经典英语美文(汉英)

1 "I Have a Dream" by 马丁. 路德. 金

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

2 自古精英出狂人——Larry Page

I think it is often easier to make progress on mega-ambitious dreams.I know that sounds completely nuts.But, since no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition.In fact, there are so few people this crazy that I feel like I know them all by first name.They all travel as if

they are pack dogs and stick to each other like glue.

The best people want to work on the big challenges.That is what happened with Google.Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.How can that not get you excited?But we almost didn't start Google actually because my co-founder Sergey and I were too worried about dropping out of our Ph.D. program.None of you have that issue it seems.You are probably on the right track, if you feel like a sidewalk worm during a rainstorm!That is about how we felt after we maxed out three credit cards buying hard disks off the back of a truck.That was actually the first hardware for Google.

我认为，自古精英出狂人。这话听起来挺没溜，但正因为别人没你疯狂。你的对手就很少事实上，狂人屈指可数。碰巧我都认识，他们比狗仔队还忙，比亲戚还走得近，乐于接受一个又一个挑战。谷歌就有这样一帮人，我们的任务是整合全世界的信息，使其随手可得，随时可用。碉堡吧? 但谷歌差一点夭折，因为我和我的搭档Sergey 担心丢了博士学位。好在你们已经毕业。当时我们坚信自己是一只暴风雨里的小小鸟，总有一天会飞得很高。即使刷爆了三张信用卡，买来谷歌的第一批硬盘，也不曾后悔。

Parents and friends:more credit cards always help.What is the one sentence summary of how you change the world?Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!As a Ph.D. student, I actually had three projects I wanted to work on.Thank goodness my advisor said,"why don't you work on the web for a while".He gave me some seriously good advicebecause the web was growing with people and activity, even in 1995!Technology and especially the Internet can really help you be lazy.Lazy? What I mean is a group of three people can write software that millions can use and enjoy.

Can three people answer the phone a million times?Find the leverage in the world,so you can be truly lazy!Overall, I know it seems like the world is crumblingout there,but it is actually a great time in your life to get a little crazy, follow your curiosity, and be ambitious about it.Don't give up on your dreams. The world needs you all!

家长们，同学们。事实证明：多几张信用卡总是有用的，如果用一句话总结：如何改变世界。为了迷狂般的梦想而奋斗终生！其实在读博期间，我想参加三个项目. 还好导师建议道:"为什么不先研究网络呢?" 这个建议实在太好了, 因为1995年网络就开始了迅猛发展。科技, 尤其是网络确实能让人顺利变" 懒" 。你看三个人做的软件，能解决上百万人的需求问题，你让三个接线员回答上百万人的问题试试? 只找到能撬起地球的杠杆，才能让人成功变懒。世界正在瞬息万变，但对你而言，这是个绝佳的时机！你可以不顾一切地追寻奇思，实现妙想，不要放弃梦想，世界需要你们！

So here's my final story:On a day like today, you might feel exhilarated —like you've just been shot out of a cannon at the circus and even invincible.Don't ever forget that incredible feeling.But also always remember that the moments we have with friends and family,the chances we have to do things that might make a big difference in the world,or even to make a small difference to the ones we love all those wonderful chances that life gives us,life also takes away.It can happen fast, and a whole lot sooner than you think.In late March 1996, soon after I had moved to Stanford for graduate school,my Dad had difficulty breathing and drove to the hospital.Two months later, he died.I was completely

devastated.Many years later, after a startup, after falling in love,and after so many of life's adventures,I found myself thinking about my Dad.Lucy and I were far away in a steaming hot

village walking through narrow streets.

我还想说个故事：如果某天你如现在这般欣喜若狂，就像从马戏团的炮口轰了出来 ，一头冲向蓝天。请铭记那一刻的美妙，同时请铭记那些和家人朋友共处的时光，铭记每一个上天赋予你改造世界的机遇，铭记为所爱的人做出的改变，铭记生活赋予的一切美好，但生活也能轻易将它夺走。人生无常，1996年3月下旬，我到斯坦福大学读研不久，我的父亲便因呼吸困难住进了医院。两个月以后，他去世了。我当时几乎崩溃，许多年后，我创业，恋爱。历生命的种种后，我总会想起我的父亲。我和Lucy 去过一个偏远又炎热的村庄，在狭窄的街道上散步。

3 Your Future——巴菲特

I would like to talk for just one minute to the students about your future when you leave here. Because you will learn a tremendous amount about investments, you all have the ability to do well; you all have the IQ to do well. You all have the energy and initiative to do well or you wouldn't be here. Most of you will succeed in meeting your aspirations. But in determining whether you succeed there is more to it than intellect and energy. I would like to talk just a second about that. In fact, there was a guy, Pete Kiewit in Omaha, who used to say, he looked for three things in hiring people: integrity, intelligence and energy. And he said if the person did not have the first two, the later two would kill him, because if they don't have integrity, you want them dumb and lazy. We want to talk about the first two because we know you have the last two. You are all second-year MBA students, so you have gotten to know your classmates. Think for a moment that I granted you the right--you can buy 10% of one of your classmate’s earnings for the rest of their lifetime. You can't pick someone with a rich father; you have to pick someone who is going to do it on his or her own merit. And I gave you an hour to think about it.

关于你们走出校门后的前程，我在这里只想讲一分钟。你们在这里已经学了很多关于投资方面的知识，你们学会如何做好事情，你们有足够的IQ 能做好，你们也有动力和精力来做好，否则你们就不会在这里了。你们中的许多人都将最终实现你们的理想。但是在智能和能量之外，还有更多的东西来决定你是否成功，我想谈谈那些东西。实际上，在我们Omaha （译者注：Berkshire Hathaway公司的总部所在地）有一位先生说，当他雇人时，他会看三个方面：诚信，智能，和精力。雇一个只有智能和精力，却没有诚信的人会毁了雇者。一个没有诚信的人，你只能希望他愚蠢和懒惰，而不是聪明和精力充沛。我想谈的是第一点，因为我知道你们都具备后两点。在考虑这个问题时，请你们和我一起玩玩这个游戏。你们现在都是在MBA 的第二年，所以你们对自己的同学也应该都了解了。现在我给你们一个来买进10％的你的一个同学的权利，一直到他的生命结束。你不能选那些有着富有老爸的同学，每个人的成果都要靠他自己的努力。我给你一个小时来想这个问题，你愿意买进哪一个同学余生的10％。

Will you give them an IQ test and pick the one with the highest IQ? I doubt it. Will you pick the one with the best grades? The most energetic? You will start looking for qualitative factors, in addition to (the quantitative) because everyone has enough brains and energy. You would probably pick the one you responded the best to, the one who has the leadership qualities, the one who is able to get other people to carry out their interests. That would be the person who is generous, honest and who gave credit to other people for their own ideas. All types of qualities. Whomever you admire the most in the class. Then I would throw in a hooker. In addition to this person you had to go short one of your classmates.

你会给他们做一个IQ 测试吗，选那个IQ 值最高的？我很怀疑。你会挑那个学习成绩最好

的吗，我也怀疑。你也不一定会选那个最精力充沛的，因为你自己本身就已经动力十足了。你可能会去寻找那些质化的因素，因为这里的每个人都是很有脑筋的。你想了一个小时之后，当你下赌注时，可能会选择那个你最有认同感的人，那个最有领导才能的人，那个能实现他人利益的人，那个慷慨，诚实，即使是他自己的主意，也会把功劳分予他人的人。所有这些素质，你可以把这些你所钦佩的素质都写下来。（你会选择）那个你最钦佩的人。然后，我这里再给你们下个跘儿。在你买进10％你的同学时，你还要卖出10％的另外一个人。

That is more fun. Who do I want to go short? You wouldn't pick the person with the lowest IQ, you would think about the person who turned you off, the person who is egotistical, who is greedy, who cuts corners, who is slightly dishonest. As you look at those qualities on the left and right hand side, there is one interesting thing about them, it is not the ability to throw a football 60 yards, it is not the ability the run the 100 yard dash in 9.3 seconds, it is not being the best looking person in the class, they are all qualities that if you really want to have the ones on the left hand side, you can have them.

这不是很有趣吗？你会想我到底卖谁呢？你可能还是不会找IQ 最低的。你可能会选那个让你厌恶的同学，以及那些令你讨厌的品质。那个你不愿打交道的人，其他人也不愿意与之打交道的人。是什么品质导致了那一点呢？你能想出一堆来，比如不够诚实，爱占小便宜等等这些，你可以把它们写在纸的右栏。当你端详纸的左栏和右栏时，会发现有意思的一点。能否将橄榄球扔出60码之外并不重要，是否能在9秒3之内跑100码也不重要，是否是班上最好看的也无关大局。真正重要的是那些在纸上左栏里的品质。如果你愿意的话，你可以拥有所有那些品质。

4 保持求知若渴的心态——乔布斯

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

Reed 大学在那时提供也许是全美最好的美术字课程。在这个大学里面的每个海报, 每个抽屉的标签上面全都是漂亮的美术字。因为我退学了, 没有受到正规的训练, 所以我决定去参加这个课程，去学学怎样写出漂亮的美术字。我学到了san serif 和serif 字体, 我学会了怎么样在不同的字母组合之中改变空格的长度, 还有怎么样才能作出最棒的印刷式样。那是一种科学永远不能捕捉到的、美丽的、真实的艺术精妙, 我发现那实在是太美妙了。

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear

looking backwards ten years later.

当时看起来这些东西在我的生命中，好像都没有什么实际应用的可能。但是十年之后, 当我们在设计第一台Macintosh 电脑的时候, 就不是那样了。我把当时我学的那些家伙全都设计进了Mac 。那是第一台使用了漂亮的印刷字体的电脑。如果我当时没有退学, 就不会有机会去参加这个我感兴趣的美术字课程, Mac就不会有这么多丰富的字体，以及赏心悦目的字体间距。那么现在个人电脑就不会有现在这么美妙的字型了。当然我在大学的时候，还不可能把从前的点点滴滴串连起来, 但是当我十年后回顾这一切的时候, 真的豁然开朗了。

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

再次说明的是, 你在向前展望的时候不可能将这些片断串连起来；你只能在回顾的时候将点点滴滴串连起来。所以你必须相信这些片断会在你未来的某一天串连起来。你必须要相信某些东西：你的勇气、目的、生命、因缘。这个过程从来没有令我失望（let me down ）, 只是让我的生命更加地与众不同而已。