There is no question that the faculty, the alumni, the students, and the benefactors of Harvard have used their power to improve the lives of people here and around the world. But can we do more? Can Harvard dedicate its intellect to improving the lives of people who will never even hear its name? 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:
Should our best minds be dedicated to solving our biggest problems?
哈佛是否鼓励她的教员去研究解决世界上最严重的不公正？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、死于我们可以治疗的疾病的儿童……哈佛的学生有没有从中学到东西？
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?
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？
Should the world’s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world’s least privileged?
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。
These are not rhetorical questions—you will answer with your policies.
想一想吧，现在在这个院子里的我们，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利，期待我们做出贡献。
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.
同这个时代的期望一样，我也要向今天所有毕业的同学提出一个忠告：你们要选择一个议题，一个复杂的问题，一个关于人类深刻的不公正的问题，然后你们要变成这个问题的专家。如果你们能够使得这个问题成为你们职业的核心，那么你们就会非常杰出。但是，你们不必一定要去做那些大事。每个星期只用几个小时，你就可以通过互联网得到信息，找到志同道合的朋友，发现困难所在，找到解决它们的途径。
In line with the promise of this age, I want to exhort each of the graduates here to take on an issue—a complex problem, a deep inequity, and become a specialist on it. If you make it the focus of your career, that would be phenomenal. But you don’t have to do that to make an impact. For a few hours every week, you can use the growing power of the Internet to get informed, find others with the same interests, see the barriers, and find ways to cut through them.
不要让这个世界的复杂性阻碍你前进，你要成为一个行动主义者，将解决人类的不公正视为己任。它将成为你生命中最重要的经历之一。
Don’t let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.
在座的各位毕业的同学，你们所处的时代是一个神奇的时代。当你们离开哈佛的时候，你们拥有的技术，是我们那一届学生所没有的。你们已经了解到了世界上的不公正，我们那时还不知道这些。有了这样的了解之后，假如你再弃这些你尽微薄之力就可以改变他们生活的人于不顾，你将受到良心的谴责。你们比我们拥有更大的能力；你们必须尽早开始，尽可能长时期坚持下去。
You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.
知道了你们所知道的一切，你们怎么能不采取行动呢？
Knowing what you know, how could you not?
我希望，30年后你们还会再回到哈佛，反思你们用自己的天赋和能力所做出的一切。我希望，在那个时候，你们用来评价自己的标准，不仅是你们的专业成就，还包括你们为改变这个世界深刻的不公正所做出的努力，以及你们如何善待那些远隔千山万水、与你们毫无关系的人们，你们与他们唯一的共同点就是同为人类。
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years ,from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities, on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.
祝各位好运。
Good luck.
比尔·盖茨（1955年10月28日—?），美国企业家、软件工程师、慈善家以及微软公司的董事长。1995年到2007年的《福布斯》全球亿万富翁排行榜中，比尔·盖茨连续13年蝉联世界首富。
比尔·盖茨等了整整30年，才终于拿到了哈佛大学颁发的学位证书。这是他的毕业演讲稿，充满了人文关怀和社会责任，读来发人深省。
