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兰迪·波许（1960—2008），美国卡内基梅隆大学的计算机科学、人机交互及设计教授。2006年9月，他被诊断患有胰腺癌。尽管进行了手术和化疗，他还是被告知癌细胞已经转移至肝脏及脾脏，至多可以再存活3到6个月。2008年7月25日，兰迪·波许教授在家中去世，终年47岁。本篇为兰迪·波许在其母校卡内基梅隆大学毕业典礼上的著名演讲。对于那些了解兰迪的人，他带来对生命的别样热情和幽默，即使是面对死亡。对兰迪来说，这只是另一种探险。在这篇演讲里，他少了些幽默，却多了些真诚的忠告。

演讲实录

I am glad to be here today, Hell, I am glad to be anywhere today.

President Cohon asked me to come and give the charge to the graduates. I assure you, it'snothing compared to the charge you have just given me.

This is an incredible place. I have seen it through so many lenses. I saw it when I was agraduate student that didn't get admitted and then somebody invited me back and said, OK, we'llchange our mind.

And I saw it as a place that hired me back to be on the faculty¹ many years later and gave methe chance to do what anybody wants to do, which is, follow their passion, follow their heart anddo the things they're excited about.

And the great thing about this university unlike almost all the other ones I know of is thatnobody gets in your way when you try to do it. And that's just fantastic .

And to the degree that a human being can love an institution . I love this place and I love allof the people and I am very grateful to Jerry Cohon and everyone else for all the kindness thathave shown me.

Last August I was told that in all likelihood I had three to six months left to live. I am onmonth nine now and I am gonna get down and do any push-ups ... But there will be a short pick-upbasketball game later.

Somebody said to me, in light of those numbers, wow, so you are really beating the GrimReaper. And what I said without even thinking about is that we don't beat the Reaper² by livinglonger. We beat the Reaper by living well, and living fully³.

For the Reaper will come for all of us, the question is what do we do between the time we areborn and the time he shows up.

Cause he shows up it is too late to do all the things that you're always gonna kind of “getround to”. So I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well is, first off,remember, it's a clich , but love cliche⁴, “it is not the things we do in life that we regret on ourdeathbed, it is the things we do not”.

Cause I assure you I've done a lot of stupid things and none of them bother me. All themistakes, all the dopy things and all the times I was embarrassed they don't matter. What matter isthat, I can kind of look back and say, “Pretty much anytime I got a chance to do something cool, Itried to grab for it.”And that's where my solace⁵ comes from.

The second thing I would add to that, and I didn't coordinate⁶ on the subject of this word but Ithink it's the right word that comes up, is passion. And you will need to find you passion. Many ofyou have already done it, many of you will later, many of you will take till your 30s or 40s. Butdon't give up on finding it. All right? Cause then all you're doing is waiting for the Reaper. Findyour passion and follow it.

And if there's anything I have learned in my life, you will not find passion in things. And youwill not find that passion in money. Because the more things and the more money you have, themore you will just look around and use that as the metric , and there will always be someone withmore.

So your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside. And honors andawards are nice things but only to be the extent that they regard the real respect from your peers.

And to be thought well of by other people that you think even more highly of is a tremendoushonor that I've been granted.

Find you passion and in my experience, no matter what you do at work or what you do inofficial settings, that passion would be grounded in people. And it will be grounded in therelationships you have with people, and what they think of you, when you time comes. And if youcan gain the respect of those around you, and the passion and true love, and I've said this before,but I waited till 39 to get married because I had to wait that long to find someone where herhappiness was more important than mine. And if nothing else I hope that all of you can find thatkind of passion and that kind of love in your life.

参考译文

很高兴今天能够来到这里。天啊，今天不论在哪里我都很高兴。

柯汉校长邀请我来给毕业生一些鼓励。我向诸位保证，你们刚刚给我的鼓励更多。

这所学校棒极了！我可从很多方面了解它。我也曾从这里毕业，遗憾的是并没有申请上研究生。然而一位恩师邀我回来并说：我们改变主意啦，你被录取了。

许多年以后，我被聘回到这里执教。这是一个所有人都梦寐以求的机会。在这里，你可以追随热情，听从心灵的召唤，并能够做自己感到刺激的事。

这所学校胜过其他学校的地方在于当你尝试实现梦想时，没有人会阻拦你。这太美妙了！我无比的热爱这所学校，也爱这里的所有人。我十分感激柯汉校长和我的同事，感谢他们给我的温暖。

去年8月，我被告知只能再活3到6个月了。可现在已是第九个月了。我想低下身来做俯卧撑……但过会将有一场街头篮球赛。

当我说完前面的那些数字后，有些人对我说：天啊，你真的战神了冷酷的死神。而我毫不犹疑的回答他：仅靠多活几天是不能战胜死神的。战胜死神最好的方式是活得好，活得充实。

人终有一死，关键是从出生的那一刻起到死神降临的这一段时间内，我们都做了什么。

当死神降临时，想要做些我们一直想做而没时间去做的事，却已为时晚矣。因此，关于如何才能活的好，我给大家的唯一建议是，马上去做，请千万牢记，虽说这是老生常谈，但我喜欢老生常谈，“临终前我们不会后悔做过某些事，而是后悔没有去做某些事。”

坦率地说，我也曾做过很多蠢事，但它们中没有一件令我烦恼。所有那些犯过的错，做过的蠢事，还有令我尴尬的时刻，其实它们都不重要。真正重要的是，当我回首往事时，我会说：“只要有机会去做那些很酷的事，我将会毫不犹豫的去争取。”这才让我感到欣慰。

我还想再说一件事，我一开始并未准备，但我想这个字眼很合适，那就是“激情”二字。你们必须要找到自己的激情所在。你们当中有些人已经找到了，许多人将来也会找到，也许很多人要到三四十岁时才找得到。但千万不要放弃寻找你的激情。好吗？因为你若放弃了，那你所能做的仅是等待死亡而已。去寻找你的激情所在，并追随它的脚步！

如果说我这一生中学到了什么的话，那就是你不可能在物质中找到激情。你不会在金钱中找到激情。因为你拥有的财富越多，你就越有可能用它去衡量你周围的世界，然而总是有人比你更富有。

因此，激情必须来自于能从内在激发你的事物。荣誉和奖赏是好事，但仅限于出于同行们真心的尊敬。或是像我一样能够被自己所尊敬的人所认同，这才是最大的荣幸。

去寻找你的激情吧。在我看来，无论你从事什么样工作，处在怎样的环境当中，激情都是和人有关的。激情基于人与人之间的关系，基于当你离开人世时，人们对你的看法。

如果你能赢得身边人的尊敬，找到自己的激情所在和真爱，正如我之前所说的。我等到39岁才结婚，是因为我必须等这么久才能找到一位她的幸福比我的更重要的人。抛开一切其他不谈，我祝在座的各位，此生都能够找到那样的激情和真爱。

Vocabulary Bank

1. incredible ［in'kred?bl ］adj 难以置信的，不可思议的She's an incredible actress.

她是个了不起的演员。

2. admit ［?d'mit ］v 接受；准许……进入

The school admits sixty new boys and girls every year.

这所学校每年招收六十名男女新生。

3. fantastic ［f?n't?stik ］adj 了不起的，极好的You passed your test? Fantastic!

你测验及格了？太棒了！

4. institution ［?insti'tju:??n ］n 社会机构（如大学，养老院）The Hong Kong Bank is Hong Kong's largest financial institution.

香港银行是香港最大的金融机构。

5. likelihood ［'laiklihud ］n 可能性

In all likelihood the meeting will be cancelled.

会议十之八九要取消。

6. cliche ［'kli:?ei?kli:'?ei ］n 陈词滥调

Cliche is a feature of bad journalism⁷.

使用套语是拙劣的新闻体的特点。

7. bother ［'b??? ］v 打扰，添麻烦

Does the pain from your operation bother you much?

你手术后疼得难受吗？

8. dopy ［'d?upi ］adj 昏沉欲睡的

I'm feeling really dopy this morning.

今天上午我一直昏昏沉沉的。

9. coordinate ［k?u'?:dinit ］v 协调，协同动作The plan was not very well coordinated⁸.

这计划的各部分配合得不够好。

10. metric ［'metrik ］adj 公制的，十进制的

The petrol pumps have gone metric.

汽油加油泵已采用公制了。

11. fuel ［fju?l ］v 供给燃料

All aircraft must fuel before a long flight.

所有飞机均须先加油方能做长途飞行。

12. tremendous ［tri'mend?s ］adj 极好的，不平常的He's a tremendous walker.

他很能走路。

Language Guide

Grim Reaper

死神

在西方的民间传说中，身穿黑斗篷，手持镰刀的骷髅象征着死神，他沉默不语，在人死之后会来接死者“上路”。这种传说并非属于任何一种西方宗教，它的来源非常复杂，融入了西方大陆各个民族的传说，所以他并没有确定的名字。

Grammar Master

1. “the + 比较级……，the + 比较级”表示“越……越……”，通常前一组“the + 比较级”相当于比较状语从句，后一组“the + 比较级”为主句。

例　The more I read the book, the more I liked it.

这本书我越看越喜欢。

例　The more difficult the questions are, the less likely he is able to answer them.

问题越难，他回答出来的可能性就越小。

有时，前一组“the + 比较级”相当于条件状语从句，后一组为主句，注意从句不可用将来时。

例　The earlier you start, the sooner you'll be back.

你出发得越早，回来得就越早。

例　The more you practice, the better you can understand.

你练习得越多，理解得就越透彻。

一般说来，从句中的主语与谓语必须是正常语序，不能是倒装语序。主句可根据需要调整，既可采用正常语序，也可采用倒装语序。

例　The noisier they were, the happier was their mother.

孩子越吵闹，他们的母亲就越高兴。

例　The harder you work, the more progress you will get.

你越努力，进步就越快。

2. no matter意为“不论，不管，没关系”，no matter的用法很灵活，既可独立成句，也可在句中担当成分。

例　No matter!

不要紧！

例　It is (of) no matter.

这无关紧要。

no matter也可在it作形式主语，真正主语位于句末的句子中作表语。

例　It is no matter that he didn't call.

他没打电话没关系。

例　It made no matter to him that his brother lost all his money.

他哥哥把所有的钱都弄丢了，这对他来说是无关紧要的。

no matter也常与疑问词who，what，where，when，how，if，whether等连用，意为“无论，不管”。

例　Don't open the door, no matter who comes.

不管谁来都别开门。

例　Don't trust him, no matter what he says.

无论他说什么，都别相信他。

no matter who（what，when，where，how，whether等）引导的从句通常在句中作状语，表示让步，但有时也可在句中作宾语。

例　The man who is lazy radiates laziness in no matter what situation he be observed.

不管什么情况下观察他，那个懒汉都显得很懒。

no matter what，no matter who，no matter when等也可直接用于句末或句中。

例　We have to get to the airport on time, no matter what.

我们无论如何也要准时赶到机场。

例　They're going to win no matter what.

他们无论如何都要赢。