歷史上的十大著名畢業演講(上)

Some speeches are so memorable we can quote them at will. But few of them are commencement speeches. How many of us can recall the commencement speech at our college graduation?

一些令人難忘的演講我們都能如數家珍，但其中只有少數是畢業演講。多少人還能回想起那些年自己在畢業典禮上聽過的演講呢？

What if a commencement speech was not something to be endured, but to be treasured? And what if, instead of the same tired sentiments to "go forward and seize the day," the 20-minute address dispensed a glimpse of humanity's higher self? Thankfully, some of those exist. But it's not all rainbows and butterflies. Many memorable speeches have a touch of the macabre that foreshadow the underbelly of adulthood. After reading dozens of transcripts and viewing hours of footage, we've distilled 10 famous commencement speeches to their essence. Some speeches are memorable because of their time in history or because millions watched it online. Some were later published as books. At least one became a hit song. Here they are, in chronological order.

假如一場演講不會讓人昏昏欲睡而是被人津津樂道，假如沒有無病呻吟，而是與時俱進,把20分鐘演講的關注點放在“如何提升自我”上面，這樣的畢業演講是不是會讓你畢生難忘呢？還好，這樣的演講還是存在的，而且它們也不全是鏡花水月。許多令人難忘的演講一針見血地指出了成人世界的軟肋。在翻閱了成打的手抄文本、觀看了大量的影像帶後，我們精心挑選了10個著名的演講並提取了他們演講中的精華。一些演講因其所處的歷史時期亦或是過高的點擊量而令人難忘，一些後來還被收錄在相關書籍中。每一個演講在當時都掀起了思想的浪潮。下面就爲你一一呈現！

ident John F. Kennedy at American University, 1963

10.1963年，約翰·F·肯尼迪總統於美利堅大學

"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal."

“我們都居住在這個小小的星球上，這是你我之間最基本的連接紐帶。我們呼吸着同樣的空氣，我們都珍視子女們的未來，我們最終都會離開這個世界”。

This commencement address had a higher purpose. Just months after the Cuban missile crisis with the Soviet Union, when nuclear war was still a real threat, President John. F. Kennedy used the occasion to deliver a peace-laced talk to the entire world. The speech, which took a month to craft, was written in secret because he feared Pentagon officials would oppose its conciliatory tone. Kennedy asked Americans to consider their attitudes: "Too many of us think is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable ... We need not accept that view ... Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war." Kennedy then announced that he, Nikita Khrushchev and Britain's Harold Macmillan would be entering talks about a comprehensive test ban treaty and that the U.S. wouldn't conduct further nuclear tests as long as no other country did either.

這篇畢業演講因其所處的時代背景而影響深遠。就在幾個月前，美國雖然結束了與蘇聯的“古巴導彈危機”，然而核戰爭還是一個真實存在的威脅。肯尼迪總統選擇在這樣的場合用演講向全世界傳遞了一個和平的信號。肯尼迪爲這篇演講苦心構思了一個月，因擔心自己安撫性的語調會遭到國防部的反對,他決定祕密地完成這篇演講。肯尼迪懇請美國人反思自己的態度：“我們中的許多人認爲‘和平’是不可能的、是不現實的。然而，這是一種危險的失敗主義觀念。這種觀念得出的結論是，戰爭不可避免…我們並非一定要接受這種觀點…在我們兩國人民的諸多共性中，最顯著的莫過於我們對戰爭的共同憎惡。”之後肯尼迪宣佈，他將同蘇聯最高領導人赫魯曉夫、英國首相哈羅德·麥克米蘭進行關於“全面禁止核試驗條約”的商討與談話。他將承諾：只要他國不先進行進一步核試驗，美國也決不會做核試驗第一國。演講後不過幾天，華盛頓和克里姆林宮架設了一次專線。在演講結束後的兩個月，也就是1963年8月5日，三國領導人共同簽署了《受限制核試驗公約》。這是在全面裁軍後的又一重大利好。

ary Rodham at Wellesley, 1969

9.1969年，希拉里·羅德姆於威爾斯利學院

"Every protest, every dissent, whether it's an individual academic paper, Founder's parking lot demonstration, is unabashedly an attempt to forge an identity in this particular age."

“每一次抗議，每一次反對，哪怕是一篇學術論文，甚至是一個停車場的說明，都是爲這個特殊的時代烙上印跡的大膽嘗試”。

It was her first big speech, but there would be many more to follow. At her graduation from Wellesley College in 1969, Hillary Rodham became the first student in the college's history to deliver a commencement address. She was president of student government at the time. Before beginning her prepared remarks, though, she criticized the event's previous speaker, Sen. Edward Brooke. In his speech, he had urged graduates to reject "coercive protest," which was a polite euphemism for near-riotous student demonstrations. It was an idea at which Rodham pointedly aimed when she took the podium. He was, it seemed to Rodham, too complacent. So she set aside her prepared speech and embarked on an elegantly efficient, impromptu response. "What does it mean to hear that 13.3 percent of the people in this country are below the poverty line? That's a percentage. We're not interested in social reconstruction; it's human reconstruction," she said. Rodham got a standing ovation that lasted several minutes. And she was only getting started. As Hillary Clinton, she went on to scale great heights as first lady of the United States, a senator, secretary of state and a 2016 presidential candidate.

這是希拉里·羅德姆生平第一次在大場面上演講，但還是有很多值得說道的地方。1969年希拉里·羅德姆從威爾斯利學院畢業，她成爲了學院歷史上第一位發表畢業演講的學生，同時她也是當時的學生會主席。然而在開始準備多時的演講前，她先慷慨激昂地駁斥了上一位演講者——名叫愛德華·布魯克的參議員。他在演講中慫恿學生們抵制“強制性抗議”（對學生暴亂遊行的委婉表達），這也是她演講的中心思想。在羅德姆看來，布魯克太狂妄，於是她把準備好的演講稿暫時放在一旁，開始一通優雅但犀利的即興回擊。她犀利地指出：“當聽到13.3%的人民生活在國家貧困線以下時意味着什麼？它說明我們對社會重建不夠重視，說明我們對人類復興無動於衷，這不僅僅是一個百分比，更是抽我們臉的皮鞭！”演講結束後，羅德姆得到了全場起立鼓掌數分鐘的肯定。然而這才只是她嶄露頭角的開始，當她變成希拉里·克林頓後，這位女強人在政壇上更加混得風聲水起，成爲了美國第一夫人、參議員，還曾擔任美國國務卿，現在是2016年的總統候選人。

Vonnegut's Fictional Speech at MIT, 1997

8.1997年，庫爾特·馮內古特於麻省理工學院

"Wear sunscreen ... The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience."

“防曬霜……科學家已經證明了長期塗防曬霜是有好處的，然而接下來我要給你們的意見卻沒有什麼科學論證，只是基於我個人的經驗。”

So begins one of the most popular commencement addresses in recent history, which also included such gems as "Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements. Get to know your parents. Travel". Famed American novelist Kurt Vonnegut sure had a way with words, didn't he? Within days, the sage-but-simple advice he supposedly offered to Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates in June 1997 was racing across international borders via forwarded e-mails. Except Vonnegut didn't write the commencement address. Or share it from the podium during MIT's graduation ceremony. In fact, MIT's 1997 graduation speaker was actually Kofi Annan, then-secretary-general of the United Nations, who encouraged graduates to pursue multilateral diplomacy rather than save old love letters. Turns out the commencement address wasn't an address at all, but a column penned by Mary Schmich that was published in the Chicago Tribune. "It was witty," Vonnegut later said, "but it wasn't my wittiness." Of course, this didn't stop the prose from becoming nearly as famous as its mistaken author. Within a year, "Wear Sunscreen" had even been adapted into a hit single in Australia that rose to No. 1 in the U.K and No. 45 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. Schmich made a book out of it, too.

這段演講竟成爲近來歷史上最受歡迎的畢業演講之一，而且這段演講還包含了許多金玉良言，如“保留你的舊情書，扔掉你的過期銀行賬單，多瞭解你的父母，多去旅行”等。那麼著名的美國小說家庫爾特. 馮內古特真的有說過這樣的話嗎？1997年6月，麻省理工學院畢業典禮上的這些簡單卻很有道理的話在接下來的那段日子裏被世界各地的人們以電子郵件的方式廣爲轉發。不過馮內古特並沒有寫過這段演講，並且他也沒有站在麻省理工學院的畢業典禮的頒獎臺上分享他的這段話。事實上，這段話的演講人是聯合國前祕書長科菲.安南，他想通過這段演講，鼓勵畢業生去尋求一種多邊的外交方式而不是鼓勵他們保留自己的舊情書。最後證實，這段畢業演講並不是一段真正的演講，只是發表在《芝加哥論壇報》上、由瑪麗.修米西撰寫的一篇專欄而已。馮內古特隨後迴應道：“這篇專欄報道內涵豐富，但卻不是我的創作。”不過就算是這樣，也擋不住這篇演講和庫爾特.馮內古特一樣出名，廣爲人知。在這篇專欄發表後的一年內，“塗防曬霜”這一熱詞被寫進澳大利亞的一首單曲中，並在英國和美國的“廣播臺100首最熱單曲”排行榜中分列第一及第四十五名。修米西也爲此出了一本書。

a Shriver at College of the Holy Cross, 1998

7.1998年，瑪利亞.施萊佛於聖十字學院

"Don't expect anyone else to support you financially."

“不要期盼任何人給你經濟上的支持。”

When Maria Shriver, NBC news anchor and third-generation Kennedy, addressed 1998 graduates at College of the Holy Cross, her remarks received national attention. Shriver mentioned that she'd gotten a lot of advice on what she should say but decided to share her "top-ten list of things I wish someone had told me when I was sitting, like you, at my graduation." (Among them: "Pinpoint your passion." "No job is beneath you." And, "Superwoman is dead". Shriver backed up her advice with personal stories from her career and parenting adventures, and took a humorous approach to life's toughest moments. The well-received speech formed the basis of "Ten Things I Wish I'd Known—Before I Went Out into the Real World," a book that became an instant hit in the graduation gift category. In 2012, Shriver followed up with a second powerful commencement speech, "The Power of the Pause." Delivered at the University of Southern California on the occasion of her daughter's graduation, Shriver asked the new grads to pause before making judgments or decisions.

NBC的新聞主播、肯尼迪家族的第三代成員——瑪利亞.施萊佛，當她1998年在聖十字學院發表這篇畢業演講時，當時她說的那些話引起了全國廣泛的關注。施萊佛提到，在演講前，她得到了很多“關於到底在畢業典禮上說什麼”的建議。不過最終她還是決定分享一些她自己的想法：如果她是在座的畢業生，那麼她希望別人告訴她的十件事情是什麼？（這十件事情包括“找到你的激情”，“不要讓工作束縛你”以及“女超人已經死了”等）在演講中，施萊佛回顧了她個人的工作經歷以及育兒的一些小故事，提出了自己的一些意見，並且以一種豁達的態度去對待生活中最艱辛的時刻。在這篇好評如潮的演講稿的基礎上，她又撰寫了《在我進入到真正的社會前我希望知道的十件事》一書，後來這本書成爲了轟動一時的畢業送別禮物。在2012年的時候，施萊佛又發表了她的第二篇十分轟動的畢業演講——“停頓的力量”。她在南加利福尼亞大學的一次畢業典禮（湊巧是女兒畢業的那一屆）上發表了這段講話。在演講中，施萊佛建議應屆生在做判斷及決定前，一定要記得思考。

e Jobs at Stanford, 2005

6.2005年，史蒂夫·喬布斯在斯坦福大學

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

“生命有限，所以要活出自我風采。”

Even if you're not a Mac, you should listen to Steve Jobs' understated commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. Jobs, who quipped that the address was the closest he'd ever come to a college graduation, shared three stories that connected the dots of his life -- and could possibly serve as a roadmap for others. He outlined his decision to drop out of college, how it had loosed a hunger for learning and eventually inspired the launch of Apple computers. Next, Jobs chronicled being fired from the company he'd built and how the painful and embarrassing split had led to greater things, including NeXT (which Apple later purchased because of its proprietary technology). But it was Jobs' recollection of being diagnosed with cancer that really stood out. For one day, he lived with the prognosis that he had three to six months before a rare form of pancreatic cancer would take his life. Then a biopsy revealed he had a rarer form still, one that could be surgically removed. (Sadly, the cancer would return and Jobs died in 2011). "Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking," Jobs advised. "Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become".

即使你不是Mac粉，你也應該聽聽喬布斯2005年在斯坦福大學畢業典禮上所做的樸實無華的演講。喬布斯打趣道，這次演講是他離大學畢業最近的時刻，並分享了三個轉變他人生軌跡的故事——這些都可以作爲別人的成功指南。他概括了自己輟學的決心，輟學如何激發出學習慾望，及最終靈感涌現、推出蘋果電腦的故事。在接下來的演講中，喬布斯講述了他被自己一手創建的蘋果公司拋棄，如何在內心痛苦和尷尬分歧境遇下，建設諸如NeXT公司的成功故事（NeXT公司後來憑藉專利技術，被蘋果公司收購）。但演講的精華，是喬布斯述說自己被診斷出患有癌症的部分。有一天，喬布斯被告知自己的生命只剩3到6個月，因爲他被診斷出患有罕見而致命的胰腺癌。接下來的胰島穿刺活檢組織病理結果顯示，他的癌雖更罕見，但可以通過手術切除。（不幸的是，癌症會復發。喬布斯於2011年逝世。）喬布斯建議，“不要受教條束縛，因爲那意味着你的生活就像拾人牙慧。不要因其他人喧囂的觀點而忽略自己內心的聲音。最重要的是，拿出勇氣，聽從內心所想、直覺所示，因爲它們能在某種程度上反映出你的真實想法。”

審校：圍巾 編輯：listen 來源：前十網