謝謝你們,謝謝你們。這...100多年過去了,你們終于迎來了一位英國演講者。
What took you so long? Did that little disagreement of 1776 really rankle so much? And why now? Is it because British election campaigns only last four weeks?
是什么讓你們等了這么長時間?難道是因?yàn)?776年那次小小分歧而耿耿于懷?那為什么又選擇現(xiàn)在呢?難道是因?yàn)橛拇筮x僅僅持續(xù)了四個星期?無論出于何種原因,能來到這里讓我倍感榮幸。
For whatever reason, it is an honour to be here and to say to the Yale College Class of 2008: you did it;you came through; from all of us to you:congratulations.
耶魯大學(xué)2008屆的畢業(yè)生們,我想對你們說:你們順利完成了學(xué)業(yè),你們?nèi)サ牧顺晒?,我們大家都要恭喜你們,你們干得非常好?/p>
The invitation to a former British Prime Minister to address a college which boasts five former Presidents, many former Vice Presidents and Senators too numerous to mention, is either to give me an exaggerated sense of my own importance or you a reduced sense of yours.
貴校培養(yǎng)出了5位美國總統(tǒng)、很多副總統(tǒng)和難以數(shù)計的參議院,卻邀請一位前英國首相來發(fā)表演講,這要么是夸大了我的重要性,要么就是減小了你們的重要性。
It was Churchill or Oscar Wilde—and there is a difference—who called us two nations divided by a common language and so we are.
是丘吉爾還是奧斯卡•王爾德——這兩人當(dāng)然是有區(qū)別的——把英美兩國說成是由一種相同的語言劃分的兩個不同的國家,你們可以從我今天的出場來判斷這一點(diǎn),事實(shí)確實(shí)如此。
Here I am at Yale and set to come back for the fall semester. My old Oxford tutor was, I'm afraid, horrified to hear I had been taken on by Yale. His worries were all for Yale I may say. He said: "I only hope for their sake you are going there to learn rather than teach."
現(xiàn)在我來到耶魯,并打算今年秋天來這里任職。我恐怕,我在牛津的老導(dǎo)師聽到我在耶魯任職會感到驚駭。我可以說,他的擔(dān)憂全是為了耶魯。他說:“為了耶魯,我只希望你是去那兒學(xué)習(xí),而不是教書。”