5.David Foster Wallace at Kenyon, 2005
5.2005年，大卫·福斯特·华莱士于肯扬学院
"There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship."
“所有事都值得崇拜。每个人都有自己的信仰，但我们可以自由选择信仰什么。”

David Foster Wallace, author of "Infinite Jest," delivered a timeless commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005. With touches of the macabre, the speech rang true, if not for graduates on the cusp of shiny new lives, then certainly for their parents. "There happen to be whole large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. Once such part involves boredom, routine and petty frustration," Wallace said, describing a resentful stop at a crowded grocery store after work for illustration. While Wallace's speech started as a downer, it ended on notes of transcendent grace, because he pointed out, you get to choose how you'll respond to life's frustrations and pettiness. "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day". So provocative was Wallace's address that it went viral. After Wallace's suicide in 2008, a portion of his address became a short film and was published in its entirety as a book.
大卫·福斯特·华莱士，是《无尽的玩笑》的作者，于2005年在肯扬学院的毕业典礼上发表了经典的演讲。这次演讲涉及“死亡”话题，可能对即将开启崭新生活的毕业生来说不够具有吸引力，但对他们父母来说可谓价值颇丰。华莱士说，“美国成年人的大部分真实生活，在一般的大学毕业典礼上都无人谈及，包括无聊的例行公事和极度沮丧挫折。”并用为工作忙了一天后，到拥挤的杂货店产生的不满来举例说明。华莱士的演讲指出，你得选择如何面对生活中的挫折和琐事。演讲开篇发人深省，结尾更是锦上添花。“真正重要的自由，是集专注、觉醒、自律及上进于一体，每天都会发自内心地去关心他人，在无数琐碎、无趣的事上，贡献自己的力量。”华莱士的演讲令人振奋，并被迅速传播。2008年，华莱士自杀后，他的部分演讲被改编成电影短片，演讲全文则被收入书籍出版发行。

4.Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon, 2008
4.2008年，兰迪·波许于卡内基梅隆大学

"It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our death bed. It is the things we do not. I've done a lot of really stupid things and none of them bother me."
“人们临终时后悔的不是已做过的事情，而是没做过的事情。我已经做了很多愚蠢的事情，但这并没有让我觉得遗憾。”
The keynote speaker at Carnegie Mellon University's 2008 commencement ceremony was former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, but Randy Pausch's surprise address stole the show. Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon professor, had months earlier delivered "The Last Lecture" after being diagnosed with a fast-moving pancreatic cancer. His memorable and moving message intended for his students went viral, sparked worldwide interest in his condition and later became a book. In Pausch's commencement speech, which was based on "The Last Lecture," he spoke of his love for Carnegie Mellon. He delivered the address three months after doctors predicted he would be dead and detailed what he'd learned about living. In typically humorous fashion, he asked students to seek respect from their peers, to form loving relationships with the people they held most dear and to follow their passions. "If there is anything I have learned in my life, you will not find that passion in things. And you will not find that passion in money." Instead, he implored the audience to ground their passion in people. As he exited the podium, Pausch kissed his wife and carried her offstage to the sounds of a cheering crowd.
2008年，美国前副总统阿尔·戈尔为卡内基梅隆大学的毕业典礼作了一场演讲，但被兰迪·波许那场令人拍手叫好的演讲抢尽了风头。波许是卡内基梅隆大学的教授，在确诊患有晚期胰腺癌的几个月后，做了 “最后一堂课”的演讲。这场令人难忘和生动的演讲被他的学生们广为传播，并激起了全世界对他的病情的关注，最后被编著成了一本书。这是一篇以 “最后一堂课”为基点的毕业演讲，波许讲述了他对卡内基梅隆大学深挚的爱。在医生预测他将离开人世的三个月后，他作了这篇演讲，并详细讲述了他从生活中学到的事物。他用一种独具一格的幽默方式，忠告学生们要在同龄人中找到尊重，跟最爱的人在一起并且要为自己所热爱的事物奋斗。“如果要说我从生活中学到的东西，那就是你不可能从物质、金钱中找到生活的激情。”相反，他建议他的学生们把热情投注在他人身上。走下讲台时，他亲吻了一下妻子并带着她走进了欢呼鼓掌的人潮中。

3.Neil Gaiman at the University of the Arts, 2012
3.2012年，尼尔·盖曼于艺术大学

"When things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art."
“当你遇到困境时，这是你最应该做的：创作美妙的艺术。”
Neil Gaiman, the U.K.-born author of "Coraline" and "American Gods" among other works of literature, didn't go to college, let alone graduate from one. Instead, Gaiman, a self-described "feral child who was raised in libraries," engineered his own education as a writer. Gaiman cautioned graduates that life could -- and would -- go wrong, and therein lay the best experiences. "A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting message in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love." He also gave some very practical advice on staying employed: "People keep working, in a freelance world ... because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine". Life, Gaiman noted, is about making good art, no matter the disappointments -- or successes -- along the way. It turns out his commencement address was good art, too. It was published in book form just one year later.
尼尔·盖曼是一名作家，出生于英国，写了《鬼妈妈》、《美国众神》等文学作品。他没有上过大学，更别提从大学毕业了。但是，盖曼自称是“被图书馆养育的孩子”，接受了“以成为作家为目标”的自我教育。盖曼告诫学生们，生活中不如意事常八九，但其中会有弥足珍贵的体验。“从事自由职业、艺术工作，就犹如你投放在荒岛里的瓶中信，并希望终有人会发现你的瓶子，打开它、阅读它并放入某些你期待的响应：欣赏，委托，金钱，喜爱。”关于职场生涯，他也给出了很多建设性的建议：“人们能在自由的工作环境中保住工作………因为他们的作品是优秀的，他们性格随和并且他们及时投稿。但是你甚至不需要做到这三点，做到两点就够了。”盖曼说，生活无论成功与失败，都是关于美好艺术的创作。他觉得作毕业演讲也是一项美妙的艺术。一年后，这篇演讲被收入书籍出版发行。

2.President Barack Obama at Morehouse, 2013
2.2013年，美国总统奥巴马于莫尔豪斯学院

"My whole life, I've tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me."
“我的一生都在为妻子米歇尔和女儿着想，而不是像我父亲待我母亲和我那样。”
U.S. President Barack Obama had spoken at several commencements by the time he addressed the graduating class of Morehouse College in 2013. But this speech turned out to be his most personal – and controversial. Obama touched on the historic role the historically black Morehouse College has played in higher education, but also spoke of his personal failings and his struggles with race. "Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down," he said. "I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. But one of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is there's no longer any room for excuses". Obama also lamented that his father had not been present when he was growing up. "I want to break that cycle where a father is not at home -- where a father is not helping to raise that son or daughter. I want to be a better father, a better husband, a better man". Afterward, some criticized the speech as condescending and ignoring the role of government in perpetuating policies that hindered African-Americans. But others applauded his "no excuses" stance and for being a more vocal role model to young black men.
美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马曾经在几个毕业典礼上发表过演讲，但他在莫尔豪斯学院2013级的毕业典礼上发表的才是其最具个人特色也是最具争议的演讲。奥巴马谈到，莫尔豪斯学院为黑人的高等教育发挥了历史性的作用，但同时他也提及自身为种族歧视所做的奋斗及失败的经历。“有时我会将我的失败一笔勾销，把它当做是这个世界试图打压黑人的又一个案例。”他说道，“有时我会倾向于为自己没有做正确的事而找借口，但在过去的四年中，你们所需要学到的一件事就是这里没有借口存活的任何余地。”奥巴马还为他的父亲在他成长过程中的缺席而感叹。“我要打破这种父亲在儿女成长过程中没有担当好其角色的做法，我想成为一个好父亲、好丈夫和好男人。”随后，一些人就其演讲进行了批评。他们认为奥巴马的演讲显得目中无人，忽视了政府在现存政策上对阻碍非洲裔美国人所起到的积极性作用。但也有一些赞同的声音，他们认为奥巴马“别找借口”的立场值得称赞，使其在年轻的黑人心中成为直言不讳的榜样。

1.George Saunders at Syracuse University, 2013
1.2013年，美国作家乔治·桑德斯于雪城大学

"Be kind."
“与人为善”。
If you remember nothing else of George Saunders' commencement address at Syracuse University in 2013, odds are he'd want you to know those two words. "What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness," Saunders said. "Those moments when another human being was there, in front of me, suffering, and I responded ... sensibly. Reservedly. Mildly." Saunders is an English professor at Syracuse University and writer of short stories, including the collection "The Tenth of December." He can count his graduation speech-turned-book "Congratulations, by the Way," among his credits, too. The literary star said that each of us thinks we are the center of the universe and behaves accordingly. So the key to becoming less selfish was to "err in the direction of kindness." "Do those things that incline you toward the big questions, and avoid the things that would reduce you and make you trivial. That luminous part of you that exists beyond personality -- your soul, if you will -- is as bright and shining as any that has ever been".
如果你对乔治·桑德斯)在2013年雪城大学毕业典礼上发表的演讲没有什么印象的话，那有可能是，他只想让你们记住“与人为善”这几个字。“我人生中最后悔的事便是没有对他人表达善意，”桑德斯说。“真希望当一个人在我面前表现出痛苦的那些时刻，我能够温和的、体贴的、含蓄的予以回应。”乔治·桑德斯是雪城大学的英语教授，同时也是短篇小说作家，著有作品集《十二月十日》。根据他的毕业演讲所集成的书《顺便祝贺你们》也可为其履历添上一笔。这位文学家说道，我们每个人都认为自己是宇宙的中心，为人处世都以自我为中心。因此“竭尽全力让自己变善良，犯错也在所难免”是让我们少一些自私自利的有效方法。“做那些顾全大局的事情，避免做纠结于细节的琐碎小事。真正凸显一个人光环的是灵魂而不是个性，如果你愿意，你可以比以往任何时刻都闪耀光彩。”

审校：围巾 编辑：listen 来源：前十网