评论
打印
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.
那是一个惊人的论断，在我们生活的每一天里被无数次证实。它在某种程度上说明了我们与外部世界有无法脱离的联系，只要我们活着，就会对其他人的生活有影响。
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your nationality sets you apart. The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower. The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.
但是，哈佛大学2008届的毕业生们，你们会对其他人的生活产生多大影响呢？你们的智慧、你们应对高难度工作的能力以及你们所接受的教育赋予了你们独特的地位和责任。甚至你们的国籍也让你们与众不同，你们中的绝大多数人都属于这个世界上唯一的超级大国。你们投票的方式，你们生活的方式，你们抗议的方式，以及你们给政府带来的压力，都会产生超越国界的影响力。这是你们的特权，更是你们的责任。
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped to change. We do not need magic to transform my world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
如果你们选择用自己的地位和影响为那些没有发言权的人呐喊；如果你们不仅能认同有权势的人，而且也能帮扶无权势的人；如果你们会设身处地为没有你们这些优势的人着想，那么你们的存在将不仅是你们家人的骄傲，更是成千上万因为你们的帮助而生活得更好的人的骄傲。我们不需要用魔法改变世界，我们自己的内心就有这种力量：我们拥有想象力，可以让这个世界变得更美好。
