奥普拉·温弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey)，1954年1月29日出生于密西西比州科修斯科，美国演员，制片，主持人，是当今世界上最具影响力的妇女之一，下面是她在哈弗大学毕业典礼上的发言稿，一起来感受一下她的魅力吧!
奥普拉哈佛大学毕业典礼中英文演讲稿
Oh my goodness! I’m at Harvard! Wow! To President Faust, my fellow honorans, Carl [Muller] that was so beautiful, thank you so much, and James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson, Harvard faculty, with a special bow to my friend Dr. Henry Lewis Gates. All of you alumni, with a special bow to the Class of ’88, your hundred fifteen million dollars. And to you, members of the Harvard class of 2013! Hello!
我的天啊!我在哈...佛!真的!尊敬的Faust校长、和我一起获得荣誉学位的各位，Carl(注：Carl Muller哈佛校友会主席)，真是太棒了，谢谢你们!还有James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson和哈佛的教职工们，特别感谢我的朋友Henry Lewis Gates博士(注：美国知名黑人教授)!感谢所有的哈佛校友，特别要感谢88届的毕业生，你们为哈佛捐出一亿一千五百万美元(注：哈佛历史上最多的一次同一班次校友捐款)。所有2013届的各位毕业生们!大家好!
I thank you for allowing me to be a part of the conclusion of this chapter of your lives and the commencement of your next chapter. To say that I’m honored doesn’t even begin to quantify the depth of gratitude that really accompanies an honorary doctorate from Harvard. Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge. And I can tell you that I consider today as I sat on the stage this morning getting teary for you all and then teary for myself, I consider today a defining milestone in a very long and a blessed journey. My one hope today is that I can be a source of some inspiration. I’m going to address my remarks to anybody who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwed by life, this is a speech for the Quad.
感谢你们让我成为你们人生这一篇章的结束与下一篇章开始的纽带。对我而言，荣幸根本无法表达我内心深处对哈佛授予我荣誉学位的感激之情。不是每个来自密西西比州的农村小姑娘都能来到剑桥城的(注：哈佛位于波士顿郊剑桥城)。我可以告诉你们，当我今天早上坐在这个台上，为你们和我自己流下眼泪的时候，我觉得今天是我漫长并被祝福的人生旅途中的一个里程碑。我希望今天我能为你们带来一些启发。我的演讲是为那些曾在人生中感到自卑或觉得自己没有优势，甚至觉得生活一团糟的人，这就是我给哈佛带来的演讲。
Actually I was so honored I wanted to do something really special for you. I wanted to be able to have you look under your seats and there would be free master and doctor degrees but I see you got that covered already. I will be honest with you. I felt a lot of pressure over the past few weeks to come up with something that I could share with you that you hadn’t heard before because after all you all went to Harvard, I did not. But then I realized that you don’t have to necessarily go to Harvard to have a driven obsessive Type A personality. But it helps. And while I may not have graduated from here I admit that my personality is about as Harvard as they come. You know my television career began unexpectedly. As you heard this morning I was in the Miss Fire Prevention contest. That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville, Tennessee, and you had the requirement of having to have red hair in order to win up until the year that I entered. So they were doing the question and answer period because I knew I wasn’t going to win under the swimsuit competition. So during the question and answer period the question came “Why, young lady, what would you like to be when you grow up?” And by the time they got to me all the good answers were gone. So I had seen Barbara Walters on the “Today Show” that morning so I answered, “I would like to be a journalist. I would like to tell other people’s stories in a way that makes a difference in their lives and the world.” And as those words were coming out of my mouth I went whoa! This is pretty good! I would like to be a journalist. I want to make a difference. Well I was on television by the time I was 19 years old. And in 1986 I launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed at first. I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising the bar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew. Sound familiar to anybody here? Eventually we did make it to the top and we stayed there for 25 years.
其实我真的很荣幸，因此我想为你们做些特别的事。我想要跟你们说，请看你们座位下面有免费硕士或博士学位证书，但是我发现你们已经有了。说实话，在过去的几个星期我感到很大的压力，因为我想要跟你们分享一些你们从没听到过的东西，毕竟你们都上了哈佛，而我没有。但后来我意识到其实并不是一定要上哈佛才能有一个驱动性强迫型的A型人格，当然上了哈佛还是有帮助的。虽然我没有从哈佛毕业，但我认为我的性格和哈佛的毕业生是一样。大家都知道，我的电视事业生涯开始的出乎意料。正如你们早上听到的，我当时在参加“防火小姐”比赛。那年我16岁(注：奥普拉出生于1954年，今年59岁)，在田纳西州的纳什维尔。在我参加比赛那年之前，想赢的话你必须得是红头发女孩。在进行问答环节时，因为我知道我在泳装比赛中不会赢，所以当问答环节问道：“年轻的女士，你长大后想做什么?为什么?”等轮到我回答的时候，好答案都被之前的参赛者说完了。因为那天早上我正好在“今日秀”中看到了芭芭拉·怀特女士，所以我说：“我想成为一名新闻工作者，我想成为为人民带来一些在某种程度上能改变人民生活和改变世界的故事。”当我说出这些话时，我觉得：“哇!还挺不错的!我想做个记者，我要做出一番事业。”后来，19岁时我上了电视。在1986年，我推出了我自己的电视节目，一开始就下定决心要成功。我以前对比赛很紧张，后来我和自己竞争，每年设立一个更高的目标，一步一步地推到极限。对大家来说听着挺熟悉吧?最终，我们成功达到巅峰，并在那里待了25年。
The “Oprah Winfrey Show” was number one in our time slot for 21 years and I have to tell you I became pretty comfortable with that level of success. But a few years ago I decided, as you will at some point, that it was time to recalculate, find new territory, break new ground. So I ended the show and launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. The initials just worked out for me. So one year later after launching OWN, nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my new venture was a flop. Not just a flop, but a big bold flop they call it. I can still remember the day I opened up USA Todayand read the headline “Oprah, not quite standing on her OWN.” I mean really, USA Today? Now that’s the nice newspaper! It really was this time last year the worst period in my professional life. I was stressed and I was frustrated and quite frankly I was actually I was embarrassed. It was right around that time that President Faust called and asked me to speak here and I thought you want me to speak to Harvard graduates? What could I possibly say to Harvard graduates, some of the most successful graduates in the world in the very moment when I had stopped succeeding? So I got off the phone with President Faust and I went to the shower. It was either that or a bag of Oreos. So I chose the shower. And I was in the shower a long time and as I was in the shower the words of an old hymn came to me. You may not know it. It’s “By and by, when the morning comes.” And I started thinking about when the morning might come because at the time I thought I was stuck in a hole. And the words came to me “Trouble don’t last always” from that hymn, “this too shall pass.” And I thought as I got out of the shower I am going to turn this thing around and I will be better for it. And when I do, I’m going to go to Harvard and I’m going to speak the truth of it! So I’m here today to tell you I have turned that network around!
“奥普拉秀”在同一时间段的电视节目中连续21年排名第一，我必须说我对于这个成功非常的满足。但是几年前，我觉得，在人生的某一时刻，你必须重新来过，找到新的领域，实现新的突破。所以我离开了“奥普拉秀”，以我的名字命名推出了我自己的电视网络“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”，缩写正好是“OWN(自己的)”。在奥普拉·温福瑞电视网推出一年后，几乎所有的媒体都认为我的新项目是失败的。不仅仅是失败，他们称之为一个大写的失败。我还记得有一天我打开《今日美国报》时看到头条新闻说“ 奥普拉搞不定‘自己的’电视网”。不是吧，今日美国报啊?真是份好报纸....这正是去年我职业生涯最低谷的时刻。我压力超大近乎崩溃，老实说，我感到羞愧。就在那个时候，Faust校长打电话邀请我到哈佛做毕业演讲。我心想：“你让我给哈佛的毕业生演讲?我能跟这些世界上最成功的毕业生说什么?而我已经不再成功。”我挂了Faust校长的电话后去洗了个澡。要么去吃奥利奥要么去洗澡，我选择了洗澡。那个澡我洗了很长时间，在洗澡的时候我突然想到某首古老赞美诗中的一句话，你可能没听过“终于，清晨来临...”，之后我就想，我的黎明也许要来了。因为那时我觉得我被困在一个洞里了。我又想到那首古老赞美诗中的一句话：“困难只是暂时的，都会过去...”当我走出浴室时，我想：我遇到的麻烦同样会有结束的一天，我会将这一页翻过去，我会好起来的，等我做到了，我就去哈佛，把这个真实的故事告诉大家!今天我来了 并且想告诉你们我已经把“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”带上正轨了。
And it was all because I wanted to do it by the time I got to speak to you all so thank you so much. You don’t know what motivation you were for me, thank you. I’m even prouder to share a fundamental truth that you might not have learned even as graduates of Harvard unless you studied the ancient Greek hero with Professor Nagy. Professor Nagy as we were coming in this morning said, “Please Ms. Winfrey, walk decisively.”
这一切都是因为我想在来哈佛之前把事情做好，所以非常感谢你们!你们不知道你们给了我多大的动力，谢谢!我甚至能更骄傲地来和各位分享一个基本的真理。作为哈佛的毕业生你也未必知道，除非你上过Nagy教授的课程知道古希腊英雄人物。在今天早上来的路上，Nagy教授说：“温福瑞女士，请坚决地向前走。”
I shall walk decisively.我应该坚决地向前走。
This is what I want to share. It doesn’t matter how far you might rise. At some point you are bound to stumble because if you’re constantly doing what we do, raising the bar. If you’re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher the law of averages not to mention the Myth of Icarus predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. Now when you’re down there in the hole, it looks like failure. So this past year I had to spoon feed those words to myself. And when you’re down in the hole, when that moment comes, it’s really okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost but then here’s the key, learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are. And then figure out what is the next right move. And the key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S. that can tell you which way to go. Because now and forever more when you Google yourself your search results will read “Harvard, 2013″. And in a very competitive world that really is a calling card because I can tell you as one who employs a lot of people when I see “Harvard” I sit up a little straighter and say, “Where is he or she? Bring them in.” It’s an impressive calling card that can lead to even more impressive bullets in the years ahead: lawyer, senator, C.E.O., scientist, physicist, winners of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes or late night talk show host. But the challenge of life I have found is to build a résumé that doesn’t simply tell a story about what you want to be but it’s a story about who you want to be. It’s a résumé that doesn’t just tell a story about what you want to accomplish but why. A story that’s not just a collection of titles and positions but a story that’s really about your purpose. Because when you inevitably stumble and find yourself stuck in a hole that is the story that will get you out. What is your true calling? What is your dharma? What is your purpose? For me that discovery came in 1994 when I interviewed a little girl who had decided to collect pocket change in order to help other people in need. She raised a thousand dollars all by herself and I thought, well if that little 9-year-old girl with a bucket and big heart could do that, I wonder what I could do? So I asked for our viewers to take up their own change collection and in one month, just from pennies and nickels and dimes, we raised more than three million dollars that we used to send one student from every state in the United States to college. That was the beginning of the Angel Network.
这就是我想分享的。无论你已经达到怎样的成就，在某个节点，你会发现你会跌倒，因为如果你一直不断的在做我们每个人做的事：不断设定更高的目标。如果你一直不断把你自己推向更高的目标，你将在某一点上落下，更不必说伊卡洛斯能预测你会跌倒的神话。当你真的跌倒时我想让你知道，并请记住：“世间并不存在失败，那不过是生活想让我们换个方向走走罢了，现在当你在人生谷底，那看起来像是失败。”在过去的一年里，这些话支撑着我自己。当你到了人生谷底，到那时候，你可以难过一段时间，给自己时间去哀悼你认为你可能失去的一切，但关键在于：从每个失败和遭遇中学习 特别是你的每个错误，都会教并迫使你成为真正的自己，然后想想接下来怎么做。生活的重点在于建立内在道德、情感的定位系统，它能为你指路，因为现在或将来当你在谷歌上搜索你自己，结果会是“哈佛2013毕业生”。在这个竞争激烈的世界，那的确是块敲门砖。我作为一个雇佣过很多人的人，可以说当我听到哈佛的毕业生，我都会坐直一点，然后说“他/她在哪，带来见我”。这是一个令人印象深刻的敲门砖，在未来的日子里那的确是颗有力的子弹：成为律师、议员、老板、科学家、物理学家，诺贝尔奖普利策奖获得者或者晚间脱口秀主持人。然而来自生活的挑战并不是做个履历简单地告诉大家你想做什么，而是你想成为什么样的人。这份履历不只是告诉大家你完成了什么，而是你为什么做这些?这份履历不仅仅是一个头衔和职位的罗列，而是告诉大家你究竟想做什么?因为当你不可避免地跌倒或陷入困境时，它可以帮你走出困境，人生真正的意义是什么?你的人生哲学是什么?你的目标是什么?对我来说，我是在1994年采访了一位决定攒零花钱来帮助他人的小女孩，她筹集了一千美金。我想：“嗯，如果一个9岁的小姑娘，用一个筐和热忱的心就能做到，我能做到什么?”所以我请我们的观众拿出自己的零钱，在一个月内我从一分一毫筹集超过300万美金，我们用这笔钱从每个州选出一个学生上大学。这就是“天使网络”的开始。
And so what I did was I simply asked our viewers, “Do what you can wherever you are, from wherever you sit in life. Give me your time or your talent your money if you have it.” And they did. Extend yourself in kindness to other human beings wherever you can. And together we built 55 schools in 12 different countries and restored nearly 300 homes that were devastated by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. So the Angel Network — I have been on the air for a long time — but it was the Angel Network that actually focused my internal G.P.S. It helped me to decide that I wasn’t going to just be on TV every day but that the goal of my shows, my interviews, my business, my philanthropy all of it, whatever ventures I might pursue would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me. Because what had become clear to me, and I want you to know, it isn’t always clear in the beginning because as I said I had been on television since I was 19 years old. But around ’94 I got really clear. So don’t expect the clarity to come all at once, to know your purpose right away, but what became clear to me was that I was here on Earth to use television and not be used by it; to use television to illuminate the transcendent power of our better angels. So this Angel Network, it didn’t just change the lives of those who were helped, but the lives of those who also did the helping. It reminded us that no matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and more importantly it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort. I saw something on the “Bill Moore Show” recently that so reminded me of this point. It was an interview with David and Francine Wheeler. They lost their 7-year-old son, Ben, in the Sandy Hook tragedy. And even though gun safety legislation to strengthen background checks had just been voted down in Congress at the time that they were doing this interview they talked about how they refused to be discouraged. Francine said this, she said, “Our hearts are broken but our spirits are not. I’m going to tell them what it’s like to find a conversation about change that is love, and I’m going to do that without fighting them.” And then her husband David added this, “You simply cannot demonize or vilify someone who doesn’t agree with you, because the minute you do that, your discussion is over. And we cannot do that any longer. The problem is too enormous. There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light.” In our political system and in the media we often see the reflection of a country that is polarized, that is paralyzed and is self-interested. And yet, I know you know the truth. We all know that we are better than the cynicism and the pessimism that is regurgitated throughout Washington and the 24-hour cable news cycle. Not my channel, by the way. We understand that the vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks because they realize that we can uphold the Second Amendment and also reduce the violence that is robbing us of our children. They don’t have to be incompatible.
其实我做的只是简单的请求我们的观众：“无论你在哪里处于人生的哪个阶段，如果可以，请拿出你的时间、天赋以及金钱，做你力所能及的事。”他们这样做了。无论你在哪里，将你的仁慈带给他人。众人拾柴火焰高，我们一起在12个国家建了55所学校，重建了近300个被丽塔和卡特里娜飓风摧毁的家园。所以 “天使网络”聚集了我内在的定位系统。它能帮助我知道，我不是仅仅每天在电视上出现，还有我的采访目标，我的生意，我的慈善事业，所有的一切。无论我追求怎样的事业，我更清楚把我们凝聚在一起的力量比分离我们的力量更令人满足和不可抗拒。但我想让你们知道，任何事情的一开始对于我们未必明朗，正如我所说我 19岁就开始上电视，然而到了94年我才渐渐清楚，所以不要期待一下子就想清楚、并马上明白自己的使命。对我来说，我最终清楚，我要利用电视而不是被电视利用，利用电视来照亮我们内在天使的一面。这个“天使网络”，它不只是改变那些我们帮助过的人们的生活，同时也改变那些提供帮助的人们的生活。它提醒我们，无论是谁，看上去如何，或者我们相信什么，更重要的是它成为了我们为共同目标走到一起的驱动力。我最近在“比利摩尔秀”上看到一些东西再次提醒了我。那是一个采访戴维和弗朗辛·惠勒的节目，他们在Sandy Hook惨案中痛失他们7岁幼子Ben。尽管在此次访谈时国会已经否决了加强背景调查的枪支安全立法，他们谈到他们拒绝被国会的否决所打击。弗朗辛说： “我们的心都碎了，但我们的精神没有垮，我想告诉他们关于变故的对话是怎样的感觉，那感觉就是爱。我将会接受他而不是抵触。”然后她的丈夫戴维继续说： “你不能诋毁或妖魔化那些持有异见的人，因为如果你这样做的那一刻，就不再有下文，我不能再那样做了，问题已经很严重了，总会有方法将光明驱逐黑暗。”在我们的政治体系和媒体环境下，我们经常看到对这个国家的反思，这个两级分化，近乎瘫痪、自我利益的国家。然而，我知道你们明白真相。我们都知道我们比电视上新闻媒体24小时滚动从华盛顿传来的那些愤世嫉俗和悲观主义更好。顺便说一句，那不是我的电视频道。我们理解，在这个国家绝大多数人相信并支持背景调查，因为他们明白我们可以支持宪法第二次修正案，同时减少残杀我们孩子的暴力。而这两者并不必水火不相容。
And we understand that most Americans believe in a clear path to citizenship for the 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants who reside in this country because it’s possible to both enforce our laws and at the same time embrace the words on the Statue of Liberty that have welcomed generations of huddled masses to our shores. We can do both.
我们知道大多数美国人相信让1200万没有合法身份的移民居住在这个国家成为公民会有一条清晰的路径。因为在捍卫法律的同时，我们还要拥抱自由女神像上的辞藻，而这些话语欢迎了一代代人到达美国的海岸。我们都能做得到 。
And we understand. I know you do because you went to Harvard. There are people from both parties, and no party, [who] believe that indigent mothers and families should have access to healthy food and a roof over their heads and a strong public education because here in the richest nation on Earth, we can afford a basic level of security and opportunity. So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Really, what are you going to do about it? Maybe you agree with these beliefs. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you care about these issues and maybe there are other challenges that you, Class of 2013, are passionate about. Maybe you want to make a difference by serving in government. Maybe you want to launch your own television show. Or maybe you simply want to collect some change. Your parents would appreciate that about now. The point is your generation is charged with this task of breaking through what the body politic has thus far made impervious to change. Each of you has been blessed with this enormous opportunity of attending this prestigious school. You now have a chance to better your life, the lives of your neighbors and also the life of our country. When you do that let me tell you what I know for sure. That’s when your story gets really good. Maya Angelou always says, “When you learn, teach. When you get, give. That my friends is what gives your story purpose and meaning.” So you all have the power in your own way to develop your own Angel Network and in doing so, your class will be armed with more tools of influence and empowerment than any other generation in history. I did it in an analog world. I was blessed with a platform that at its height reached nearly 20,000,000 viewers a day. Now here in a world of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Tumbler, you can reach billions in just seconds. You’re the generation that rejected predictions about your detachment and your disengagement by showing up to vote in record numbers in 2008. And when the pundits said, they said they talked about you, they said you’d be too disappointed, you’d be too dejected to repeat that same kind of turnout in 2012 election and you proved them wrong by showing up in even greater numbers. That’s who you are.
正如我们了解的那样，你们能理解，因为你们上了哈佛。来自两党派和无党派的人同样坚信：贫困的母亲和家庭都理应获得使其健康的食物、住所以及强有力的教育支持。因为我们现在正生活在全世界最为富有的国家中，我们有能力去提供安全与机遇最基础的社会保障。于是问题便随之而来：我们将对此有何打算呢?说真的，我们将要对此做些什么呢?也许你是赞同这些理念的，也有可能你会持反对意见。或许你作为2013届哈佛的毕业生，对这些问题很上心，抑或是你把关注点放在了其他极具挑战性的事情上。你可能想要通过行政工作改变我们的社会，你可能想要做自己的电视节目，你也可能仅仅是想收集一些零钱，你的父母会赞扬你现在的所作所为。关键是你们这一代人肩负着突破国家积年累月无法突破的重重围嶂的使命。你们每一位上了哈佛这所名校的人都拥有千万机会、无尽不可。现在你有机会来改善你的生活，改变你周围人的生活，以及整个国家的命运。当你这样做的时候，我可以坚定地告诉你：这个时候，有关你的故事已然尽善尽美。Maya Angelou常常说：“有所学时你要去施教，有所得时你便去给予。我亲爱的朋友，那将赋予你的故事以目的与意义。”你们都有能力用自己的方式去打造属于你们自己的“天使网络”，与此同时你会拥有史无前例的影响力与权力的工具。我用虚拟网络的方式做到这一点，我的网络电视在鼎盛时期的日浏览量能够达到 2000万，在这个Twitter、Facebook、YouTube与Tumbler盛行的时代，你在片刻之间便可获得几十亿的浏览量。就是你们这一代，在其他人都以为你们会对政治漠不关心的时候，你们用你们的一腔热情，彻底颠覆了世人的想象，你们在2008年的时候，参与总统大选投票的人数创造新高。当那些“博学多识”的人们猜测道，你们必然已经失望透顶，你们在2012年总统大选中由于太沮丧而不可能重复2008年的辉煌时，你们用甚至比 2008年更高的参与记录，再一次让世人刮目相看。这就是你们这一代.
This generation, your generation I know, has developed a finely honed radar for B.S. Can you say “B.S.” at Harvard? The spin and phoniness and artificial nastiness that saturates so much of our national debate. I know you all understand better than most that real progress requires authentic — an authentic way of being, honesty, and above all empathy. I have to say that the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years talking every single day to people, was that there is a common denominator in our human experience. Most of us, I tell you we don’t want to be divided. What we want, the common denominator that I found in every single interview, is we want to be validated. We want to be understood. I have done over 35,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off everyone always turns to me and inevitably in their own way asks this question “Was that okay?” I heard it from President Bush, I heard it from President Obama. I’ve heard it from heroes and from housewives. I’ve heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes. I even heard it from Beyonce and all of her Beyonceness. She finishes performing, hands me the microphone and says, “Was that okay?” Friends and family, yours, enemies, strangers in every argument in every encounter, every exchange I will tell you, they all want to know one thing: was that okay? Did you hear me? Do you see me? Did what I say mean anything to you? And even though this is a college where Facebook was born my hope is that you would try to go out and have more face-to-face conversations with people you may disagree with.
我所了解的你们这一代对一些胡言乱语有极为敏锐的追求，你能在哈佛“胡说”吗?关于我们的国家，虚伪幻象铺张在你眼前，纷扰流言充斥在你耳畔。我深知你们比众人更加了解，一个国家真正的进步是要求建立在真实而坦然的基础之上的，还有更为重要的——一种感同身受的心理。我想我不得不坦言，在我25年的访谈历程中，我所学到的最重要的，我们的人生有一个共同的公分母。我可以告诉你的是，我们中的大多数人，并不愿意被分割。我在每次访谈中发现我们的“公分母”，发现我们想要的，是我们想要被证实、被认可。我们渴望被理解。我的职业生涯中容纳了大约35000个访谈，每每在摄像机的镜头关闭后，几乎所有人都不可避免地转向我，用他们各自的方式，询问着同一个问题“像这样可以吗?”布什总统这样问，奥巴马总统这样问，我在英雄的口中听到过这个疑问，同样也在家庭主妇的口中听说过这句话。我听受害者这样问，也听过那些有罪行的人们这样问，我甚至听过碧昂斯和她的粉丝们这样问。碧昂斯结束表演之后，把麦克风递到我手中，问道：“像我这样可以吗?”朋友或家人、支持者或敌人、每次争论或邂逅的陌生人，有关每一次交流，我都可以笃定地告诉你们，他们都想知道一件事儿 ——“像这样可以吗?你听得见我吗?你看的见我吗?我之所言是否对你有些许意义?”尽管这里是Facebook诞生的大学，我还是希望你们能够脱离虚拟，尽可能多的和那些与你意见相左的人进行一些面对面的交流。
That you’ll have the courage to look them in the eye and hear their point of view and help make sure that the speed and distance and anonymity of our world doesn’t cause us to lose our ability to stand in somebody else’s shoes and recognize all that we share as a people. This is imperative, for you as an individual, and for our success as a nation. “There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light,” says the man whose little boy was massacred on just an ordinary Friday in December. So whether you call it soul or spirit or higher self, intelligence, there is I know this, there is a light inside each of you, all of us, that illuminates your very human beingness if you let it. And as a young girl from rural Mississippi I learned long ago that being myself was much easier than pretending to be Barbara Walters. Although when I first started because I had Barbara in my head I would try to sit like Barbara, talk like Barbara, move like Barbara and then one night I was on the news reading the news and I called Canada “Can-a-da,” and that was the end of me being Barbara. I cracked myself up on TV. Couldn’t start laughing and my real personality came through and I figured out, oh gee, I can be a much better Oprah than I could be a pretend Barbara.
你们要有勇气去直视他们的双眼，去聆听他们的观点，并且确保这世界的高速、距离、匿名不会让我们失去站在他人的立场上去认可那些我们作为人类共同享受东西的能力。这是你作为一个个体或是为了整个国家的成功必须要做到的。“一定存在某种方法可以使光明驱逐黑暗。”一位孩子在12月一个普通的星期五被杀害的父亲如是说道。所以无论你愿意称她为灵魂、精神、抑或是更高尚的自我，天资什么的，我知道，我们内心深处的星星之火总能够点燃我们——只要你愿意让自己被点亮。作为一个来自密西西比州农村的年轻姑娘，我早就知道，成为自己比假装成芭芭拉更容易。纵使我对自己的坚守是因为我想要成为芭芭拉而起，我希望的的坐姿像芭芭拉、谈吐像芭芭拉，举止像芭芭拉。直到有一天晚上，我在电视上读新闻的时候，我把“Canada”读成“Can-a-da”，这就成了我试图变成芭芭拉的终止。我在电视上把自己层层剖析，我笑个不停。随后真正的自我脱颖而出，我突然就想通了“哦，哎呀，与其成为芭芭拉我能够成为一个更出色的奥普拉。”
I know that you all might have a little anxiety now and hesitation about leaving the comfort of college and putting those Harvard credentials to the test. But no matter what challenges or setbacks or disappointments you may encounter along the way, you will find true success and happiness if you have only one goal, there really is only one, and that is this: to fulfill the highest most truthful expression of yourself as a human being. You want to max out your humanity by using your energy to lift yourself up, your family and the people around you. Theologian Howard Thurman said it best. He said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” The world needs … People like Michael Stolzenberg from Fort Lauderdale. When Michael was just 8 years old Michael nearly died from a bacterial infection that cost him both of his hands and both of his feet. And in an instant, this vibrant little boy became a quadruple amputee and his life was changed forever. But in losing who he once was Michael discovered who he wanted to be. He refused to sit in that wheelchair all day and feel sorry for himself so with prosthetics he learned to walk and run and play again. He joined his middle school lacrosse team and last month when he learned that so many victims of the Boston Marathon bombing would become new amputees, Michael decided to banish that darkness with light. Michael and his brother, Harris, created Mikeysrun.com to raise $1 million for other amputees — by the time Harris runs the 2014 Boston Marathon. More than 1,000 miles away from here these two young brothers are bringing people together to support this Boston community the way their community came together to support Michael. And when this 13-year-old man was asked about his fellow amputees he said this, “First they will be sad. They’re losing something they will never get back and that’s scary. I was scared. But they’ll be okay. They just don’t know that yet.” We might not always know it. We might not always see it, or hear it on the news or even feel it in our daily lives, but I have faith that no matter what, Class of 2013, you will be okay and you will make sure our country is okay. I have faith because of that 9-year-old girl who went out and collected the change. I have faith because of David and Francine Wheeler, I have faith because of Michael and Harris Stolzenberg, and I have faith because of you, the network of angels sitting here today. One of them Khadijah Williams, who came to Harvard four years ago. Khadijah had attended 12 schools in 12 years, living out of garbage bags amongst pimps and prostitutes and drug dealers; homeless, going in to department stores, Wal-Mart in the morning to bathe herself so that she wouldn’t smell in front of her classmates, and today she graduates as a member of the Harvard Class of 2013.
我非常理解在你们即将离开大学象牙塔一样舒服单纯的生活，把你们在哈佛里积累的经验拿出去实践的时候，或多或少会有些焦虑与犹豫不决，但是无论你一路上经历到怎样的挑战、挫折、险衅、绝望，如果你自始至终都只有一个目标，真的只有一个目标，你就会找到真正的成功和幸福。这个目标就是：作为一个人，你要满足你最真挚、最坦诚的自我表达，奋力拓展自己的人生领域，去追逐生命的最大化，去改变你周围你亲友，让他们的人生也因你而不同。神学家Howard Thurman将这件事儿阐释的淋漓尽致，他说：“不要追问这世界需要什么样的人，扪心自问是什么支持着你活到现在，然后你奔赴你的信仰、因为这世界需要的就是人们充满活力地活在世上，”这是世界需要的——正如来自劳德代尔堡的迈克尔·斯托尔岑贝格。迈克尔年仅8岁时险些丧命于细菌感染，虽然他活了下来，但却永远失去了双手双脚。须臾之间，原本一个完整的，充满活力的男孩儿失去四肢，成为一个残疾人，他的命运轨迹在这一劫难之后被硬生生地扭转。但在失去一切之后，他听懂了他的心，他明白了自己真正想成为谁，他拒绝整日坐在轮椅中上沮丧、难过，而是选择了在假肢的扶持下继续行走、奔跑、玩耍、他甚至加入了他高中的曲棍球队。上个月当他得知在波士顿马拉松的轰炸中，有一些不幸的人同样被截肢时，他决心用同样的“灯光”帮助他们驱逐黑暗，于是迈克尔和他的兄弟哈里斯创办了mikeysrun.com为其他被截肢的人募捐。他希望集资100万美元，等到2014年哈里斯从1000多英里外跑波士顿马立松时，这两位年轻的兄弟将把人们聚集在一起来支持整个波士顿社区，如同他们的社区支持迈克尔那样。当这个十三岁的孩子第一次被问及一些关于同样被截肢的人的事时，他说：“他们一定会很伤心，因为他们失去了生命中重且永不复返的东西，那是很可怕的一件事，但是他们一定会振作起来的，他们只是现在还没察觉罢了。”我们可能对这种事所知甚少，这些事情并不常见，在电视里也鲜听闻，我们的日常生活中也不能有所获知。但是我对你们有信心，不管发生什么，2013届的毕业生们，请相信，柳暗花明又一村，你们也要记得去确保我们的国家的安康。我有信心，因为那个9岁小女孩会出去收集零钱;我有信心，因为David和 Wheeler;我有信心，因为迈克尔和哈里斯。我有信心是你们让我充满信心，因为你，因为“天使网络”现在就在这里。这其中就有四年前来到哈佛的 Khadijah Williams。Khadijah在过去的12年中上了12个不同的学校，身处在皮条客、妓女、毒品贩子和流浪儿之间的垃圾袋子里，她为了不让同学们闻到他身上的异味，他每天清晨会去百货大楼、沃尔玛超市洗澡，今天他成为2013届哈佛毕业生的一员。
From time to time you may stumble, fall, you will for sure, count on this, no doubt, you will have questions and you will have doubts about your path. But I know this, if you’re willing to listen to, be guided by, that still small voice that is the G.P.S. within yourself, to find out what makes you come alive, you will be more than okay. You will be happy, you will be successful, and you will make a difference in the world. Congratulations Class of 2013. Congratulations to your family and friends. Good luck, and thank you for listening.
不时地，你可能会失足跌倒，我们之中谁也难以幸免。对你的未来之路你会彷徨、会忧虑、会无所适从，但是我知道：只要你肯听听你内心深处的声音 ，你体内隐藏的GPS定位系统，能让你回归你人生的本真，你可能会因此活的更加夺目。你一定会快乐，一定会成功。你一定可以让世界因你而不同。祝贺你们，2012届哈佛的毕业生们。把祝贺同样送给你们的亲朋好友们。祝你们的命运永远备受眷顾，同时感谢你们的聆听。
Was that okay?像这样可以吗?
