Good bye and good luck

再见，珍重！

       Today, I speak from this podium a final time as your president. As I depart, I want to thank all of you - students, faculty, alumni and staff - with whom I have been privileged to work over these past years. Some of us have had our disagreements, but I know that which unites us transcends that which divides us.

今天我将以校长身份最后一次站在这个讲台上演讲。在我即将离任之前，我想感谢你们在场上所有人，包括学生，老师，校友以及员工们。和你们在一起，我愉快地度过了过去的工作时光。曾经有些人和我有过异议，但是我相信我们之间的共识超过了我们的分歧。

Some things look different to me than they did five years ago. The world that today's Harvard's graduates are entering is a profoundly different one than the world administrators like me, the faculty, and all but the most recent alumni of Harvard entered.

 在我看来，这五年里有些东西发生了变化。今天哈佛毕业生所处的社会和我们这些管理者当年所处的社会相比发生了深刻的变化。

       It is a world where opportunities have never been greater for those who know how to teach children to read, or those who know how to distribute financial risk; never greater for those who understand the cell and the pixel; never greater for those who can master, and navigate between, legal codes, faith traditions, computer platforms, political viewpoints.

       现在的这个世界充满了空前的机遇，特别是对于那些懂得教人学习的人，那些懂得如何投资的人，那些懂得如何运用计算机的人，那些懂得法律，宗教，计算机平台，和那些有政治见解的人。

       It is also a world where some are left further and further behind - those who are not educated, those trapped in poverty and violence, those for whom equal opportunity is just a hollow phrase.

Scientific and technological advances are enabling us to comprehend the furthest reaches of the cosmos, the most basic constituents of matter, and the miracle of life.

       这个社会也越来越把一些人抛弃在时代潮流之后。如那些没受过教育的人，那些挣扎在贫穷和暴力中的人，和那些不相信平等的人。科技进步让我们可以了解更深远的宇宙，最基本的物质构成，以及生命的奇迹。

       At the same time, today, the actions, and inaction, of human beings imperil not only life on the planet, but the very life of the planet.

       同时在今天，人类的有些作为和不作为都影响到我们人类和地球。

       Globalization is making the world smaller, faster and richer. Still, 9/11, avian flu, Darfur, and Iran remind us that a smaller, faster world is not necessarily a safer world.

       全球化让这个世界变得更小，更快，更富有。尽管“9·11”，禽流感，和伊朗等问题都提醒我们这个更小、更快的世界也不是绝对的安全。

Our world is bursting with knowledge - but desperately in need of wisdom. Now, when sound bites are getting shorter, when instant messages crowd out essays, and when individual lives grow more frenzied, college graduates capable of deep reflection are what our world needs.

       我们的世界是充满知识的，但却也十分需要智慧。现在，当声音频率变得更短，当即时信息从论文中脱颖而出，当个人生活变得更烦燥的时候，大学毕业生的这种深刻自省的能力是我们这个世界所需要的。

       For all these reasons I believed - and I believe even more strongly today - in the unique and irreplaceable mission of universities.

       尽管上述这些原因的存在，我过去相信，而今天也更相信我们大学独特的，不可取代的这一任务。

       Universities are where the wisdom we cannot afford to lose is preserved from generation to generation. Among all human institutions, universities can look beyond present norms to future possibilities; can look through current considerations to emergent opportunities.

       大学里的智慧是由一代代遗留下来的，而这些智慧都是我们无法忍受失去的。在所有的人类机构中，只有大学才有突破现实从而远观未来；突破局限性思考从而把握机遇的功能。

       And among universities, Harvard stands out. With its great tradition, its iconic reputation, its remarkable network of 300,000 alumni, Harvard has never had as much potential as it does now.

And yet, great and proud institutions, like great and proud nations at their peak, must surmount a very real risk: that the very strength of their traditions will lead to caution, to an inward focus on prerogative and to a complacency that lets the world pass them by.

       而在所有的大学中，哈佛又格外突出。它拥有伟大的传统，闻名的声誉，和拥有300000校友的强大的校友网，哈佛拥有前所有未有的潜力。

       Our University today is at an inflection point in its history. At such a moment, there is temptation to elevate comfort and consensus over progress and clear direction, but this would be a mistake. The University's matchless resources - human, physical, financial - demand that we seize this moment with vision and boldness. To do otherwise would be a lost opportunity. We can spur great deeds that history will mark decades and even centuries from now. If Harvard can find the courage to change itself, it can change the world.

       今天，我们的大学处在其发展的转折点上。在这一时期，安于舒适，止步前进将成为一个错误。哈佛的不可比拟的资源，人力，物力和财力要求我们大胆地抓住这个时机，否则将失去这个机遇。我们能做出伟大的事业让历史永久得记住我们。如果哈佛能找到勇气来改变自己，它也将改变整个世界。

2006 Commencement Address

2006年毕业典礼演讲。

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers
哈佛大学校长——劳伦斯·萨莫斯