President Bok, former President Rudenstine, incoming President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, parents, and especially, the graduates: I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: 「Dad, I always told you I』d come back and get my degree.」
尊敬的博克校長，前校長魯登斯坦，即將上任的佛斯特校長，哈佛集團和監察理事會的各位成員。各位老師，各位家長，各位同學：有句話我憋了30年，今天終於能一吐為快了：「「爸 我沒騙你吧，文憑到手了!」
I want to thank Harvard for this timely honor. I』ll be changing my job next year …and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my rsum.
我由衷地感謝哈佛這個時候給我這個榮譽。明年我要換工作(退休)。 我終於能在簡歷裡註明自己有大學學歷了。
I applaudthe graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees. For my part, I’m just happy that the Crimson has called me 「Harvard’s most successful dropout.」 I guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class …I did the best of everyone who failed.
我要恭喜今年的畢業生們，因為你們畢業比我順利多了。其實我倒是很樂意克萊姆森把我喚作「哈佛大學最成功的輟學生」。這大概是我脫穎而出的法寶……我是輟學生中的領頭羊。
But I also want to be recognized as the guy who got Steve Ballmer to drop out of business school. I’m a bad influence. That’s why I was invited to speak at your graduation. If I had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.
我還要檢討一下史蒂夫-鮑爾默也是受我蠱惑從商學院退學。我劣跡斑斑。這就是為什麼我會受邀參加畢業演講。如果是開學典禮，恐怕今天的人會少很多。
Harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me. Academic life was fascinating. I used to sit in on lots of classes I hadn’t even signed up for. And dorm life was terrific. I lived up at Radcliffe, in Currier House. There were always lots of people in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew I didn’t worry about getting up in the morning. That’s how I came to be the leader of the antisocial group. We clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social people.
哈佛是我生命裡的一段非凡經歷。校園生活格外充實，我旁聽過很多沒有選過的課程。住宿的日子也很爽我當時住在拉德克利夫的柯裡爾宿舍，總是很多人在我的寢室討論到深夜。 大家知道我屬於夜行動物。就這樣，我成為了這堆人的頭目。我們粘在一起，擺出拒絕社交的姿態。
Radcliffe was a great place to live. There were more women up there, and most of the guys were science-math types. That combination offered me the best odds, if you know what I mean. This is where I learned the sad lesson that improving your odds doesn’t guarantee success.
拉德克利夫是個好地方。那裡的女生比男生多，男生們大多都是科學怪人。所以我的機會來了，你懂的。可同時我也明白了一個道理——機會大也不能保證成功。
One of my biggest memories of Harvard came in January 1975, When I made a call from Currier House to a company in Albuquerque that had begun making the world’s first personal computers. I offered to sell them software.
1975年1月在哈佛打出的一通電話讓我畢生難忘。我打給位於阿爾伯克基的一個公司，那家公司當時著手製造世界上第一臺個人電腦。我說我想出售軟體給他們。
I worried that they would realize I was just a student in a dorm and hang up on me. Instead they said: 「We’re not quite ready, come see us in a month,」 which was a good thing, because we hadn’t written the software yet. From that moment, I worked day and night on this little extra credit project that marked the end of my college education and the beginning of a remarkable journey with Microsoft.
我擔心他們會因為我學生身份而掛掉電話。但他們只是說：「現在還沒有準備好 請一個月後再聯繫我們。」我長舒一口氣，壓根我們就沒開工。從那時起 我不分晝夜地趕工 它是我大學生活結束的標誌，也是微軟偉大旅程的開始。
What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence. It could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. It was an amazing privilege and though I left early, I was transformed by my years at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked on.
哈佛的獨特氛圍讓我充滿精力和智慧。這裡的日子可能振奮快樂、也可能令人退縮沮喪，但永遠充滿了挑戰，神奇的體驗!雖然我提前離開了這裡，但是這段經歷對我影響重大。
But taking a serious look back …I do have one big regret.
不過說心裡話……我確實有一點遺憾。
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world - the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
我離開哈佛時，根本沒有意識到這個世界是多麼地不平等。健康、財富、機遇差異懸殊，數以百萬計的人生活在絕望之中。
I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.
我在哈佛觸摸著經濟政治中的新思想，探索科學技術的未知前沿。
But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
但是，人類的進步不在於這些新發現，而在於如何運用這些發現減少社會不公。不管是通過民主政策、健全的公共教育、高質量的醫療保健還是廣泛的商機，消除不平等始終是人類最大的目標。
I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries. It took me decades to find out.
離開校園的時候，根本不知道在美國上百萬年輕人沒有接受教育的機會。也對發展中國家被貧困和病痛折磨的人們一無所知。我花了幾十年才明白這些事情。
You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world’s inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you』ve had a chance to think about how – in this age of accelerating technology – we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.
如今，在座的各位應該比我更了解世界上的這些不平等現象。在你們的求學之路上我希望你們已經思考過這個問題——如何在這個高速發展的時代解決不平等現象。
Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?