徐小平的英文怎么样？毕业典礼演讲:“生命以获取而续存，却因给予而繁盛”

2017-06-17 LearnAndRecord

近日，新东方联合创始人、著名天使投资人徐小平参加了母校加拿大萨斯喀彻温大学(University of Saskatchewan)举行的毕业典礼，并发表演讲，分享了他的成功秘诀：“生命以获取而续存，却因给予而繁盛(We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.)”。

（完整视频见文末）

Ladies and gentlemen. Chancellor Romanow, President Stoicheff, government representatives, distinguished guests, members of the faculty, graduates and friends: This honor means everything to me. I am truly grateful. Thank you so very much.

My new degree makes me a proud member of this Class of 2017. To my classmates, your parents, your families, may I offer a simple message: For the great achievement you share on this wonderful day, Congratulations!

For me, it is especially flattering to be called a Doctor of Laws. Let me tell you why. Long ago, after I earned my Master's Degree in music, I still didn't know what to do. So I considered studying at the College of Law. I attended exactly one class, in contract law. Right then and there, I knew that law school just wasn't for me. One class – and yet here I am with this beautiful, impressive degree as a Doctor of Laws. Those of you graduating from the law school today, who worked and struggled for your degrees, would be entitled to reflect that life is not always fair.

法学博士的头衔实在是一个让我受宠若惊的荣誉。这里有一个故事。很久以前在我获得音乐硕士学位之后，我仍然不知道自己想要干什么。于是我想到了学习法律，我也确实去上了一节合同法课，就一节。（笑声）当时我就明白了，我真不是读法学院的料（笑声）。然而，就上过这一节法学课的我，现在却获得了令人艳羡的法学博士学位（笑声+掌声）。对于那些寒窗苦熬、熬到今天终成正果的法学院毕业生们来说，你们有理由心生感慨：生活并不总是那么公平（笑声）！

Sometimes we get more than we deserve. I know this, because it is how I have always felt, about what I received from the University of Saskatchewan. The university has honored me, but really, I am here today to honor the university.

确实，总有一些人，得到的比他付出的多。对此我有切身体验，因为我从萨斯喀彻温大学所得到的一切都证明了这一点。母校给了我很高的荣誉，但是，从心底里，我今天来是为了赞颂我的母校。

Exactly thirty years ago in 1987, my wife Ling and I decided that we were ready to see the world beyond China. If you had lived in a basement in Beijing, and desire a change of scenery, it doesn't get any more different than the Canadian prairie[1].

30 年前的 1987 年，我和我妻子和我决定走出国门，看看外边的世界。如果你在北京的地下室住过，渴望换一种风景，没有什么比加拿大辽阔的草原风光，会给你带来更震撼的体验（笑声）。

[1]prairie: a wide area of flat land without trees in Canada and the northern US （加拿大和美国北部的）大草原

Ling applied to study music here and was immediately accepted. I, on the other hand, had to wait. I went to Washington, D.C., with a hundred dollars in my pocket, and found a job. So my wife was alone with her violin in Saskatoon. I was three thousand kilometers away on the kitchen staff of Mr. Eggroll.

我妻子申请了这里的音乐系，立即得到了录取。而我，却不得不耐心等待。兜里装着全部家当一百美元，我去了美国华盛顿打工。这样，我妻子一个人生活在萨斯卡通，与她的小提琴为伴。而我，在离她三千公里之外一家叫“春卷先生”的中餐厅，当了一名厨房小工（笑声）。

The happy day came when I was also accepted at this university. Nobody was ever as excited as I was to spend three days on a Greyhound bus to Saskatchewan. Ling and I had both received scholarships. That made all the difference for us. The same amount of money would have taken many years to earn in China at that time. We were amazed that such a gift could be granted by people who did not even know us.

幸福，终于随着萨斯喀彻温大学给我的录取通知书降临。连续三天三夜在一辆灰狗大巴上渡过，对谁可能都是一种折磨，但我却一路欢快、一路亢奋地抵达了萨斯喀彻温（笑声）。我和我妻子都获得了全额奖学金。这是改变我们命运的决定性因素。每月如期而至的支票，超过当时我在北大教书好几年的收入。那些与我们素昧平生的人们，为什么要给我们如此巨额的金钱？这在我心灵深处引起的震撼，从此再也不能平息。

With special affection, I recall the generous spirit of Dr. David Kaplan. If you knew him, it was a privilege. He was the founder of the music department. To many foreign students, he was a source of constant help, friendship, and encouragement. Often in my life, Dr. Kaplan's example has shined before me, a reminder to share with others as he shared with me.

满怀着挚爱之情，我想起我的研究生导师 David Kaplan 博士的仁爱胸怀。认识他的人，都会感到认识他是一种幸运。他是音乐系的创始人。对于我们外国留学生而言，他是淙淙流淌的友谊、帮助和鼓励的源泉。Kaplan 博士是我生命中一盏明灯，指引着我像他帮助我一样去帮助别人。

I received so much from the University in those years, but life beyond campus was not nearly as forgiving[2]. Upon graduation, it didn't take long for me to realize that I would not make my fortune as a performing musician. As much as the world loves the sounds of Mozart and Bach, the world was not waiting to hear them from my violin. I started my own music business, but business was slow. I wrote and recorded folksongs, but the folks were not listening.

学校给予我的一切是如此美好，但校园外的生活可并不总是那么阳光明媚。毕业不久我就意识到，做一名音乐人难以维持生计。人们虽然喜欢听莫扎特和巴赫的音乐，但他们并不急着聆听我的演奏（笑声）。我成立了自己的音乐公司，但公司生意惨淡。我谱写并录制民谣，但它们只在谣言里存在（笑声）。

[2]forgiving: Something that is forgiving allows you to make mistakes or allows for your weaknesses. 容许失误的;能弥补弱点的

They flew back to a cooler and more forgiving climate.
他们飞回到一个更加凉爽、气候更加怡人的地方。

It was truly a difficult period for me. I watched our children at home while my wife taught school. I took various jobs, including one job that involved fast-paced and time-sensitive[3] transactions. If anyone here received a delivery from Pizza Hut in 1995, there is a good chance we have met before.

这段时间对于我来说的确是举步维艰。我在家看孩子，靠我妻子教书养家。我也尝试做过各种各样的工作，其中一种工作，对速度节奏和交割时效要求极高——在座如果有人在 1995 年叫过必胜客披萨的外卖，我们很可能曾经有缘相逢（笑声）。

[3]time-sensitive: used to describe a product that has to be delivered by a particular time, or information that is only useful for a particular period

We deliver high-value, time-sensitive goods like cars, computers and specialist chemicals.

I do not recommend a period like that in your own careers, if you can avoid it. But sometimes it happens anyway. That doesn't have to be the end. It can even mark a late beginning, as it did for me. Even in my darkest moments, I had a sense of who I was and what I could do. More than once I failed, but I refused to give up. I knew in my heart that I was here on earth to achieve good and meaningful things. I never let any failure take that conviction away.

如果能够避免，我不建议大家刻意去经历这样一段时期。不过，有时候这种事情确实也无法避免。但它不应该成为休止符，它甚至可能是“大器晚成”的预兆，就像我自己的经历一样。即使在我最艰难的日子里，我也从未失去自我，没有丧失信心。我屡战屡败，但屡败屡战。我深信，天降大任于斯人，我来到世界，尚有使命未达，更有好梦未成。我不会让失败带走我的信念。

Sustained by this feeling, I went back to China and joined a small English school in Beijing called New Oriental. China had opened up and many young people were eager to see the world. I threw myself into the work of helping them find opportunities to study abroad. I shared everything I knew to serve them in every way I could.

在这种信念的支持下，我回到了中国，加入了一个名叫新东方的英语学校。中国正进入改革开放的大潮，很多年轻人渴望走出去，看看外面的世界。我如痴似醉地投入到了帮助他们实现留学梦想的工作中。面对那些求知若渴的莘莘学子，我竭尽了自己一切所知，耗干了自己的全部精力。

Ten years later, after that school, New Oriental Education, went public in the U.S., many of my former students returning from overseas approached me looking for money for their business ideas. At the time in China, there was no such thing as angel investing[4]. I understood these men and women, because I knew what it was like to be rich in ideas and poor in money. So I began to finance their start-up dreams and became an angel investor before I knew it.

十年转眼过去，随着新东方在美国上市，我们很多学生也开始从海外学成归国。他们找到我，想让我为他们的创业想法寻找资金。那时的中国，天使投资还是一个比较罕见的事情。我非常理解这些年轻人，因为我深知胸有大志、阮囊羞涩是什么滋味。于是我开始资助他们的创业梦，并在不知不觉间成为了一名天使投资人。

[4]天使投资（Angel Investment），是权益资本投资的一种形式，是指富有的个人出资协助具有专门技术或独特概念的原创项目或小型初创企业，进行一次性的前期投资。它是风险投资的一种形式，在根据天使投资人的投资数量以及对被投资企业可能提供的综合资源进行投资。

I am happy to be called a success today- and frankly, still a bit relieved[5]. It was a close call[6]. But I do not measure success in rankings of wealth. I do not measure it in the things I can buy. I measure success, not just in overcoming one's own adversity, but in helping others overcome theirs. My favorite line in the musical Les Miserables is from the Bishop: "Though our lives are very humble. What we have, we have to share." I don't recall if my friend Dr. David Kaplan ever heard those words, but he certainly lived them. And mine is just one life that he, and this university, changed for the better.

被人们称之为“成功人士”是一件让我高兴的事。说实话，我感到庆幸，命运对我实在非常宽厚仁慈。但我不会用财富排行榜来衡量成功，也不会用能够买得起什么来评判成败。我衡量成功的标准，不仅仅是自己如何战胜逆境，而是如何也帮助他人反败为胜。《悲惨世界》中主教对冉阿让的一句话让我非常难忘：“无论我们的生命多么微不足道，我们要倾尽一切与他人分享。”我不记得我的朋友 David Kaplan 博士是否听说过这句名言，但他确实践行了这种美德。我的人生，因为他和他所象征的萨斯喀彻温大学，而变得更加美好。

[5]relieved: happy that something unpleasant has not happened or has ended 宽慰的；放心的；解脱的

I'm so relieved to find you - I thought you'd already gone.
找到你我就放心了——我还以为你已经走了呢。
I'm relieved (that) you didn't tell her.
你没有告诉她，我就放心了。

[6]a close call: something bad that almost happened 几乎发生的事

The car just missed the child but it was a very close call.
汽车差点撞着小孩，就差那么一点点。

In business, in law, in any work we do, all of the same things are true about succeeding. First jobs – maybe even second or third ones – are not always dream jobs. Yet there is one opportunity that we never have to wait on – that is the chance to give our best, to give without holding back, and to give more than what is asked.

无论是在商界，还是在法律界，人们所做的一切，都是为了追求成功。第一份工作——甚至是第二第三份工作——不一定就是我们的理想岗位，但你的面前却有一个永远不需要等待的绝佳机会：那就是在别人有需求的时候鼎力出手、倾其所有、给予超出对方期待的帮助。

We can do that in every position, high or low. We can do that in every circumstance. Every day, at every turn, we are needed; there are good things that only we can do. That's how we show who we are, and find success along the way. There is great wisdom in the saying: We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

无论身份高低、无论境遇逆顺，你都有这样的机会展示你的价值。每一天，每一刻，总有人需要我们；总有一些事情，缺了你就无法做成。如果你怀着这种信念一路前行，你一定会发现自己独一无二的价值、并渐入成功的佳境。让我们都记住这么一句至理名言：生命以获取而续存，生命因给予而繁盛！

For each one of you graduating here today, I wish a great career and a happy life. And I hope that you will always share the feeling I have toward this university: respect, affection, and gratitude for all it has given to us. The kindness and generosity I received here long ago still touches me. May these years of learning leave a gracious mark on you as well.

对今天在场的每一位毕业生，我祝福你们拥有成功事业和幸福人生。我也希望你们同样怀着我对母校的这份真情：为学校给予我们的一切致以崇敬、挚爱和感恩。多年前我从这里得到的关爱与慷慨，在我心中隽刻下永不磨灭的痕迹，愿你在此的躬读岁月也给你留下高贵闪光的印记。

Classof 2017, I wish you good luck and great happiness.

2017 届的同学们，我祝你们好运连连，幸福满满！

Thank you very much.

谢谢大家！（掌声）

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