比爾蓋茨的哈佛大學演講(12)

　　Let me make a request of the deans and the professors - the intellectual leaders here at Harvard: As you hire new faculty, award tenure, review curriculum, and determine degree requirements, please ask yourselves:

　　請允許我向各位院長和教授，提出一個請求----你們是哈佛的智力領袖，當你們雇用新的老師、授予終身教職、評估課程、決定學位頒發標準的時候，請問你們自己如下的問題：

　　Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?

　　我們最優秀的人才是否在致力于解決我們最大的問題?

　　Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world's worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty ... the prevalence of world hunger ... the scarcity of clean water ...the girls kept out of school ... the children who die from diseases we can cure?

　　哈佛是否鼓勵她的老師去研究解決世界上最嚴重的不平等?哈佛的學生是否從全球那些極端的貧窮中學到了什么......世界性的饑荒......清潔的水資源的缺乏......無法上學的女童......死于非惡性疾病的兒童......哈佛的學生有沒有從中學到東西?

　　Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?

　　那些世界上過著最優越生活的人們，有沒有從那些最困難的人們身上學到東西?

　　These are not rhetorical questions - you will answer with your policies.

　　這些問題并非語言上的修辭。你必須用自己的行動來回答它們。

　　My mother, who was filled with pride the day I was admitted here - never stopped pressing me to do more for others. A few days before my wedding, she hosted a bridal event, at which she read aloud a letter about marriage that she had written to Melinda. My mother was very ill with cancer at the time, but she saw one more opportunity to deliver her message, and at the close of the letter she said: "From those to whom much is given, much is expected."

　　我的母親在我被哈佛大學錄取的那一天，曾經感到非常驕傲。她從沒有停止督促我，去為他人做更多的事情。在我結婚的前幾天，她主持了一個新娘進我家的儀式。在這個儀式上，她高聲朗讀了一封關于婚姻的信，這是她寫給Melinda的。那時，我的母親已經因為癌癥病入膏肓，但是她還是認為這是又一個傳播她的信念的機會。在那封信的結尾，她寫道："你的能力越大，人們對你的期望也就越大。"

　　When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given - in talent, privilege, and opportunity - there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.

　　想一想吧，我們在這個院子里的這些人，被給予過什么----天賦、特權、機遇----那么可以這樣說，全世界的人們幾乎有無限的權力，期待我們做出貢獻。