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I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
我可能会受到诱惑，去嫉妒那样生活的人。但我不认为他们做的噩梦会比我更少。选择生活在狭窄的空间会导致不敢面对开阔的视野，那种生活同样会有恐惧。我认为不愿展开想象的人会看到更多的怪兽，他们往往更会感到害怕。而且，那些没有同情心的人会激活真正的怪兽。因为尽管他们自身没有作恶，但他们对于罪恶无动于衷，这已足以证明他们成为作恶者的共谋。
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
18岁时，为了追寻我当时还无法解释的东西，我踏上了学习古典文学的征途并汲取了许多知识，其中一点便是希腊作家普鲁塔克所说：我们的内在修养将会改变外在的现实。
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，哈弗大学2008届的毕业生们，你们会对其他人的生活产生多大的影响呢？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。
