我在哈佛學(xué)到了很多經(jīng)濟學(xué)和政治學(xué)的新思想。我也了解了很多科學(xué)上的新進展。

　　But humanity's greatest advances are not in its discoveries - but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity - reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.

　　但是，人類最大的進步并不來自于這些發(fā)現(xiàn)，而是來自于那些有助于減少人類不平等的發(fā)現(xiàn)。不管通過何種手段----民主制度、健全的公共教育體系、高質(zhì)量的醫(yī)療保健、還是廣泛的經(jīng)濟機會----減少不平等始終是人類最大的成就。

　　I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.

　　我離開校園的時候，根本不知道在這個國家里，有幾百萬的年輕人無法獲得接受教育的機會。我也不知道，發(fā)展中國家里有無數(shù)的人們生活在無法形容的貧窮和疾病之中。

　　It took me decades to find out.

　　我花了幾十年才明白了這些事情。

　　You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world's inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you've had a chance to think about how - in this age of accelerating technology - we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

　　在座的各位同學(xué)，你們是在與我不同的時代來到哈佛的。你們比以前的學(xué)生，更多地了解世界是怎樣的不平等。在你們的哈佛求學(xué)過程中，我希望你們已經(jīng)思考過一個問題，那就是在這個新技術(shù)加速發(fā)展的時代，我們怎樣最終應(yīng)對這種不平等，以及我們怎樣來解決這個問題。

　　Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause - and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?

　　為了討論的方便，請想象一下，假如你每個星期可以捐獻一些時間、每個月可以捐獻一些錢----你希望這些時間和金錢，可以用到對拯救生命和改善人類生活有最大作用的地方。你會選擇什么地方?

　　For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.

　　對Melinda(注：蓋茨的妻子)和我來說，這也是我們面臨的問題：我們?nèi)绾文軐⑽覀儞碛械馁Y源發(fā)揮出最大的作用。