名校励志英语演讲 125:珍惜现在 把握将来(1)

 　　Thank you very much to thee. Thank you. It's a...So: after over 100 years of Class Days, finally you get a British speaker.

　　谢谢你们，谢谢你们。这...100多年过去了，你们终于迎来了一位英国演讲者。

　　What took you so long? Did that little disagreement of 1776 really rankle¹ so much? And why now? Is it because British election campaigns only last four weeks?

　　是什么让你们等了这么长时间？难道是因为1776年那次小小分歧而耿耿于怀？那为什么又选择现在呢？难道是因为英国的大选仅仅持续了四个星期？无论出于何种原因，能来到这里让我倍感荣幸。

　　For whatever reason, it is an honour to be here and to say to the Yale College Class of 2008: you did it; you came through; from all of us to you: congratulations.

　　耶鲁大学2008届的毕业生们，我想对你们说：你们顺利完成了学业，你们去的了成功，我们大家都要恭喜你们，你们干得非常好。

　　The invitation to a former British Prime Minister to address a college which boasts five former Presidents, many former Vice² Presidents and Senators too numerous to mention, is either to give me an exaggerated sense of my own importance or you a reduced sense of yours.

　　贵校培养出了5位美国总统、很多副总统和难以数计的参议院，却邀请一位前英国首相来发表演讲，这要么是夸大了我的重要性，要么就是减小了你们的重要性。

　　It was Churchill or Oscar Wilde—and there is a difference—who called us two nations divided by a common language and so we are.

　　是丘吉尔还是奥斯卡?王尔德——这两人当然是有区别的——把英美两国说成是由一种相同的语言划分的两个不同的国家，你们可以从我今天的出场来判断这一点，事实确实如此。

　　Here I am at Yale and set to come back for the fall semester. My old Oxford³ tutor was, I'm afraid, horrified⁴ to hear I had been taken on by Yale. His worries were all for Yale I may say. He said: "I only hope for their sake you are going there to learn rather than teach."

　　现在我来到耶鲁，并打算今年秋天来这里任职。我恐怕，我在牛津的老导师听到我在耶鲁任职会感到惊骇。我可以说，他的担忧全是为了耶鲁。他说：“为了耶鲁，我只希望你是去那儿学习，而不是教书。”

　　背景资料：

　　美国前首相布莱尔2008年5月在美国耶鲁大学演讲，他在演讲中呼吁与中印两国建立合作伙伴关系。布莱尔还表示，台下毕业生将面对气候转变，粮食短缺，人口增长和涉及宗教的恐怖主义等国际议题，呼吁他们要追求有意义的人生。他还号召毕业生要做一个实干家而不是评论家，要勇于承担责任，要时刻准备迎接新的生活，不断思考，积极行动。

　　Be prepared to fail as well as to succeed, because it is failure not success that de?nes character.

　　不仅要接受成功，也要准备经历失败。因为是失败而非成功塑造了性格。

1 rankle   

v.（怨恨，失望等）难以释怀

参考例句：

• You burrow and rankle in his heart!你挖掘并折磨他的心灵！
• The insult still rankled in his mind.他对那次受辱仍耿耿於怀。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

4 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。