President Obama: Hello, Morehouse! Thank you, everybody. Please be seated. 奥巴马总统：莫尔豪斯学院的朋友们，大家好！谢谢大家，请坐。
Audience Member: I love you! 观众：我爱您！
President Obama: I love you back. That is why I am here. 奥巴马总统：我也爱你。这就是我来到这里的原因。
I have to say that it is one of the great honors of my life to be able to address this gathering here today. I want to thank Dr. Wilson for his outstanding leadership, and the Board of Trustees. We have Congressman Cedric Richmond and Sanford Bishop -- both proud alumni of this school, as well as Congressman Hank Johnson. And one of my dear friends and a great inspiration to us all -- the great John Lewis is here. We have your outstanding Mayor, Mr. Kasim Reed, in the house. 今天能在这里讲话，是我一生中莫大的荣幸。我要感谢威尔逊博士卓越的领导，也感谢校董事会。今天在场的有众议员塞德里克·里士满和桑福德·毕晓普，他们都是学校引以为傲的校友；还有众议员汉克·约翰逊。我的好友、我们共同的精神榜样，伟大的约翰·刘易斯也来了。你们出色的市长卡西姆·里德先生也在这里。
To all the members of the Morehouse family. And most of all, congratulations to this distinguished group of Morehouse Men -- the Class of 2013. 向莫尔豪斯大家庭的每一位成员致意。最重要的是，祝贺这群杰出的莫尔豪斯人——二〇一三届毕业生。
I have to say that it’s a little hard to follow -- not Dr. Wilson, but a skinny guy with a funny name. Betsegaw Tadele -- he’s going to be doing something. 我得说，要接着刚才那位发言，压力还真有点大。我说的不是威尔逊博士，而是那个名字特别、身材瘦削的小伙子贝采高·塔德莱。他将来一定大有作为。
I also have to say that you all are going to get wet. And I'd be out there with you if I could. But Secret Service gets nervous. So I'm going to have to stay here, dry. But know that I'm there with you in spirit. 我还得说，你们都会被雨淋湿。要是可以，我也愿意和你们站在一起，但特勤局会紧张。所以我只好待在这里，保持干燥。不过我的心与你们同在。
Some of you are graduating summa cum laude. Some of you are graduating magna cum laude. I know some of you are just graduating, “thank you, Lordy.” That's appropriate because it’s a Sunday. 你们有些人以最优等荣誉毕业，有些人以特优等荣誉毕业；我知道还有些人只想说：“感谢主啊，总算毕业了。”今天是星期日，这话正合适。
I see some moms and grandmas here, aunts, in their Sunday best -- although they are upset about their hair getting messed up. Michelle would not be sitting in the rain. She has taught me about hair. 我看到一些妈妈、祖母和姨妈穿着周日最体面的衣服来了，虽然她们正为头发会被雨淋乱而懊恼。米歇尔肯定不会坐在雨里；关于头发，她教会了我不少。
I want to congratulate all of you -- the parents, the grandparents, the brothers and sisters, the family and friends who supported these young men in so many ways. This is your day, as well. Just think about it -- your sons, your brothers, your nephews -- they spent the last four years far from home and close to Spelman, and yet they are still here today. So you’ve done something right. Graduates, give a big round of applause to your family for everything that they’ve done for you. 我要祝贺所有人：父母、祖父母、兄弟姐妹，以及用种种方式支持这些年轻人的亲友。今天也是你们的日子。想想看，你们的儿子、兄弟、侄子过去四年远离家乡，却离斯佩尔曼女子学院很近，今天仍然顺利站在这里。可见你们教导有方。毕业生们，请为家人所做的一切热烈鼓掌。
I know that some of you had to wait in long lines to get into today’s ceremony. And I would apologize, but it did not have anything to do with security. Those graduates just wanted you to know what it’s like to register for classes here. And this time of year brings a different kind of stress -- every senior stopping by Gloster Hall over the past week making sure your name was actually on the list of students who met all the graduation requirements. If it wasn't on the list, you had to figure out why. Was it that library book you lent to that trifling roommate who didn’t return it? Was it Dr. 我知道有些人今天进场排了很长的队。我本想道歉，但这和安检无关。毕业生只是想让你们体验一下在这里选课注册的滋味。每到这个时节，毕业班又有另一种压力：过去一周，大家不断跑到格洛斯特楼，确认自己的名字是否真的在符合毕业要求的名单上。如果不在，就得弄清原因。是不是你借给那个不靠谱室友的图书馆藏书没还？还是约翰逊博士的政策课？
Johnson’s policy class? Did you get enough Crown Forum credits? 你们的“皇冠论坛”学分修够了吗？
On that last point, I’m going to exercise my power as President to declare this speech sufficient Crown Forum credits for any otherwise eligible student to graduate. That is my graduation gift to you. You have a special dispensation. 关于最后这点，我要行使总统权力，宣布今天这场演讲足以让其他条件合格的学生取得毕业所需的“皇冠论坛”学分。这就是我送给你们的毕业礼物，一项特别豁免。
Now, graduates, I am humbled to stand here with all of you as an honorary Morehouse Man. I finally made it. And as I do, I’m mindful of an old saying: “You can always tell a Morehouse Man -- but you can’t tell him much.” And that makes my task a little more difficult, I suppose. But I think it also reflects the sense of pride that’s always been part of this school’s tradition. 毕业生们，作为一名莫尔豪斯荣誉校友与你们站在一起，我深感荣幸。我终于加入你们了。这让我想到一句老话：“莫尔豪斯人一眼就认得出来，可你很难再教他什么。”这恐怕让我的任务更难了。不过我想，这句话也体现了这所学校一贯的自豪感。
Benjamin Mays, who served as the president of Morehouse for almost 30 years, understood that tradition better than anybody. He said -- and I quote -- “It will not be sufficient for Morehouse College, for any college, for that matter, to produce clever graduates… but rather honest men, men who can be trusted in public and private life -- men who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.” 曾担任莫尔豪斯校长近三十年的本杰明·梅斯，比任何人都懂得这种传统。他说过，我引用一下：“对莫尔豪斯学院，乃至任何学院而言，只培养聪明的毕业生是不够的。我们要培养诚实的人，在公私生活中都值得信赖的人；他们能感受到社会的不公、苦难和不正义，并愿意承担纠正这些弊病的责任。”
It was that mission -- not just to educate men, but to cultivate good men, strong men, upright men -- that brought community leaders together just two years after the end of the Civil War. They assembled a list of 37 men, free blacks and freed slaves, who would make up the first prospective class of what later became Morehouse College. Most of those first students had a desire to become teachers and preachers -- to better themselves so they could help others do the same. 正是这一使命——不仅教导学生，更要培养善良、坚强、正直的人——使一批社区领袖在南北战争结束仅两年后聚集起来。他们列出三十七名自由黑人和获释奴隶，作为日后莫尔豪斯学院的第一批预备学生。最早那些学生大多希望成为教师或传道人，提升自己，好帮助别人也得到提升。
A century and a half later, times have changed. But the “Morehouse Mystique” still endures. Some of you probably came here from communities where everybody looked like you. Others may have come here in search of a community. And I suspect that some of you probably felt a little bit of culture shock the first time you came together as a class in King’s Chapel. All of a sudden, you weren’t the only high school sports captain, you weren’t the only student council president. You were suddenly in a group of high achievers, and that meant you were expected to do something more. 一个半世纪过去，时代改变了，但“莫尔豪斯的独特精神”依然延续。有些人可能来自人人都与你有相似肤色的社区，另一些人则是来到这里寻找归属。我猜，第一次作为一个班级走进金博士礼拜堂时，有些人经历了小小的文化冲击：突然间，你不再是唯一的高中运动队队长，也不再是唯一的学生会主席。你身边都是成绩出众的人，这意味着大家期待你做得更多。
That’s the unique sense of purpose that this place has always infused -- the conviction that this is a training ground not only for individual success, but for leadership that can change the world. 这就是莫尔豪斯始终赋予学生的独特使命感：这里不仅是个人成功的训练场，也是培养能够改变世界的领导力的地方。
Dr. King was just 15 years old when he enrolled here at Morehouse. He was an unknown, undersized, unassuming young freshman who lived at home with his parents. And I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t the coolest kid on campus -- for the suits he wore, his classmates called him “Tweed.” But his education at Morehouse helped to forge the intellect, the discipline, the compassion, the soul force that would transform America. It was here that he was introduced to the writings of Gandhi and Thoreau, and the theory of civil disobedience. 金博士入读莫尔豪斯时只有十五岁，是个默默无闻、身材瘦小、并不起眼的新生，还住在父母家里。他大概算不上校园里最时髦的孩子；同学们因为他穿的西装，给他起了“粗花呢”的绰号。但莫尔豪斯的教育帮助他锻造了思想、纪律、同情心和精神力量，后来这些力量改变了美国。正是在这里，他读到甘地和梭罗的著作，接触到公民不服从的理论。
It was here that professors encouraged him to look past the world as it was and fight for the world as it should be. And it was here, at Morehouse, as Dr. King later wrote, where “I realized that nobody…was afraid.” 也是在这里，教授们鼓励他超越现实的局限，为世界应有的样子奋斗。后来金博士写道，正是在莫尔豪斯，“我发现没有人……害怕”。
Not even of some bad weather. I added on that part. I know it’s wet out there. But Dr. Wilson told me you all had a choice and decided to do it out here anyway. That's a Morehouse Man talking. 连坏天气也不怕。后半句是我加的。我知道外面雨很大，但威尔逊博士告诉我，你们可以选择室内，却还是决定在这里举行典礼。这就是莫尔豪斯人的作风。
Now, think about it. For black men in the ‘40s and the ‘50s, the threat of violence, the constant humiliations, large and small, the uncertainty that you could support a family, the gnawing doubts born of the Jim Crow culture that told you every day that somehow you were inferior, the temptation to shrink from the world, to accept your place, to avoid risks, to be afraid -- that temptation was necessarily strong. 想想四五十年代黑人男性的处境：暴力威胁，无处不在的大小羞辱，不知能否养活家庭的焦虑，以及种族隔离文化天天灌输“你低人一等”而造成的怀疑。面对这一切，人们自然强烈地想躲避世界、安于被安排的位置、不敢冒险，甚至感到恐惧。
And yet, here, under the tutelage of men like Dr. Mays, young Martin learned to be unafraid. And he, in turn, taught others to be unafraid. And over time, he taught a nation to be unafraid. And over the last 50 years, thanks to the moral force of Dr. King and a Moses generation that overcame their fear and their cynicism and their despair, barriers have come tumbling down, and new doors of opportunity have swung open, and laws and hearts and minds have been changed to the point where someone who looks just like you can somehow come to serve as President of these United States of America. 然而在这里，在梅斯博士等人的教导下，年轻的马丁学会了无所畏惧。他继而教会别人不怕，最终教会整个国家不怕。过去五十年，靠着金博士的道德力量，以及那一代像摩西一样战胜恐惧、冷嘲和绝望的人，重重壁垒倒塌，新的机会之门打开，法律、人心和观念都发生改变，以至于一个长得和你们一样的人，竟能担任美利坚合众国总统。
So the history we share should give you hope. The future we share should give you hope. You’re graduating into an improving job market. You’re living in a time when advances in technology and communication put the world at your fingertips. Your generation is uniquely poised for success unlike any generation of African Americans that came before it. 因此，共同的历史应给你们希望，共同的未来也应给你们希望。你们毕业时就业市场正在改善，科技与通信的进步让世界触手可及。与过去任何一代非洲裔美国人相比，你们这一代拥有独特的成功机遇。
But that doesn’t mean we don’t have work -- because if we’re honest with ourselves, we know that too few of our brothers have the opportunities that you’ve had here at Morehouse. In troubled neighborhoods all across this country -- many of them heavily African American -- too few of our citizens have role models to guide them. 但这不意味着工作已经完成。坦诚地说，我们知道，太少黑人兄弟拥有你们在莫尔豪斯得到的机会。全国许多陷入困境的社区，尤其是非洲裔居民众多的地方，太少人有榜样引领。
Communities just a couple miles from my house in Chicago, communities just a couple miles from here -- they’re places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low; where schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive; where too many of our men spend their youth not behind a desk in a classroom, but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind a jail cell. 在离我芝加哥的家只有几英里的社区，在离这里也只有几英里的社区，工作依然太少、工资依然太低；学校经费不足，暴力蔓延；太多年轻男子不是坐在教室书桌后，而是在街头无所事事，或在牢房里苦闷度日。
My job, as President, is to advocate for policies that generate more opportunity for everybody -- policies that strengthen the middle class and give more people the chance to climb their way into the middle class. Policies that create more good jobs and reduce poverty, and educate more children, and give more families the security of health care, and protect more of our children from the horrors of gun violence. That's my job. 作为总统，我的工作是推动为所有人创造更多机会的政策，壮大中产阶级，让更多人有机会进入中产阶级；创造更多好工作、减少贫困、教育更多孩子、让更多家庭得到医疗保障，也保护更多儿童免受枪支暴力的恐怖。这是我的工作。
Those are matters of public policy, and it is important for all of us -- black, white and brown -- to advocate for an America where everybody has got a fair shot in life. Not just some. Not just a few. 这些是公共政策问题。无论肤色如何，我们都应共同争取这样一个美国：每个人在生活中都有公平机会，而不只是某些人或少数人。
But along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities. There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves. There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind. As Morehouse Men, you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you’re about to collect -- and that’s the power of your example. 除了共同责任，我们也有个人责任。身为黑人男性，有些事只能由我们自己去做。身为莫尔豪斯人，你们对那些仍被落在后面的人负有责任。如今你们掌握的力量比即将领到的文凭还强大，那就是以身作则的力量。
So what I ask of you today is the same thing I ask of every graduating class I address: Use that power for something larger than yourself. Live up to President Mays’s challenge. Be “sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society.” And be “willing to accept responsibility for correcting [those] ills.” 所以，今天我对你们的请求，与我向每届毕业生提出的请求相同：将这种力量用于超越自身的事业。回应梅斯校长的期望，对社会的错误、苦难和不公保持敏感，并愿意承担纠正这些弊病的责任。
I know that some of you came to Morehouse from communities where life was about keeping your head down and looking out for yourself. Maybe you feel like you escaped, and now you can take your degree and get that fancy job and the nice house and the nice car -- and never look back. And don’t get me wrong -- with all those student loans you’ve had to take out, I know you’ve got to earn some money. With doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could not even imagine, no one expects you to take a vow of poverty. 我知道，有些人来自必须低头自保的社区。也许你觉得自己终于走出来了，现在可以拿着学位，找份体面的工作，住进好房子，开上好车，从此不再回头看。别误会，我知道你们背负学生贷款，需要赚钱。如今许多父辈祖辈无法想象的门向你们敞开，没人要求你们立下安贫的誓言。
But I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do. 但我要说，如果你们只想着能买什么，而不想着能做什么好事，那才是志向上的贫乏。
So, yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and the powerful, or if you can also find some time to defend the powerless. Sure, go get your MBA, or start that business. We need black businesses out there. But ask yourselves what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work, or transforming a neighborhood. The most successful CEOs I know didn’t start out intent just on making money -- rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed. 所以，去读法律学位吧。但也要问问自己，是否只能为富人和权势者辩护，能否抽出时间为无权无势的人辩护。去拿工商管理硕士学位，或者创办企业吧，我们需要更多黑人企业。但也要问问自己，企业能否服务更广泛的目标，雇用他人，改变一个社区。我认识最成功的首席执行官，创业时并非只想赚钱；他们怀着产品或服务能带来改变的愿景，财富随后而来。
Some of you may be headed to medical school to become doctors. But make sure you heal folks in underserved communities who really need it, too. For generations, certain groups in this country -- especially African Americans -- have been desperate in need of access to quality, affordable health care. And as a society, we’re finally beginning to change that. Those of you who are under the age of 26 already have the option to stay on your parent’s health care plan. But all of you are heading into an economy where many young people expect not only to have multiple jobs, but multiple careers. 有些人可能将进入医学院，成为医生。也请记得医治医疗资源不足社区里真正需要帮助的人。几代以来，美国一些群体，尤其是非洲裔美国人，迫切需要负担得起的优质医疗服务。社会终于开始改变这一点。未满二十六岁的人已经可以继续参加父母的医保计划。而你们即将进入的经济社会里，许多年轻人预计一生不仅会换几份工作，还会转换几种职业。
So starting October 1st, because of the Affordable Care Act -- otherwise known as Obamacare -- you’ll be able to shop for a quality, affordable plan that’s yours and travels with you -- a plan that will insure not only your health, but your dreams if you are sick or get in an accident. But we're going to need some doctors to make sure it works, too. We've got to make sure everybody has good health in this country. It’s not just good for you, it’s good for this country. So you're going to have to spread the word to your fellow young people. 从十月一日起，凭借《平价医疗法案》，也就是“奥巴马医改”，你们将能选购一份优质、负担得起、属于自己且能随工作变动而保留的保险。它保障的不仅是身体健康，也保障你生病或遇到意外时仍能追求梦想。但我们也需要医生帮助这项制度运作。必须确保全国人民都能享有良好的健康保障，这对你们和整个国家都有益。你们要把这个消息告诉其他年轻人。
Which brings me to a second point: Just as Morehouse has taught you to expect more of yourselves, inspire those who look up to you to expect more of themselves. We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. And I have to say, growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing. 这引出我的第二点：正如莫尔豪斯教会你们对自己抱有更高期望，也请鼓励仰望你们的人对自己抱有更高期望。我们知道，社区里仍有太多年轻男子作出错误选择。我得承认，成长过程中我也犯过不少错。有时我把自己的失败归咎于世界阻碍一个黑人男性前进，给自己未能做对的事找借口。
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. 但过去四年你们学到的一件事，就是再也没有找借口的余地。
I understand there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: “Excuses are tools of the incompetent used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness.” Well, we’ve got no time for excuses. Not because the bitter legacy of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they have not. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there. 我听说莫尔豪斯的兄弟会常说：“借口是无能者的工具，用它只能建起通往虚无的桥和毫无意义的纪念碑。”我们没时间找借口。不是因为奴隶制和种族隔离的苦涩遗产已完全消失——它们没有；也不是因为种族主义和歧视已经不存在——我们知道它们仍在。
It’s just that in today’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil -- many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did -- all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned. 而是因为在今天这个高度互联、竞争激烈的世界，来自中国、印度、巴西的数百万年轻人，其中许多起点比你们低得多，也正与你们一同进入全球劳动力市场。没有人会把你未凭努力赢得的东西送给你。
Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured -- and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too. 没人会因为你成长环境艰难就给你优待，也没人会因为你遭遇过歧视就放低标准。更要记住，你所经历的一切，与前几代人承受的艰辛相比仍不算什么，而他们战胜了困难。如果他们能，你们也能。
You now hail from a lineage and legacy of immeasurably strong men -- men who bore tremendous burdens and still laid the stones for the path on which we now walk. You wear the mantle of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, and Ralph Bunche and Langston Hughes, and George Washington Carver and Ralph Abernathy and Thurgood Marshall, and, yes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These men were many things to many people. And they knew full well the role that racism played in their lives. But when it came to their own accomplishments and sense of purpose, they had no time for excuses. 你们继承了一代代无比坚强的人的传统。他们肩负重担，仍为我们今天走的路铺下基石。你们承接着弗雷德里克·道格拉斯、布克·T·华盛顿、拉尔夫·邦奇、兰斯顿·休斯、乔治·华盛顿·卡弗、拉尔夫·阿伯纳西、瑟古德·马歇尔，当然还有马丁·路德·金博士的事业。他们对不同的人有不同意义，也深知种族主义如何影响自己的生活。但在追求成就与使命时，他们没有时间找借口。
Every one of you have a grandma or an uncle or a parent who’s told you that at some point in life, as an African American, you have to work twice as hard as anyone else if you want to get by. I think President Mays put it even better: He said, “Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better.” 你们每个人大概都有祖母、叔叔或父母说过：身为非洲裔美国人，要想过得去，某些时候必须比别人努力两倍。梅斯校长说得更好：“无论做什么，都要努力做到最好，让活着的人、逝去的人，以及尚未出生的人，都无法做得比你更好。”
And I promise you, what was needed in Dr. Mays’s time, that spirit of excellence, and hard work, and dedication, and no excuses is needed now more than ever. If you think you can just get over in this economy just because you have a Morehouse degree, you’re in for a rude awakening. But if you stay hungry, if you keep hustling, if you keep on your grind and get other folks to do the same -- nobody can stop you. 我向你们保证，梅斯博士那个时代所需要的追求卓越、勤奋、奉献和不找借口的精神，今天比以往更重要。若以为只凭一张莫尔豪斯文凭就能在当下经济中轻松过关，现实会让你醒悟。但只要始终保持进取，不断努力，也带动别人一起努力，就没有人能阻挡你。
And when I talk about pursuing excellence and setting an example, I’m not just talking about in your professional life. One of today’s graduates, Frederick Anderson -- where’s Frederick? Frederick, right here. I know it’s raining, but I'm going to tell about Frederick. Frederick started his college career in Ohio, only to find out that his high school sweetheart back in Georgia was pregnant. So he came back and enrolled in Morehouse to be closer to her. 说到追求卓越和树立榜样，我指的不只是职业生涯。今天的毕业生中有位弗雷德里克·安德森。弗雷德里克在哪儿？就在这里。虽然下着雨，我还是要讲讲他的故事。他最初在俄亥俄州上大学，后来得知在佐治亚州的高中恋人怀孕了，于是回到家乡，进入莫尔豪斯，好离她近一些。
Pretty soon, helping raise a newborn and working night shifts became too much, so he started taking business classes at a technical college instead -- doing everything from delivering newspapers to buffing hospital floors to support his family. 不久，照顾新生儿和上夜班让他难以兼顾学业。他转而到一所技术学院学习商科，为养家做过各种工作，从送报纸到给医院地板打蜡。
And then he enrolled at Morehouse a second time. But even with a job, he couldn’t keep up with the cost of tuition. So after getting his degree from that technical school, this father of three decided to come back to Morehouse for a third time. As Frederick says, “God has a plan for my life, and He’s not done with me yet.” 后来他第二次进入莫尔豪斯。但即使有工作，学费仍难以负担。拿到技术学院的学位后，这位三个孩子的父亲决定第三次回到莫尔豪斯。弗雷德里克说：“上帝对我的人生有安排，他在我身上要做的事还没结束。”
And today, Frederick is a family man, and a working man, and a Morehouse Man. And that’s what I’m asking all of you to do: Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man. Be the best husband to your wife, or you’re your boyfriend, or your partner. Be the best father you can be to your children. Because nothing is more important. 今天，弗雷德里克是顾家的人、勤劳工作的人，也是莫尔豪斯人。这也是我对你们所有人的期待：继续以身作则，诠释何为真正的男子汉。做妻子，或男朋友，或伴侣最好的另一半；尽全力做孩子们的好父亲。因为没有什么比这更重要。
I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents -- made incredible sacrifices for me. And I know there are moms and grandparents here today who did the same thing for all of you. But I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present, but involved. Didn’t know my dad. And so my whole life, I’ve tried to be for Michelle and my girls what my father was not for my mother and me. 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. 我由一位了不起的单身母亲和慈爱的祖父母抚养长大，他们为我作出巨大的牺牲。我知道今天在座也有许多母亲和祖父母为你们做了同样的事。但我真希望自己曾有一位不仅在场、也积极参与我成长的父亲。我并不认识父亲。所以我终生都在努力，成为米歇尔和女儿们可以依靠的人，弥补我父亲未能给予母亲和我的一切。我想打破父亲不在家、不参与养育子女的循环，成为更好的父亲、丈夫和男人。
It’s hard work that demands your constant attention and frequent sacrifice. And I promise you, Michelle will tell you I’m not perfect. She’s got a long list of my imperfections. Even now, I’m still practicing, I'm still learning, still getting corrected in terms of how to be a fine husband and a good father. But I will tell you this: Everything else is unfulfilled if we fail at family, if we fail at that responsibility. 这项工作很难，需要持续关注，也常常需要牺牲。我保证，米歇尔会告诉你们，我并不完美。她能列出我一长串缺点。直到今天，我仍在练习、学习，也仍会因如何做个好丈夫、好父亲而受到指正。但我要告诉你们：如果我们在家庭和这份责任上失败，其他一切成就都无法让人生圆满。
I know that when I am on my deathbed someday, I will not be thinking about any particular legislation I passed; I will not be thinking about a policy I promoted; I will not be thinking about the speech I gave, I will not be thinking the Nobel Prize I received. I will be thinking about that walk I took with my daughters. I'll be thinking about a lazy afternoon with my wife. I'll be thinking about sitting around the dinner table and seeing them happy and healthy and knowing that they were loved. And I'll be thinking about whether I did right by all of them. 我知道，将来临终时，我不会想着自己通过的某项法律、推行的某项政策、发表的某次演讲，或获得的诺贝尔奖。我会想起与女儿们一起散步的时光，想起和妻子度过的悠闲下午，想起一家人围坐餐桌，看见她们健康快乐，知道自己深爱着她们。我也会想，我是否善待了她们每一个人。
So be a good role model, set a good example for that young brother coming up. If you know somebody who’s not on point, go back and bring that brother along -- those who’ve been left behind, who haven’t had the same opportunities we have -- they need to hear from you. You’ve got to be engaged on the barbershops, on the basketball court, at church, spend time and energy and presence to give people opportunities and a chance. Pull them up, expose them, support their dreams. Don't put them down. 所以，做个好榜样，为正在成长的年轻兄弟作出表率。如果认识一个迷失方向的人，就回去拉他一把。那些被落下、没有得到同样机会的人，需要听到你们的声音。去理发店、篮球场和教堂与他们接触，投入时间和心力，为他们创造机会。扶他们一程，让他们看见更广阔的世界，支持他们的梦想，别贬低他们。
We’ve got to teach them just like what we have to learn, what it means to be a man -- to serve your city like Maynard Jackson; to shape the culture like Spike Lee; to be like Chester Davenport, one of the first people to integrate the University of Georgia Law School. When he got there, nobody would sit next to him in class. But Chester didn’t mind. Later on, he said, “It was the thing for me to do. Someone needed to be the first.” And today, Chester is here celebrating his 50th reunion. Where is Chester Davenport? He’s here. 我们要教他们，也要提醒自己，什么是男子汉：像梅纳德·杰克逊那样服务城市，像斯派克·李那样塑造文化，或像切斯特·达文波特那样。切斯特是最早进入佐治亚大学法学院的黑人学生之一。刚到学校时，课堂上没人愿意坐在他旁边，但他不介意。后来他说：“这是我该做的事，总得有人第一个去做。”今天切斯特来到这里庆祝毕业五十周年。切斯特·达文波特在哪儿？他就在这里。
So if you’ve had role models, fathers, brothers like that -- thank them today. And if you haven’t, commit yourself to being that man to somebody else. 如果你们有这样的榜样、父亲或兄长，今天就感谢他们。如果没有，就下定决心，成为别人生命里的这样一个人。
And finally, as you do these things, do them not just for yourself, but don't even do them just for the African American community. I want you to set your sights higher. At the turn of the last century, W.E.B. DuBois spoke about the “talented tenth” -- a class of highly educated, socially conscious leaders in the black community. But it’s not just the African American community that needs you. The country needs you. The world needs you. 最后，做这些事，不仅要为了自己，甚至不能只为了非洲裔美国人社区。我要你们把目光放得更远。上世纪初，W·E·B·杜波依斯谈到“有才华的十分之一”，指黑人社区中受过高等教育、具有社会责任感的一群领袖。但需要你们的不只是非洲裔社区，整个国家和世界都需要你们。
As Morehouse Men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; know what it’s like to be marginalized; know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination. And that’s an experience that a lot of Americans share. Hispanic Americans know that feeling when somebody asks them where they come from or tell them to go back. Gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment on their parenting skills or the love that they share. Muslim Americans feel it when they’re stared at with suspicion because of their faith. 身为莫尔豪斯人，你们中许多人知道做局外人、被边缘化、受到歧视是什么滋味。很多美国人也有类似经历。西班牙裔美国人被人追问来自哪里，或被叫着“回去”时，懂得这种滋味。男女同性恋者因养育孩子的能力或彼此的爱情遭陌生人评判时，也懂得。穆斯林美国人因信仰受到猜疑的目光时，同样懂得。
Any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work -- she knows what it’s like to be on the outside looking in. 任何一位因做同样的工作却得到更少报酬而感到不公的女性，也明白站在门外向里看的滋味。
So your experiences give you special insight that today’s leaders need. If you tap into that experience, it should endow you with empathy -- the understanding of what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, to know what it’s like when you're not born on 3rd base, thinking you hit a triple. It should give you the ability to connect. It should give you a sense of compassion and what it means to overcome barriers. 所以，你们的经历赋予了你们当代领导人需要的特别洞察力。善用这些经历，就能培养同理心：懂得站在别人的立场，从别人的眼中看世界，明白有些人并非一出生就站在三垒上，却误以为自己打出了一记三垒安打。这应让你们更能与人建立联系，拥有同情心，懂得克服障碍意味着什么。
And I will tell you, Class of 2013, whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy -- the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most, people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had -- because there but for the grace of God, go I -- I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. 二〇一三届的同学们，我要告诉你们：我取得的任何成就、担任的任何领导职务，与其说归功于常春藤盟校的学位、入学考试分数或平均绩点，不如说归功于这种人与人之间的联系和同理心。作为和你们一样的黑人男性，我感到有特别责任帮助最需要的人、帮助那些没有得到我所拥有机会的人。若不是上帝眷顾，我也可能处在他们的境地，可能身陷囹圄、失业，可能无力养家。
And that motivates me. 这就是激励我前进的力量。
So it’s up to you to widen your circle of concern -- to care about justice for everybody, white, black and brown. Everybody. Not just in your own community, but also across this country and around the world. To make sure everyone has a voice, and everybody gets a seat at the table; that everybody, no matter what you look like or where you come from, what your last name is -- it doesn’t matter, everybody gets a chance to walk through those doors of opportunity if they are willing to work hard enough. 因此，你们要扩大关怀的范围，关心每个人的公正，不论肤色，关心所有人；不只关心自己的社区，也关心全国和世界。确保人人都有发言权，都能坐到桌边。无论长什么样、来自哪里、姓什么，都应该有机会通过努力走进机会的大门。
When Leland Shelton was four years old -- where’s Leland? Stand up, Leland. When Leland Shelton was four years old, social services took him away from his mama, put him in the care of his grandparents. By age 14, he was in the foster care system. Three years after that, Leland enrolled in Morehouse. And today he is graduating Phi Beta Kappa on his way to Harvard Law School. But he’s not stopping there. As a member of the National Foster Care Youth and Alumni Policy Council, he plans to use his law degree to make sure kids like him don’t fall through the cracks. 利兰·谢尔顿四岁时——利兰在哪儿？站起来吧。利兰四岁时，社会服务机构把他从母亲身边带走，交给祖父母照顾。十四岁时，他进入寄养体系。三年后，他来到莫尔豪斯。今天，他以美国大学优等生荣誉学会会员的身份毕业，即将进入哈佛法学院。但他还不打算止步于此。作为全国寄养青年与校友政策委员会的成员，他计划运用法律学位，确保像他这样的孩子不会被制度遗漏。
And it won’t matter whether they’re black kids or brown kids or white kids or Native American kids, because he’ll understand what they’re going through. And he'll be fighting for them. He'll be in their corner. That's leadership. That's a Morehouse Man right there. 不论这些孩子是黑人、棕色皮肤、白人，还是美洲原住民，他都会理解他们的经历，为他们奔走，站在他们一边。这就是领导力，这就是莫尔豪斯人。
That’s what we’ve come to expect from you, Morehouse -- a legacy of leaders -- not just in our black community, but for the entire American community. To recognize the burdens you carry with you, but to resist the temptation to use them as excuses. To transform the way we think about manhood, and set higher standards for ourselves and for others. To be successful, but also to understand that each of us has responsibilities not just to ourselves, but to one another and to future generations. Men who refuse to be afraid. Men who refuse to be afraid. 这正是我们对莫尔豪斯的期待：培养服务于整个美国社会、而不仅是黑人社区的领袖。你们要认识自己背负的重担，却不以之为借口；改变我们对男子气概的理解，为自己和他人设立更高标准；追求成功，同时明白每个人不只对自己，也对彼此和后代负有责任。做不肯屈服于恐惧的人，做不肯屈服于恐惧的人。
Members of the Class of 2013, you are heirs to a great legacy. You have within you that same courage and that same strength, the same resolve as the men who came before you. That’s what being a Morehouse Man is all about. That’s what being an American is all about. 二〇一三届的同学们，你们继承了伟大的传统。前人拥有的勇气、力量和决心，也同样在你们身上。这就是做莫尔豪斯人的意义，也是做美国人的意义。
Success may not come quickly or easily. But if you strive to do what’s right, if you work harder and dream bigger, if you set an example in your own lives and do your part to help meet the challenges of our time, then I’m confident that, together, we will continue the never-ending task of perfecting our union. 成功也许来得不快，也不容易。但只要你们努力做正确的事，更勤奋地工作、怀抱更远大的梦想，在自己的生活中树立榜样，并尽力应对这个时代的挑战，我相信我们一定能携手继续完善联邦这个永无止境的事业。
Congratulations, Class of 2013. God bless you. God bless Morehouse. And God bless the United States of America. 祝贺二〇一三届毕业生。愿上帝保佑你们，保佑莫尔豪斯，保佑美利坚合众国。
