比尔盖茨的哈佛大学演讲(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:

　　请允许我向各位院长和教授，提出一个请求----你们是哈佛的智力领袖，当你们雇用新的老师、授予终身教职、评估课程、决定学位颁发标准的时候，请问你们自己如下的问题：

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

　　我们最优秀的人才是否在致力于解决我们最大的问题?

　　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?

　　哈佛是否鼓励她的老师去研究解决世界上最严重的不平等?哈佛的学生是否从全球那些极端的贫穷中学到了什么......世界性的饥荒......清洁的水资源的缺乏......无法上学的女童......死于非恶性疾病的儿童......哈佛的学生有没有从中学到东西?

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

　　那些世界上过着最优越生活的人们，有没有从那些最困难的人们身上学到东西?

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

　　这些问题并非语言上的修辞。你必须用自己的行动来回答它们。

　　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."

　　我的母亲在我被哈佛大学录取的那一天，曾经感到非常骄傲。她从没有停止督促我，去为他人做更多的事情。在我结婚的前几天，她主持了一个新娘进我家的仪式。在这个仪式上，她高声朗读了一封关于婚姻的信，这是她写给Melinda的。那时，我的母亲已经因为癌症病入膏肓，但是她还是认为这是又一个传播她的信念的机会。在那封信的结尾，她写道："你的能力越大，人们对你的期望也就越大。"

　　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，我们在这个院子里的这些人，被给予过什么----天赋、特权、机遇----那么可以这样说，全世界的人们几乎有无限的权力，期待我们做出贡献。