公众人物毕业演讲 第124期:2013年克林顿在霍华德大学(4)

 　　We were like this on the lawn at Georgetown just across the town

　　我们就像这样坐在城那边乔治敦的草地上

　　It started out to be a clear day

　　一开始还天朗气清

　　Then all of a sudden, this huge storm cloud came over

　　突然之间暴风云袭来

　　And the lightening began to dance in the sky

　　天空中开始电闪雷鸣

　　And a Howard graduate, the mayor of Wasington D.C., Walter Washington stood up at the podium as I am

　　一位霍华德大学毕业生华盛顿特区市长沃特尔·华盛顿就像我一样站在讲台前

　　He looked to the sky

　　他仰望天空

　　He looked to the shivering students and he said,

　　又看看打颤的学生们说道

　　Congratulations

　　祝贺你们

　　If we don't get out of here, we are all gonna drown

　　如果我们不离开这儿 我们都得被淹死

　　If you want a copy of my speech, you write me, and I'll send you one

　　如果你想要一份我的演讲稿 写信给我 我给你发一份

　　Good luck

　　祝你们好运

　　And off we went

　　然后我们就走了

　　Now what did I learn from that?

　　我从这件事里学到了什么

　　The most successful commencement speeches are brief and highly relevant

　　最成功的毕业致辞既简练又有高度的现实相关性

　　So wherever whoever you are Mr. Mayor, thank you for the memory

　　所以不管你现在在哪儿市长先生感谢你留下的回忆

　　When you leave here, it is important for you to remember that you have been empowered to do something most people who ever lived could not do

　　当你们离开这里的时候千万不要忘了你们已经被赋予了做一些大多数人一辈子都无法做到的事情的能力

　　Even with the employment situation and the economic challenges, virtually all of you have the power to choose what you will do to earn a living

　　即便在现在的就业形势和经济挑战之下你们几乎所有人都有能力选择你们谋生的方式

　　It may sound selfevident, but most people who have ever lived including hundreds of millions, even billions of people on that face of the earth today never had that choice

　　这看似不言自明 但是大多数生活在地球上的人包括现在的数百万甚至数十亿的人都未能做出这种选择