Thank you! 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:
谢谢大家!尊敬的伯克校长,鲁登斯坦前校长,即将上任的福斯特校长,哈佛集团的各位成员,监管理事会的各位理事,各位老师,各位家长,尤其是毕业生们:
I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: "Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree."
有一句话我等了三十多年,现在终于可以说了:“老爸,我总是跟你说,我会回来拿到我的学位的!”
I want to thank Harvard for this honor. I'll be changing my job next year…and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.
我要感谢哈佛大学给我这个荣誉。明年,我就要换工作了……我终于可以在简历上填上大学学位,这真是不错。
I applaud the 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.
我为今天在座的毕业生喝彩,你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。哈佛的校报称我是“哈佛大学历史上最成功的辍学生”。我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发表毕业演讲……在所有的辍学者中,我做得最好。
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.
但是,我还要提醒大家,我使得史蒂夫·鲍尔默也从哈佛商学院退学了。因此,我是个有着不良影响的人。那就是为什么我被邀请来在你们的毕业典礼上演讲的原因。如果我在你们入学欢迎仪式上演讲,那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多吧。