problems!

Points: elaborate v. 详尽说明
adj. 精心制作的
insane adj. 疯狂的
Translation:
于是，我和阿弗莱克在这儿拍了一部电影。《心灵捕手》(Good Will Hunting)的一个场景是基于我哥哥凯尔的真实故事改编的。凯尔当时走在MIT的无尽长廊(Infinite Corridor)上要去拜访一位物理学家。他看到了走廊里的黑板，然后我这位艺术家小哥哥就拿起粉笔在黑板上写了一个凭空而造的复杂方程。简直帅呆了，而且方程在黑板上几个月都没人擦。这事儿是真的。哥哥后来跟我们说，小伙伴们，MIT走廊里装了一排黑板!因为孩子们实在太聪明，他们可以随时放下手上的事，专注难题。

[6] It was then we knew for sure we could never have gotten in. But like I said, we later made a movie here. Which did not go unnoticed on campus. In fact I’d like to read you some actual lines, some selected passages, from the review of Good Will Hunting in the MIT school paper. Oh, and if you haven’t seen it, Will was me, and Sean was played by the late Robin Williams, a man I miss a hell of a lot.

Points:
Good Will Hunting 心灵捕手 （马特达蒙的代表作品）

Translation:
然后我们意识到，MIT是我们可望而不可及的地方。但就像我之前说的，我们后来在MIT拍了电影，并且电影在校园多少得到些关注。MIT的校报上有很多《心灵捕手》的评论，我从中摘录了一些读给你们听。呃，如果你们有人没有看过《心灵捕手》，我是电影里的威尔(Will)，桑恩(Sean)是由罗宾·威廉姆斯(Robin Williams)扮演的，我现在非常怀念威廉姆斯。

[7] So I’m quoting here: “Good Will Hunting is very entertaining; but then again, any movie partially set at MIT has to be.” There’s more. “In the end...,” the reviewer writes, “the actual character development flies out the window. Will and Sean talk, bond, solve each other’s problems, and then cry and hug each other. After said crying and hugging, the movie ends...
Points:
pretentiousness n. 自命不凡

Translation:
以下就是这些评论：“《心灵捕手》不过哗众取宠，以MIT为背景的电影一向如此。” 还有评论者写道：“威尔和桑恩促膝长谈，打开彼此心结，之后又相拥而泣。电影就在哭泣和拥抱中结束了，这种矫揉造作的电影实在太菜了。”

[8] Well, this kind of hurts my feelings. But don’t worry: I now know better than to cry at MIT. But look, I’m happy to be here anyway. I might still be a knee-jerk teenager in key respects, but I know an amazing school when I see it. We’re lucky to have MIT in Boston. And we’re lucky it draws the people it does, people like you, from around the world. I mean, you’re working on some crazy stuff in these buildings. Stuff that would freak me out if I actually understood it. Theories, models, paradigm shifts.

Points:
knee-jerk adj. 下意识的
paradigm n. 范例 样式

Translation:
但是别担心，我已经找到比MIT更适合哭泣的地方了。但无论如何，我很高兴站在这里。我当年是一个冲动无知的少年，但我知道我看到的是一所了不起的大学。MIT是波士顿的骄傲。MIT也是世界各地莘莘学子的骄傲。你们在MIT从事高深的研究：各种理论、模型、范式转变。这些都是我的思维所不能企及的。

[9] I’ll tell you one that’s been on my mind: Simulation Theory. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Maybe you took a class with Max Tegmark. Well, for the uninitiated, there’s a philosopher named Nick Bostrom at Oxford, and he’s postulated that if there’s a truly advanced form of intelligence out there in the universe, then it’s probably advanced enough to run simulations of entire worlds — maybe trillions of them — maybe even our own. The basic idea, as I understand it, is that we could be living in a massive simulation run by a far smarter civilization, a giant computer game, and we don’t even know it.
Points:
postulate v. 假定 假设

Translation:
我脑子里一直萦绕着一个理论：模拟理论(Simulation Theory)。你们可能听说过这个理论，或者有人上过马克斯·泰格马克(Max Tegmark)的课。它是牛津大学哲学家尼克·波斯特罗姆(Nick Bostrom)提出的一个假设：如果宇宙中真的有某种高级智能存在，那么他们应该有能力模拟上无数个虚拟世界，其中就包括我们生活的世界。我对这个理论的理解是，我们有可能生活在一个更加智能的文明所开发的大型电脑游戏中，而我们对此却全然不知

[10] And here’s the thing: a lot of physicists, cosmologists, won’t rule it out. I watched a discussion that was moderated by Neil de Grasse Tyson, of the Hayden Planetarium, and by and large, the panel couldn’t give a definitive answer. Tyson himself put the odds at 50-50. I’m not sure how scientific that is, but it had numbers in it, so I was impressed. Well, it got me to thinking: What if this—all of this—is a simulation? I mean, it’s a crazy idea, but what if it is?

Points:
moderate v. 变缓和
adj. 有节制的

Translation:
而问题的关键是：许多物理学家和宇宙学家并不能对这一理论证伪。我在海登天文馆(Hayden Planetarium)观摩过一场由奈尔·德葛拉司·泰森(Neil deGrasse Tyson)主持的辩论会，但辩论小组并不能给出明确答案。泰森本人也只能把这一理论的可能性定为50%。我不清楚这一理论的科学性，但我对里面的数据印象深刻。我开始思考：如果我们所有的一切都不过是幻象，这很匪夷所思，但如果这是真的，后果会怎么样?

[11] And if there are multiple simulations, how come we’re in the one where Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee? Can we, like, transfer to a different one?
Professor Tegmark has an excellent take on all this. “My advice,” he said recently, “is to go out and do really interesting things... so the simulators don’t shut you down.” But then again: what if it isn’t a simulation? Well, either way, my answer is the same.

Points:
Multiple simulation 模拟理论

Translation:
如还有很多其它虚拟世界存在，我们怎么偏偏生活在唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)作为共和党候选人的疯狂世界?我们能不能去别的世界生活? 泰格马克教授对此有巧妙的回答：“我的建议是，走出去做自己喜欢的事，然后你就是一个有生命的自由人。” 反过来，如果我们不是活在幻象之中又当如何?答案还是一样的。

[12] Either way, what we do matters. What we do affects the outcome. So either way, MIT, you’ve got to go out and do really interesting things. Important things. Inventive things. Because this world ... real or imagined ... this world has some problems we need you to drop everything and solve. Go ahead: take your pick from the world’s worst buffet.

Translation:
也就是说，最重要的不是我们活在一个怎样的世界，而是我们的所作所为。人之作为让我们与众不同。所以，MIT的同学们，你们应该走出去，追寻自己喜欢的事。你们可堪重任。因为，无论是真实还是幻象，这世界都存在很多问题，这世界需要你们随时放弃一切，专注难题。在这千疮百孔的世界挑一个难题，然后一往无前。

[13] Economic inequality, there’s a problem ... Or how about the refugee crisis, massive global insecurity... climate change and pandemics ... institutional racism ... a pull to nativism, fear-driven brains working overtime ... here in America and in places like Austria, where a far-right candidate nearly won the presidential election for the first time since World War II.

Translation:
经济失调、难民危机、恐怖主义、气候变化、疾病传染、种族歧视、本土主义等等。美国和奥地利，极右翼候选人马上就要赢得总统竞选，这自二战以来还是首例。

[14] Or Brexit, for God’s sakes, that insane idea that the best path for Britain is to cut loose from Europe and drift out to sea. Add to that an American political system that’s failing... we’ve got congressmen on a two-year election cycle who are only incentivized to think short term, and simply do not engage with long-term problems.
Add to that a media that thrives on scandal and people with their pants down … Anything to get you to tune in so they can hawk you products that you don’t need. And add to that a banking system that steals people’s money. Like I said, I’m never running for office!

Translation:
还有“英退欧盟”(Brexit)的问题。英国最好的出路居然是退出欧盟，实在愚蠢至极。美国的政治体系在衰落，国会议员两年一换届，议员们简直鼠目寸光，从来不做长期打算。堕落的媒体只关注于八卦，对花边新闻乐此不疲，将人淹没于垃圾信息之中。狡猾的银行时刻觊觎着你的钞票。我之前已经表明，我不属于任何官僚机构。

[15] But while I’m on this, let me say this to the bankers who brought you the biggest heist in history: It was theft and you knew it. It was fraud and you knew it. And you know what else? We know that you knew it. And yeah, OK, you sort of got away with it. You got that house in the Hamptons that other people paid for ... as their own mortgages went underwater. Well, you might have their money, but you don’t have our respect.Just so you know, when we pass you on the street and look you in the eye ... that’s what we’re thinking. I don’t know if justice is coming for you in this life or the next. But if justice does come for you in this life ... her name is Elizabeth Warren. OK, so before my banking digression, I rattled off a bunch of big problems.
And a natural response is to tune out, turn away.

Translation:
所以，既然说到这了，我想对那些贪得无厌的银行家说：你们是盗贼!你们是骗子!我们对你们的所作所为一清二楚。你们鸠占鹊巢，以抵押贷款之名住着别人的房子!或许你们很有钱，但你们得不到我们的尊重!当你们在路上与我们擦肩而过，你们会从我们眼中看到鄙视与愤怒! 我不知道正义是否会到来。但如果有人伸张正义，那么这个人就是伊丽莎白·沃伦(Elizabeth Warren)。 我刚刚吐槽了一堆棘手的问题，有点跑题了。

[16] But before you step out into our big, troubled world, I want to pass along a piece of advice that Bill Clinton offered me a little over a decade ago. Well, actually, when he said it, it felt less like advice and more like a direct order. What he said was “turn toward the problems you see.” It seemed kind of simple at the time, but the older I get, the more wisdom I see in this. And that’s what I want to urge you to do today: turn toward the problems you see.

Translation:
你可能听得有些不耐烦了，但在你转身步入这混乱的世界之前，我想给你们提个建议。这是我十几年前从比尔·克林顿(Bill Clinton)总统那里听到的。其实，这个建议听起来更像一个命令。克林顿总统这样说：“发现问题既当直面问题。”　当时我觉得这句话很简单。但随着年龄的增长，我越来越发现其中蕴含的智慧。今天，我也希望你们记住这句话：发现问题既当直面问题。

[17] And don’t just turn toward them. Engage with them. Walk right up to them, look them in the eye... then look yourself in the eye and decide what you’re going to do about them.

Translation:直面问题还不够，你要深入了解这些问题。走向他们。直面他们。然后问自己：我应该怎样处理这些问题。

[18] In my experience, there’s just no substitute for actually going and seeing things.
I owe this insight, like many others, to my Mom. When I was a teenager, Mom thought it was important for us to see the world outside of Boston. And I don’t mean Framingham. She took us to places like Guatemala, where we saw extreme poverty up close. It changed my whole frame of reference.

Points:
frame of reference 观点 道理

Translation:
以我的经验，认识这个世界最好的方式是用自己的眼睛去观察。跟很多人一样，我在母亲的教导下拥有了这种洞察力。我小的时候，母亲认为有必要让我们见识下波士顿以外的世界。我说的可不是弗雷明汉(Framingham)。她带我们去了危地马拉(Guatemala)这样的地方。我在那里真正知道了什么是贫穷，我的世界观彻底改变了

[19] I think it was that same impulse that took my brother and me to Zambia in 2006, as part of the ONE Campaign — the organization that Bono founded to fight desperate, stupid poverty and preventable disease in the developing world. On that trip, in a small community, I met a girl and walked with her to a nearby bore well where she could get clean water.

Translation:
然后基于同样的原因，2006年我和哥哥作为反极度贫困组织ONE Campaign的成员去了赞比亚。ONE Campaign是博诺(Bono)为了解决发展中国家的贫困和疾病问题而成立的。在赞比亚的一个部落，我遇到一个小女孩，我陪她一块儿去附近的井边打水。

[20] She had just come from school. And I knew the reason that she was able to go to school at all: clean water. Namely, the fact that clean water was available nearby, so she didn’t have to walk miles back and forth all day to get water for her family, as so many girls and women do. I asked her if she wanted to stay in her village when she grew up. She said, “No! I want to go to Lusaka and become a nurse!” Clean water — something as basic as that — had given this child the chance to dream.

Translation:
打水小女孩刚刚放学归来。然后我知道了为什么这个小女孩有机会上学：因为附近有清水。小女孩不必浪费一整天时间来回徒步几英里为家里人取水。而赞比亚的很多女孩就没有小女孩这么幸运了。我问小女孩长大了是否愿意留在村子里，她回答说：“不，我要去卢萨卡(Lusaka，赞比亚首都)，我想做一名护士。”纯净水，我们生活最基本的东西，它给了小女孩实现梦想的机会。

[21] As I learned more about water and sanitation, I was floored by the extent to which it undergirds all these problems of extreme poverty. The fate of entire communities, economies, countries is caught up in that glass of water, something the rest of us get to take for granted.

Points:
Sanitation n. 卫生系统

Translation:
后来，我终于意识到水和卫生设施才是贫困问题的关键。我以前真是太蠢了。社会的命运，经济的命运，国家的命运完全由水掌控，而我们对水确挥取自如。
[22] People at ONE told me that water is the least sexy aspect of the effort to fight extreme poverty. And water goes hand-in-hand with sanitation. If you think water isn’t sexy, you should try to get into the shit business.

Points:
Sexy 这里的sexy不是表示性感的 而是表示吸引人的

Translation:
ONE Campaign的人告诉我，水是对抗极端贫穷最吸引人的方法。如果你觉得水不够吸引人，你可以试试粪便。

[23] But I was already hooked. The enormity of it, and the complexity of the issue, had already hooked me. And getting out in the world and meeting people like this little girl is what put me on the path to starting Water.org, with a brilliant civil engineer named Gary White. For Gary and me both, seeing the world ... its problems, its possibilities ... heightened our disbelief that so many people, millions, in fact, can’t get a safe, clean drink of water or a safe, clean, private place to go to the bathroom. And it heightened our determination to do something about it.

points:
Enormity n. 巨大 极大

Translation:
我已经被这一问题深深吸引了。问题的复杂程度令我不能自拔。我深入世界之中，遇到很多小女孩这样的人，然后我跟加理·怀特(Gary White)共同创建了Water.org。怀特是名出色的土木工程师，我们都看到了世界的很多问题和可能性。世界上还有数百万人没有干净的水喝，没有卫生的地方洗澡。我们不能坐视不管，必须有所作为。

[24] You see some tough things out there. But you also see life- changing joy. And it all changes you.

Translation:
这世界并没有那么美好。但你会为这世界逐渐变得美好而惊喜，而这份惊喜又会改变你。

[25] There was a refugee crisis back in ’09 that I read about in an amazing article in the New York Times. People were streaming across the border of Zimbabwe to a little town in northern South Africa called Messina. I was working in South Africa, so I went up to Messina to see for myself what was going on.

Translation:
2009年，我在纽约时报上读到一篇关于难民危机的报道。人流拥挤地越过津巴布韦边境，去南非北部一个叫墨西拿(Messina)的小镇。我当时正在南非徒步，所以我决定去墨西拿亲眼看看那里究竟发生了什么。

[26] I spent a day speaking with women who had made this perilous journey across the Limpopo River, dodging bandits on one side, crocodiles in the river, and bandits on the other. Every woman I spoke to that day had been raped. Every single one. On one side of the river or both.

Points:
Perilous adj. 危险的 冒险的

Translation:
我遇到了很多女性，和她们交谈了一整天。她们为了躲避土匪，不顾水中的鳄鱼，涉险度过林波波河(Limpopo River)，然后在河的另一侧又遇到一波土匪。那天跟我交谈的每一位女性都被土匪强奸过，每一个，在河的一侧或者两侧。

[27] At the end of my time there I met a woman who was so positive, so joyful. She had just been given her papers and had been given political asylum in South Africa. And in the midst of this joyful conversation, I mustered up the courage and said,
“Ma’am, do you mind my asking: were you assaulted on your journey to South Africa?” And she replied, still smiling, “Oh, yes, I was raped. But I have my papers now. And those bastards didn’t get my dignity.”

Translation:
在我离开之前，我遇到另一名女性，她看上去很开心，因为她刚刚得到南非的政治庇护。在与她愉快的交谈中，我鼓起勇气问她：“你在来南非的路上是否被侵犯过?” 她答道：“是的，我被强奸了。但是我现在有庇护证书了，这些混蛋再也不能践踏我的尊严了。”她说这些话时仍然面带微笑。

[28] Human beings will take your breath away. They will teach you a lot... but you have to engage. I only had that experience because I went there myself. It was horrible in many ways, it was hard to get to ... but of course that’s the point. There’s a lot of trouble out there, MIT. But there’s a lot of beauty, too. I hope you see both.
But again, the point is not to become some kind of well- rounded, high-minded voyeur.

Translation:
人终有一死。你可以在校园里学会很多东西，但你一定要亲眼去看看这个世界。我对这次经历印象很深，因为我是孤身上路。我内心充满恐惧，但这也是其意义所在。MIT的精英们，这个世界有它罪恶的一面，也有美好的一面。我希望你们对两者都有所了解。但我不是想你们成为圆滑高尚的偷窥狂。

[29] The point is to try to eliminate your blind spots — the things that keep us from grasping the bigger picture. And look, even though I grew up in this neighborhood — in this incredible, multicultural neighborhood that was a little rough at that time — I find myself here before you as an American, white, male movie star. I don’t have a clue where my blind spots begin and end.

Translation:
我想你们消除自身视野的盲点，我想让你们踏平影响你了解世界的障碍。就像我在附近这个不可思议的多元化的社区长大，而在我成为一名美国白人男性影星之前，我还有些粗鲁，我站在这里终究发现不了自身的盲点。

[30] But looking at the world as it is, and engaging with it, is the first step toward finding our blind spots. And that’s when we can really start to understand ourselves better ... and begin to solve some problems. With that as your goal, there’s a few more things I hope you’ll keep in mind.

Translation:
走出去，拥抱世界，这才是我们寻找盲点的第一步。只有这样，我们才真正开始了解自己，开始解决一些问题，这才是真正更好了解我们自己的开始。我希望有几件事你们能铭记于心

[31] First, you’re going to fail sometimes, and that’s a good thing. For all the amazing successes I’ve been lucky to share in, few things have shaped me more than the auditions that Ben and I used to do as young actors — where we would get on a bus, show up in New York, wait for our turn, cry our hearts out for a scene, and then be told, “OK, thanks.”Meaning: game over. We used to call it “being OK thanks.”

Translation:
第一，你会失败，这是好事。我侥幸取得过一些成就，但对我影响最大还是年轻时跟本一块而参加试镜的经历。我们坐大巴到纽约，排队等待，然后对着镜头哭泣。最后等来的却是一句：“好的，非常感谢。”这意味着我们没戏了。我们称之为“谢谢参与”。

[32] Those experiences became our armor. So now you’re thinking, that’s great, Matt. Failure is good. Thanks a ton. Tell me something I didn’t hear at my high school graduation. To which I say: OK, I will! You know the real danger for MIT graduates? It’s not getting “OK thanks.” The real danger is all that smoke that’s been blown up your ... graduation gowns about how freaking smart you are. Well, you are that freaking smart! But don’t believe the hype that’s thrown at you. You don’t have all the answers. And you shouldn’t. And that’s fine. You’re going to have your share of bad ideas.

Translation:
这些经历成了我们的盔甲。你可能会说，说得好，失败是成功之母，非常感谢。那跟我说一些我高中毕业时没听过的吧。好的，我会的。你们知道MIT毕业生真正的危机是什么吗?不是听到“谢谢参与”，而是你们顶着MIT的光环会让你们飘飘然。你们或许真的很聪明，但不要自以为是。你不会凡事都能解决，这很正常。你们定也会犯错。

[33] For me, one was playing a character named “Edgar Pudwhacker.” I wish I could tell you I’m making that up. But as the great philosopher, Benjamin Affleck, once said: “Judge me by how good my good ideas are, not by how bad my bad ideas are.” You’ve got to suit up in your armor, and get ready to sound like a total fool.
Not having an answer isn’t embarrassing. It’s an opportunity. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I know so much less the second time I’m fake graduating than the first time.

Translation:
我犯的一个错就是扮演了“埃德加·帕德怀克”(Edgar Pudwhacker)这一角色。我希望我能挽回颜面。但哲学家本杰明·阿弗莱克说过：要评判我，请看我那些好想法有多好，别看我的烂想法有多烂。你们要用失败的盔甲武装自己，求知若愚。无知并非尴尬，而是机遇。请大胆求知。我第二次混进毕业典礼时，感到自己更加无知。

[34] The second thing I want to leave you with is that you’ve got to keep listening. The world wants to hear your ideas — good and bad. But today’s not the day you switch from“receive” to “transmit.” Once you do that, your education is over. And your education should never be over. Even outside your work, there are ways to keep challenging yourself. Listen to online lectures. I just retook a philosophy course online that I took at Harvard when I was nineteen. Or use MIT OpenCourseWare. Go to Wait But Why ... or TED.com.

Translation:
我的第二条建议是保持聆听。这世界需要你们的意见，无论好坏。但不要以为毕业之后你们就从信息“接受者”变为“传递者”了。如果你们停止聆听，你们的教育就真正结束了。你们应当终身受教。即使参加工作了，还是会有很多学习的机会。比如网络公开课，像MIT公开课、Wait But Why 、TED等。我在19岁时上过一门哈佛大学的哲学课，最近又在网上复习了一遍。

[35] I’m told there’s even a Trump University. I have no earthly idea what they teach there. But whatever you do, just keep listening. Even to people you don’t agree with at all. I love what President Obama said at Howard University’s commencement last month: he said, “Democracy requires compromise, even when you are 100 percent right.” I heard that and I thought: here is a man who has been happily married for a long time.

Translation:
听说居然还有一个特朗普大学，我无法想象里面会教授什么内容。但无论何时何地，请保持聆听，即使别人的看法与你相左。上个月奥巴马总统在哈佛大学发表了毕业演讲，有一句话我特别喜欢：“民主需要妥协，即使你完全正确。”然后我就想：怪不得奥巴马总统婚姻幸福，因为第一夫人说的都是对的。

[36] Not that the First Lady has ever been wrong about anything. Just like my wife. Never wrong. Not even when she decided last month that in a family with four kids, what was missing in our lives was a third rescue dog. That was an outstanding decision, honey. And I love you.

Translation:
我妻子也是这样，她的话都是对的。上个月，我妻子说：我们家里已经有四个孩子了，我们还需要第三条搜救犬。我的回答是：亲爱的，你太明智了，我爱你。

37 .The third and last thought I want to leave you with is that not every problem has a high-tech solution. I guess this is obvious. But: it is really? If anybody has a right to think we can pretty much tech support the world’s problems into submission, it’s you. Think of the innovations that got their start at MIT or by MIT alums: the World Wide Web. Nuclear fission. Condensed soup. (This is true! You should be proud.) But the truth is, we can’t science the shit out of every problem.

Translation:
我的第三条建议是：科技并不能解决所有问题。我觉得这很明显，不是吗? MIT人是最有权力说科技可以解决世界性问题的，万维网、核裂变、浓缩汤，这些都有MIT的贡献，你们应该为此自豪。但事实是，这狗屁世界太过复杂，科学并不是万能的。

[38] There is not always a freaking app for that. Take water again as an example. People are always looking for some scientific quick fix for the problem of dirty and disease-ridden water. A “pill you put in the glass,” a filter, or something like that. But there’s no magic bullet. The problem’s too complex.

Translation:
没有什么app软件能够解决问题。还是以水为例。人们总想用科学方法快速获得干净的水，一片药丸，一张滤纸，方法层出不穷。但科学并不是魔法棒，水的问题要复杂的多。

[39] Yes, there is definitely, absolutely a role for science. There’s incredible advances being made in clean water technology. Companies and universities are getting in on the game. I’m glad to know that professors like Susan Mercott at D-Lab are focusing on water and sanitation. But as I’m sure she’d agree, science alone can’t solve this problem. We need to be just as innovative in public policy, just as innovative in our financial models.

Translation:
科学确实扮演了主要角色，净水科技也取得了重大进步，公司与大学也纷纷加入队伍中来。苏珊·莫考特(Susan Mercott)等众多教授也开始关注净水与卫生问题，这令我很欣慰。但光有科学还不够，苏珊肯定会同意我的观点。我们要像公共政策一样激进，像财政模式一样激进。

[40] That’s the idea behind an approach we have at Water.org called WaterCredit. WaterCredit is based on Gary White’s insight that poor people were already paying for their water and they, no less than the rest of us, want to participate in their own solutions. So WaterCredit helps connect the poor with microfinance organizations, which enables them to build water connections and toilets in their homes and communities. The approach is working — helping 4 million people so far — and this is only the start.

Translation:
这也是我们创办Water.org，也即Water Credit的宗旨。怀特洞察到贫困地区的人为了获取清水要付出很多，他们很多人也在积极寻找解决方法。WaterCredit为这些人提供小额信贷，有了这些钱他们就可以在社区建立水网和厕所。这个方法正在为400万人提供帮助，而这仅仅是开始。

[41] Our loans are paying back at over 99 percent. Which is a hell of a better deal than those bankers I was talking about earlier. I agree it’s still not sexy... but it is without a doubt the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of.

Translation:
我们99%是信贷都得到偿还，这甩了银行家们几条街。我承认它还不够吸引人，但这是我参与的最炫酷的事。

[42] So, graduates, let me ask you this in closing: What do you want to be a part of? What’s the problem you’ll try to solve? Whatever your answer, it’s not going to be easy. Sometimes your work will hit a dead-end. Sometimes your work will be measured in half-steps. And sometimes your work will make you wear a white sequined military uniform and make love to Michael Douglas. Well, maybe that’s just my work. But for all of you here, your work starts today. And seriously, how lucky are you?
Translation:
所以，同学们，在结束演讲之前我问你们一些问题：你们想从事什么?你们想解决什么问题?这个问题并不好回答。在你未来的工作中，你可能会走进死胡同，可能会半途而废，可能会穿上闪亮的白军装跟迈克尔·道格拉斯( Michael Douglas)亲热。好吧，跟道格拉斯亲热的是我...... 但是，在座的所有人，你们即将步入工作岗位。你们十分幸运。

[43] I mean, what are the odds that you’re the ones who are here today? In the Earth’s 4.5 billion year run, with 100 billion people who have lived and died, and with 7 billion of us here now ... Here you are. Yes, here you are ... alive at a time of potential extinction-level events ... a time when fewer and fewer people can cause more and more damage ... a time when science and technology may not hold all the answers, but are indispensable to any solution.

Translation:
我是说，你今天能够坐在这里的几率有多大? 地球诞生自此45亿年，先后有1000亿人生生死死，现在全球70亿人。我们处于危险边缘，这是一个少数人即可毁灭世界的时代，这是科学力所不及又不可或缺的时代。

[44] What are the odds that you get to be you, right now, The MIT class of 2016, with so much on the line? There are potentially trillions of human beings who will someday exist whose fate, in large part, depends on the choices you make ... on your ideas ... on your grit and persistence and willingness to engage. If this were a movie I were trying to pitch I’d be laughed out of every office in Hollywood. Joseph Campbell himself — he of the “monomyth,” the ultimate hero’s journey — even he wouldn’t even go this far. Campbell would tell me to throttle this down ... lower the stakes.

Translation:
MIT2016届毕业生们，世界存在这么多问题，你们有多大的概率可以安然无恙?或许，你们今天的抉择、勇气、坚持与意愿在未来会影响无数人的命运。如果我想拍这么一部电影，好莱坞的人都会笑我。约瑟夫·坎贝尔(Joseph Campbell)的神话故事也不会这么开脑洞。坎贝尔可能会教导我要收敛一些

[45] But I can’t. Because this is fact, not fiction. This improbable thing is actually happening. There’s more at stake today than in any story ever told. And how lucky you are — and how lucky we are— that you’re here, and you’re you. So I hope you’ll turn toward the problem of your choosing ... Because you must. I hope you’ll drop everything ... Because you must And I hope you’ll solve it. Because you must.

Translation:
但我偏不。因为这是事实，不是虚构。这个看似不可能的事其实正在发生。我们今天的世界危机重重。你我都很幸运，能够坦然地站在这里。所以，请直面你所选择的问题，因为你别无选择。请你抛弃一切，因为你别无选择。请你竭尽所能解决问题，因为你别无选择。

[46] This is your life, Class of 2016. This is your moment, and it’s all down to you.
Ready player one. Your game begins: now. Congratulations and thanks very much

Translation:
这是你们的使命，这是你们的荣耀时刻，你们身兼巨任。你们的游戏，从现在开始!祝贺你们，非常感谢!

下载PDF版