喬布斯的斯坦福大學畢業(yè)演講稿

　　My third story is about death.

　　我的第三個故事是關(guān)于死亡的。

　　When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

　　當我十七歲的時候, 我讀到了一句話:“如果你把每一天都當作生命中最后一天去生活的話,那么有一天你會發(fā)現(xiàn)你是正確的。”這句話給我留下了深刻的印象。從那時開始,過了33年,我在每天早晨都會對著鏡子問自己:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天, 你會不會完成你今天想做的事情呢?”當答案連續(xù)很多次被給予“不是”的時候, 我知道自己需要改變某些事情了。

　　Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

　　“記住你即將死去”是我一生中遇到的最重要箴言。它幫我指明了生命中重要的選擇。因為幾乎所有的事情, 包括所有的榮譽、所有的驕傲、所有對難堪和失敗的恐懼,這些在死亡面前都會消失。我看到的是留下的真正重要的東西。你有時候會思考你將會失去某些東西,“記住你即將死去”是我知道的避免這些想法的最好辦法。你已經(jīng)赤身裸體了, 你沒有理由不去跟隨自己的心一起跳動。

　　About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

　　大概一年以前, 我被診斷出癌癥。我在早晨七點半做了一個檢查, 檢查清楚的顯示在我的胰腺有一個腫瘤。我當時都不知道胰腺是什么東西。醫(yī)生告訴我那很可能是一種無法治愈的癌癥, 我還有三到六個月的時間活在這個世界上。我的醫(yī)生叫我回家, 然后整理好我的一切, 那就是醫(yī)生準備死亡的程序。那意味著你將要把未來十年對你小孩說的話在幾個月里面說完.;那意味著把每件事情都搞定, 讓你的家人會盡可能輕松的生活;那意味著你要說“再見了”。

　　I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

　　我整天和那個診斷書一起生活。后來有一天早上我作了一個活切片檢查，醫(yī)生將一個內(nèi)窺鏡從我的喉嚨伸進去,通過我的胃, 然后進入我的腸子, 用一根針在我的胰腺上的腫瘤上取了幾個細胞。我當時很鎮(zhèn)靜,因為我被注射了鎮(zhèn)定劑。但是我的妻子在那里, 后來告訴我，當醫(yī)生在顯微鏡地下觀察這些細胞的時候他們開始尖叫, 因為這些細胞最后竟然是一種非常罕見的可以用手術(shù)治愈的胰腺癌癥。我做了這個手術(shù), 現(xiàn)在我痊愈了。

　　This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

　　那是我最接近死亡的時候, 我還希望這也是以后的幾十年最接近的一次。從死亡線上又活了過來, 死亡對我來說，只是一個有用但是純粹是知識上的概念的時候，我可以更肯定一點地對你們說：

　　No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

　　沒有人愿意死, 即使人們想上天堂, 人們也不會為了去那里而死。但是死亡是我們每個人共同的終點。從來沒有人能夠逃脫它。也應該如此。 因為死亡就是生命中最好的一個發(fā)明。它將舊的清除以便給新的讓路。你們現(xiàn)在是新的, 但是從現(xiàn)在開始不久以后, 你們將會逐漸的變成舊的然后被清除。我很抱歉這很戲劇性, 但是這十分的真實。

　　Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's 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. Everything else is secondary.

　　When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notion

　　Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

　　Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

　　Thank you all very much.