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Most people think that to speak at Yale's commencement, you have to be President.But over the years, the specifications have become far more demanding.Now you have to be a Yale graduate, you have to be President, and you have had to have lost the Yale vote to Ralph Nader.
很多人認為，只有總統才能在耶魯大學的畢業典禮上發表演講。但近幾年條件卻更加嚴格。演講人必須是美國總統，是耶魯大學校友，而且他在總統選舉中在耶魯大學所在投票區里得到的票數要少于拉爾夫·納德。
This is my first time back here in quite a while. I'm sure that each of you will make your own journey back at least a few times in your life. If you're like me, you won't remember everything you did here. That can be a good thing. But there will be some people, and some moments, you will never forget.
這是我畢業這么長時間以來第一次回到母校。我也相信你們每個人會在畢業以后至少回來幾次。當你們像我這么老的時候，你們會不記得在這里做過的每一件事情。這或許是一件好事。不過，一些人，一些事你永遠也不會忘記。
Take, for example, my old classmate, Dick Brodhead, the accomplished dean of this great university. I remember him as a young scholar, a bright lad a hard worker. We both put a lot of time in at the Sterling Library, in the reading room, where they have those big leather couches. We had a mutual understanding—Dick wouldn't read aloud, and I wouldn't snore.
就拿我的老同學狄克·布羅德黑德來說，如今他是這所偉大的學校的杰出校長，他讀書時的聰明、好學與刻苦至今讓我記憶猶新。那時，我們經常泡在圖書館那個有著大皮沙發的閱讀室里。我們之間有個默契：他不大聲朗讀課文，我睡覺時不打呼嚕。
Our course selections were different, as we followed our own path to academic discovery. Dick was an English major, and loved the classics. I loved history, and pursued a diversified course of study. I like to think of it as the academic road less traveled.
后來，隨著學術探索的領域不同，我們選修的課程也各不相同。狄克主修英語，酷愛古典文學，而我主修歷史，喜歡多樣化的學習過程。我喜歡把這種學習過程想成是少有人走過的學術之路。
For example, I took a class that studied Japanese Haiku. Haiku, for the uninitiated, is a 15th century form of poetry, each poem having 17 syllables. Haiku is fully understood only by the Zen masters.
有趣的是，我選修過日本俳句，對門外漢來說，俳句是15世紀日本的一種詩歌形式，每首詩只有17個音節，我想其意義只有禪學大師才能明了。
