斯坦福大学毕业典礼讲话

比尔·盖茨和夫人梅琳达在斯坦福大学2014年毕业典礼上的演讲以“乐观”为主线，强调了他们对科技的乐观态度，以及对世界美好未来的乐观态度。盖茨夫妇轮流讲述了自己的亲身经历和故事，告诉学生应该站在他人的立场上，感同身受那些处境不及自己的人，尽自己所能去帮助那些需要帮助的人，让全世界所有人类同胞都有一样的美好未来。

以下为中英文对照演讲稿：

BILL GATES: Congratulations, class of 2014!

比尔·盖茨：2014届毕业生，祝贺你们顺利毕业

(Cheers).(欢呼)

Melinda and I are excited to be here. It would be a thrill for anyone to be invited to speak at a Stanford commencement, but it’s especially gratifying for us. Stanford is rapidly becoming the favorite university for members of our family, and it’s long been a favorite university for Microsoft and our foundation.

我和梅琳达怀着激动的心情与你们欢聚在此共贺毕业。能受邀到斯坦福大学学位授予典礼上做演讲是一件让人激动的事，对我们而言，这尤为荣幸。斯坦福大学正日渐成为我们家庭成员最喜爱的大学。而长久以来，斯坦福也是微软以及比尔与梅琳达基金会最喜爱的一所大学。”

Our formula has been to get the smartest, most creative people working on the most important problems. It turns out that a disproportionate number of those people are at Stanford. (Cheers).

我们一直致力于让最聪颖有创造力的人攻克最为重要的问题。结果证明，一大部分这样的人才都来自于斯坦福校园。(欢呼)

Right now, we have more than 30 foundation research projects underway here. When we want to learn more about the immune system to help cure the worst diseases, we work with Stanford. When we want to understand the changing landscape of higher education in the United States, so that more low-income students get college degrees, we work with Stanford. This is where genius lives.

如今，我们在这里进行着30多个研究项目。当我们想要通过对免疫系统的研究来寻找治愈世界上最可怕疾病的方法，我们需要斯坦福。当我们需要通过对美国高等教育的研究来帮助低收入学生上大学时，我们亦需要斯坦福。这便是人才的摇篮。

There’s a flexibility of mind here, an openness to change, an eagerness for what’s new. This is where people come to discover the future, and have fun doing it.

在这里，有着灵活的思维，对于改变的开放态度以及对新鲜事物的渴求。在这里，人们善于发现新事物，并乐享这份经历。

MELINDA GATES: Now, some people call you all nerds and we hear that you claim that label with pride. (Cheers and Applause).

梅琳达?盖茨：当下，一些人用书呆子这样词语称呼你们，而我们听说你们正为这个称呼而倍感骄傲。(欢呼和掌声)

BILL GATES: Well, so do we. (Cheers and Applause).

比尔盖茨：嗯，我们与你们同在。(欢呼和掌声)

BILL GATES: My normal glasses really aren’t all that different. (Laughter).

比尔盖茨：我的这副普通眼镜也没多大差异嘛。(笑声)

There are so many remarkable things going on here at this campus, but if Melinda and I had to put into one word what we love most about Stanford, it’s the optimism.

There’s an infectious feeling here that innovation can solve almost every problem.That’s the belief that drove me in 1975 to leave a college in the suburbs of Boston and go on an endless leave of absence.(Laughter).

在这所校园中，每时每刻都有非凡的事件发生，但如果要我和梅琳达用一个词来表达对斯坦福的挚爱，那便是“乐观”。这是一种极富感染力的乐观精神，那便是，所有的问题在创新之下都能迎刃而解。这便是驱使我在1975年离开波士顿郊区的大学，并永远辍学的一个动力。(笑声)

I believed that the magic of computers and software would empower people everywhere and make the world much, much better.

当时的我相信计算机和软件的魔力能够赋予全世界人民以力量，并能够让这个世界变得更加美好。

It’s been 40 years since then, and 20 years since Melinda and I were married.We are both more optimistic now than ever. But on our journey, our optimism evolved.

据那时算起，已有40年之久，我和梅琳达喜结连理也有20年之远了。这些年间，我们都比过去更为乐观开朗，但是在这些人生之旅中，我们的乐观也实现了进化。

We would like to tell you what we learned and talk to you today about how your optimism and ours can do more for more people.When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft, we wanted to bring the power of computers and software to the people, and that was the kind of rhetoric we used.One of the pioneering books in the field had a raised fist on the cover, and it was called \”Computer Lib.\”

我们今天很想与大家分享我们所学到的一切，并和你们聊聊我们的和你们的乐观精神怎样为更多的人服务。当初和保罗创立微软之时，我们的目标是把计算机和软件的力量普及到普通大众，这便是我们当时的说法。在早期的一本书上的封面有一个上扬的拳头，他们称之为《计算机解放》。

At that time, only big businesses could buy computers.We wanted to offer the same power to regular people and democratize computing.

在那个时候，只有大企业才能购置计算机。我们想让这种计算机设备普及到社会大众并让计算机民主化。

By the 1990s, we saw how profoundly personal computers could empower people, but that success created a new dilemma.If rich kids got computers and poor kids didn’t, then technology would make inequality worse.That ran counter to our core belief.

在上个世纪90年代，我们目睹了个人电脑对人们的巨大效用，但是这种成功同时造成了新的困局。如果富人的孩子拥有计算机而穷人的孩子却不能时，这种科技会加剧不平等。而这与我们的核心理念相抵触。

Technology should benefit everyone.

科技应当惠及万众。

So we worked to close the digital divide. I made it a priority at Microsoft, and Melinda and I made it an early priority at our Foundation. Donating personal computers to public libraries to make sure that everyone had access.

因此我们应当努力缩小这种差距。我将它定位为微软的首要任务，也是我和梅琳达在建立基金会之初的首要任务。为公众图书馆捐献个人电脑从而确保人人都能有机会使用。

The digital divide was a focus of mine in 1997, when I took my first trip to South Africa. I went there on business so I spent most of my time in meetings in downtown Johannesburg. I stayed in the home of one of the richest families in South Africa.

当我在1997年首次出访南非时，我便开始关注“数码鸿沟”。因公事出差的我将大部分时间都花费在约翰内斯堡的市区开会中。当时我住在南非最富裕的一户家庭中。

It had only been three years since the election of Nelson Mandela marked the end of apartheid. When I sat down for dinner with my hosts, they used a bell to call the butler. After dinner, the women and men separated and the men smoked cigars. I thought, good thing I read Jane Austen, or I wouldn’t have known what was going on. (Laughter).

那时距离尼尔森?曼德拉上台，并结束种族隔离只有3年。当我同主人共进晚餐时，他们使用铃铛来使唤管家。在晚饭后，男女相互分开而男人们开始抽雪茄。当时我想，幸好我读过简?奥斯汀的书否则我就不知道发生了什么。(笑声)

But the next day I went to Soweto, the poor township southwest of Johannesburg, that had been the center of the anti-apartheid movement. It was a short distance from the city into the township, but the entry was sudden, jarring and harsh.

但在第二天我去了索韦托，约翰内斯堡西南的一个贫穷小镇，那里曾经是反种族隔离的中心。尽管从约翰内斯堡到索韦托路程不长，但从进入索韦托的那一刻起，一切都令人无比震惊。

I passed into a world completely unlike the one I came from. My visit to Soweto became an early lesson in how naive I was. Microsoft was donating computers and software to a community center there. The kind of thing we did in the United States.

我觉得我来到了一个和我所来自的地方截然不同的世界。索韦托之行让我很早便意识到自己竟是如此天真。微软向那里的一个社区中心捐赠计算机和软件。和我们在美国所做的一切相同。

But it became clear to me, very quickly, that this was not the United States.

但是我很快明白了，这里并不是美国。

I had seen statistics on poverty, but I had never really seen poverty.The people there lived in corrugated tin shacks with no electricity, no water, no toilets. Most people didn’t wear shoes. They walked barefoot along the streets, except there were no streets, just ruts in the mud.

我曾经阅览过有关贫穷的调查数据，但是却未曾目睹过贫穷。那里的人们住在用铁皮搭成的简陋棚户里，没有电，没有自来水，也没有厕所。人们几乎不穿鞋，赤脚行走。或者可以说根本没有街道，只是一些坑洼的泥土路。

The community center had no consistent source of power. So they rigged up an extension cord that ran 200 feet from the center to the diesel generator outside. Looking at this setup, I knew the minute the reporters left, the generator would get moved to a more urgent task. And the people who used the community center would go back to worrying about challenges that couldn’t be solved by a personal computer.

由于社区中心没有持续供电的设施，所以他们安装了一根延长线连接到200英尺以外的柴油发电机上。看过了这些装置，我明白了一旦记者离开后，发电机将会被运用到更紧迫的任务上。使用社区中心的人们也会因此而离开，为电脑所不能解决的问题而担忧。

When I gave my prepared remarks to the press, I said Soweto is a milestone. There are major decisions ahead about whether technology will leave the developing world behind. This is to close the gap.

当我向媒体道出已准备好的发言时，我谈到索韦托的经历对我而言是一个里程碑，我们所面临的重大决定是科技是否会让发展中国家落后。这也便是要缩小差距。

But as I read those words, I knew they weren’t super relevant. What I didn’t say was, by the way, we’re not focused on the fact that half a million people on this continent are dying every year from malaria. But we are sure as hell going to bring you computers.

但当我说出这些词时，我发现他们并不是如此相关。我没有说的是，“顺便说一下，我们并没有注意到这个大洲上每年都会有50万人死于疟疾的事实。”但我们还是万分确信我们会为他们带来计算机。

Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world’s problems but I was blind to many of the most important ones. I was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, did I still believe that innovation could solve the world’s toughest problems? I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people poor.

在我去索韦托之前，我认为自己很理解这个世界存在的问题，可那时我才明白我忽视了最重要的问题，我不停问自己‘你还认为创新能解决世界上最棘手的问题吗?’我向自己保证，在重回非洲之前，会找到更多让人们贫穷的原因。

Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the pressing needs of the poor.

数年来，我和梅琳达确实发现了穷人们的当务之需。

On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50%. I remember that hospital as a place of despair.

在后来一次到南非的时候，我去了一家住有很多抗药性肺结核患者和耐多药结核病患者的医院，这是一种治愈率不到50%的顽疾。我还记得那个充满绝望的地方。

It was a giant open ward, with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks. There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed. They had a little school for kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn’t make it, and the hospital didn’t seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open.

在一个巨大的开放性病房里，住着很多很多病人，他们穿着睡衣，带着口罩，慢慢挪动着。有一层楼是专为孩童开设的，其中包括还在卧床的婴儿们。医院中也为适龄儿童设有小学校，但是大多数孩子都无法战胜病魔踏入学堂，因此医院似乎并不确信是否有必要开设这所学校。

I talked to a patient there in her early 30s. She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough. She went to a doctor and he told her said she had drug-resistant TB. She was later diagnosed with AIDS. She wasn’t going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated it. This was hell with a waiting list.

我同一位30多岁的病人做了交谈，并了解到她曾肺结核医院的一名职工，因为咳嗽而病倒。她看了医生，医生告诉她患上了耐药性结核病，在后来也被诊断患有艾滋。她活不了过久了，但有很多耐多药结核病患者却“觊觎”着她即将空出的床位。这是一个有很多候场病人的地狱。

But seeing this hell didn’t reduce my optimism. It channeled it. I got into the car as I left and I told the doctor we were working with I know MDR-TB is hard to cure, but we must do something for these people. And, in fact, this year, we are entering phase three with the new TB drug regime for patients who respond, instead of a 50% cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we get an 80% cure rate after six months for under $100. (Applause).

但是目睹了这个地域并不能减少我的乐观心态，相反，它指导着乐观的前行。在我们离开时，我在车里跟与我们同行的医生说，我虽然知道耐多药结核病是一种顽疾，但我们必须为这些人做一些实事。实际上，在今年，我们进入了新结核药物研发的第三阶段，对于那些病人而言，他们不再需为18个月50%的治愈率而花费2000美元，我们的新药物花费不超100美元便能在6个月后实现80%的治愈率。(掌声)

Optimism is often dismissed as false hope. But there is also false hopelessness. That’s the attitude that says we can’t defeat poverty and disease. We absolutely can.

乐观常被视为错误的希望。但是错误的无望也存在于世，那就是我们无法击败贫困和疾病的态度。但我们却能够做到。

MELINDA GATES: Bill called me that day after he visited the TB hospital and normally if one of us is on an international trip, we will go through our agenda for the day and who we met and where we have been. But this call was different.

在比尔去过结核病医院后，他曾给我致电。(因为)惯例上当我们其中一个出国的话，我们都会聊聊这天我们遇到的人和我们去过的地方。但是这番电话有些特别。

Bill said to me, Melinda, I have been somewhere that I have never been before. And then he choked up and he couldn’t go on. And he finally just said, I will tell you more when I get home. And I knew what he was going through because when you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart.

比尔说，梅琳达，我(今天)去了一个我之前从未去过的地方。然后他哽咽地说不出话了。他最后只是说，等我回来了再详细告诉你。(其实)我知道他经历了什么，因为当你看到濒临绝望的人们，他会让你十分悲痛。

But if you want to do the most, you have to go see the worst, and I’ve had days like that too. About ten years ago, I traveled with a group of friends to India. And on last day I was there, I had a meeting with a group of prostitutes and I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS that they were facing, but what they wanted to talk to me about was stigma.

但是如果你想做得更多，你必须要看到最坏的情况，我也经历过那些日子。大概十年前，我和一群朋友去印度旅游。在我临走的那一天，我和一群妓女进行了交谈，我希望跟她们讲她们所面对得艾滋病的风险，但是她们想跟我聊的只是(作为妓女的)耻辱。

Many of these women had been abandoned by their husbands. That’s why they even went into prostitution. They wanted to be able to feed their children. They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anyone, even the police, and nobody cared.

这当中的很多人都是被她们的丈夫所抛弃。这就是为什么她们去卖淫的原因。她们想养活自己的孩子。他们在社会的眼中是如此卑微，以致于她们可以被任何人甚至是警察强奸，抢劫，甚至挨揍，(而)根本没有人会在意(她们)

Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me, but what I remember most was how much they wanted to be touched. They wanted to touch me and to be touched by them. It was if physical contact somehow proved their worth. And so before I left, we linked arms hand in hand and did a photo together.

聊起她们的生活让我感触至深。但是我印象最深的就是她们多么想接触他人。她们希望触摸我，也希望让我能去触碰她们也许是通过这种身体上的触碰证明了她们存在的价值。所以当我离开之前，我们肩并肩，手牵手，一起照了相

At the same time, if you ask people across the United States is the future going to be better than the past, most say no. My kids will be worse off than I am. They think innovation won’t make the world better for them or their children.

同时，如果你问全美国的人——未来回避过去更好吗?大部分人会说不，我的孩子不如我优秀。他们认为创新不会让自己或孩子的世界更好。

So who is right? The people who say innovation will create new possibilities and make the world better? Or the people who see a trend toward inequality and a decline in opportunity and don’t think innovation will change that?

那么谁是对的?是那些说创新产生新机遇让世界更好的人么?还是那些目睹不平衡的趋势，目睹机遇减少且不指望创新带来改变的人呢?

The pessimists are wrong, in my view. But they are not crazy. If innovation is purely market driven, and we don’t focus on the big inequities, then we could have amazing advances and in inventions that leave the world even more divided. We won’t improve cure public schools, we won’t cure malaria, we won’t end poverty. We won’t develop the innovations poor farmers need to grow food in a changing climate.

在我看来，悲观者是错误的。但是他们并不疯狂。如果创新仅凭市场驱动，我们都不关注不公正现象，那么我们的重大发明将令世界的两极分化更加严重。我们不会改善公立学校，我们不会治愈疟疾，更不会终止贫穷。我们不会研发出让贫困农民在气候变化中也能种出植物的发明。

If our optimism doesn’t address the problems that affect so many of our fellow human beings, then our optimism needs more empathy. If empathy channels our optimism, we will see the poverty and the disease and the poor schools. We will answer with our innovations and we will surprise the pessimists.

如果我们的乐观无法用来解决那些影响许许多多同胞的问题，那么这种乐观主义还需要融入更多的移情元素。如果我们能在乐观中融入同情，我们就能解决贫困，疾病以及教育匮乏的问题。我们会以创新作答，并震惊那些悲观主义者。

Over the next generation, you, Stanford graduates, will lead a new wave of innovation. Which problems will you decide to solve? If your world is wide, you can create the future we all want. If your world is narrow, you may create the future the pessimists fear.

在下一代中，你们，这些斯坦福毕业生，将开启一波创新的新潮。你们会决定解决哪些问题呢?如果你的世界很宽，那么就能创造出我们理想的未来。如果你的世界很狭隘，就会造出悲观者恐惧的未来。

I started learning in Soweto, that if we are going to make our optimism matter to everyone, and empower people everyone, we have to see the lives of those most in need. If we have optimism, without empathy, then it doesn’t matter how much we master the secrets of science.

正如我在索维托所学到的，如果我们要让自己的乐观影响所有人，并赋予他们力量，我们就要看到他们最紧迫的需求。如果我们的乐观没有融入同情，那么我们掌握多少科学秘密也没有任何用处。

We are not really solving problems. We are just working on puzzles. I think most of you have a broader world view than I had at your age. You can do better at this than I did. If you put your hearts and minds to it, you can surprise the pessimists. We are eager to see it. (Applause).

我们都解决不了世界上的难题。我们只是在玩智力游戏罢了。我想，你们中的大多数人比当时的我视野更宽广。你们会比曾经的我做得更出色。如果你们全身心地投身于此，你们便能震惊那些悲观者。我们对之迫不及待。(掌声)

MELINDA GATES: So let your heart break. It will change what you do with your optimism.

梅琳达?盖茨：让你们的心为之而碎。这会改变你们处理乐观的方式。

On a trip to south Asia, I met a desperately poor Indian woman. She had two children and she begged me to take them home with me. And when I begged her for her forgiveness she said, well then, please, just take one of them.

在去南亚的旅行中，我遇见了一位贫困潦倒的印度妇女。育有两子，她后来乞求我让我把这两个孩子带走。当我祈求她原谅时，她说，那好吧，请至少带走一个也可以吧。

On another trip to south Los Angeles, I met with a group of the students from a tough neighborhood. A young girl said to me, do you ever feel like we are the kids’ whose parents shirked their responsibilities and we are just the leftovers? These women broke my heart.

在另一个去洛杉矶南部的旅途中，我遇见了一群来自贫困社区的学生。一个年轻女孩对我说，你是不是觉得我们就是那群父母逃避责任，我们只是留守儿童呢?这些女性让我心碎。

And they still do. And the empathy intensifies if I admit to myself, that could be me. When I talk with the mothers I meet during my travels, there’s no difference between what we want for our children. The only difference is our ability to provide it to our children.

而她们现在依然让我心碎。当我对自己承认，我也可能会是她们中的一员。我与旅途中的母亲交流时发现，我们想给予孩子的没有什么不同。唯一的不同在于我们将其给予孩子的能力。

So what accounts for that difference? Bill and I talk about this with our own kids around the dinner table. Bill worked incredibly hard and he took risks and he made sacrifices for success. But there’s another essential ingredient of success, and that is luck. Absolute and total luck. When were you born? Who are your parents? Where did you grow up? None of us earn these things. These things were given to us.

那么差距何在呢?我和比尔曾就此问题与我们的孩子在餐桌上共同讨论。比尔工作非常努力，他冒过风险，为成功做出不少牺牲。但是还有一个成功的重要因素，那便是运气。完完全全的运气。你出生何处?你的父母是谁?你在哪里成长?没有任何人赚得这些东西，我们只是被赐予了这些东西而已。

So when we strip away all of our luck and our privilege and we consider where we would be without them, it becomes someone much easier to see someone who is poor and say, that could be me. And that’s empathy. Empathy tears down barriers and it opens up whole new frontiers for optimism.

所以当我们剥去运气和优待，并思考没有他们我们会将如何时，这个人就更容易看到那些贫困者，并说，这可能就是我。这就是同情心，同情心抹平障碍，为乐观敞开新的大门。

So here is our appeal to you all. As you leave Stanford, take all your genius and your optimism and your empathy, and go change the world in ways that will make millions of people optimistic. You don’t have to rush. You have careers to launch and debts to pay and spouses to meet and marry. That’s plenty enough for right now. But in the course of your lives, perhaps without any plan on your part, you will see suffering that’s going to break your heart. And when it happens, don’t turn away from it. That’s the moment that change is born.

所以这就是我们对你们所有人的呼吁。在你离开斯坦福校园之后，带着你的天分，乐观以及同情心，改变这个世界，让数百万人为之乐观起来。你无须急功近利，你还要开创事业，付清债款，找寻另一半并喜结良缘。现在就这些便足够了，但是在你们的生命之中，可能你们并未计划过，你会目睹那些让你心碎的苦楚。当这些痛苦发生时，不要掩面离开，在这一刻，改变因此而孕育。

Congratulations and good luck to the class of 2014!

最后，向2014届毕业生表示祝贺，并祝你们好运!

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