比尔·盖茨夫妇斯坦福大学毕业典礼演讲

　　Over the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the pressing needs of the poor.

　　数年来，我和梅琳达确实发现了穷人们的当务之需。

　　On a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDR-TB, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50%. I remember that hospital as a place of despair.

　　在后来一次到南非的时候，我去了一家住有很多抗药性肺结核患者和耐多药结核病患者的医院，这是一种治愈率不到50%的顽疾。我还记得那个充满绝望的地方。

　　It was a giant open ward, with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing masks. There was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in bed. They had a little school for kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn't make it, and the hospital didn't seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school open.

　　在一个巨大的开放性病房里，住着很多很多病人，他们穿着睡衣，带着口罩，慢慢挪动着。有一层楼是专为孩童开设的，其中包括还在卧床的婴儿们。医院中也为适龄儿童设有小学校，但是大多数孩子都无法战胜病魔踏入学堂，因此医院似乎并不确信是否有必要开设这所学校。

　　I talked to a patient there in her early 30s. She had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a cough. She went to a doctor and he told her said she had drug-resistant TB. She was later diagnosed with AIDS. She wasn't going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated it. This was hell with a waiting list.

　　我同一位30多岁的病人做了交谈，并了解到她曾肺结核医院的一名职工，因为咳嗽而病倒。她看了医生，医生告诉她患上了耐药性结核病，在后来也被诊断患有艾滋。她活不了过久了，但有很多耐多药结核病患者却“觊觎”着她即将空出的床位。这是一个有很多候场病人的地狱。

　　But seeing this hell didn't reduce my optimism. It channeled it. I got into the car as I left and I told the doctor we were working with I know MDR-TB is hard to cure, but we must do something for these people. And, in fact, this year, we are entering phase three with the new TB drug regime for patients who respond, instead of a 50% cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we get an 80% cure rate after six months for under $100. (Applause).

　　但是目睹了这个地域并不能减少我的乐观心态，相反，它指导着乐观的前行。在我们离开时，我在车里跟与我们同行的医生说，我虽然知道耐多药结核病是一种顽疾，但我们必须为这些人做一些实事。实际上，在今年，我们进入了新结核药物研发的第三阶段，对于那些病人而言，他们不再需为18个月50%的治愈率而花费2000美元，我们的新药物花费不超100美元便能在6个月后实现80%的治愈率。(掌声)

　　Optimism is often dismissed as false hope. But there is also false hopelessness. That's the attitude that says we can't defeat poverty and disease. We absolutely can.

　　乐观常被视为错误的希望。但是错误的无望也存在于世，那就是我们无法击败贫困和疾病的态度。但我们却能够做到。

　　MELINDA GATES: Bill called me that day after he visited the TB hospital and normally if one of us is on an international trip, we will go through our agenda for the day and who we met and where we have been. But this call was different.

　　在比尔去过结核病医院后，他曾给我致电。(因为)惯例上当我们其中一个出国的话，我们都会聊聊这天我们遇到的人和我们去过的地方。但是这番电话有些特别。

　　Bill said to me, Melinda, I have been somewhere that I have never been before. And then he choked up and he couldn't go on. And he finally just said, I will tell you more when I get home. And I knew what he was going through because when you see people with so little hope, it breaks your heart.

　　比尔说，梅琳达，我(今天)去了一个我之前从未去过的地方。然后他哽咽地说不出话了。他最后只是说，等我回来了再详细告诉你。(其实)我知道他经历了什么，因为当你看到濒临绝望的人们，他会让你十分悲痛。

　　But if you want to do the most, you have to go see the worst, and I've had days like that too. About ten years ago, I traveled with a group of friends to India. And on last day I was there, I had a meeting with a group of prostitutes and I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS that they were facing, but what they wanted to talk to me about was stigma.

　　但是如果你想做得更多，你必须要看到最坏的情况，我也经历过那些日子。大概十年前，我和一群朋友去印度旅游。在我临走的那一天，我和一群妓女进行了交谈，我希望跟她们讲她们所面对得艾滋病的风险，但是她们想跟我聊的只是(作为妓女的)耻辱。

　　Many of these women had been abandoned by their husbands. That's why they even went into prostitution. They wanted to be able to feed their children. They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anyone, even the police, and nobody cared.

　　这当中的很多人都是被她们的丈夫所抛弃。这就是为什么她们去卖淫的原因。她们想养活自己的孩子。他们在社会的眼中是如此卑微，以致于她们可以被任何人甚至是警察强奸，抢劫，甚至挨揍，(而)根本没有人会在意(她们)

　　Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me, but what I remember most was how much they wanted to be touched. They wanted to touch me and to be touched by them. It was if physical contact somehow proved their worth. And so before I left, we linked arms hand in hand and did a photo together.

　　聊起她们的生活让我感触至深。但是我印象最深的就是她们多么想接触他人。她们希望触摸我，也希望让我能去触碰她们也许是通过这种身体上的触碰证明了她们存在的价值。所以当我离开之前，我们肩并肩，手牵手，一起照了相。

　　Later that same day, I spent some time in India in a home for the dying. I walked into a large hall and I saw rows and rows of cot and every cot was attended to except for one, that was far off in the corner. And so I decided to go over there.

　　之后在那天，我去了印度的一个弥留者的家中。我走进大厅，我看见一排排的床，除了远在角落的一张床，每张床都有人在照顾。所以我决定过去看看。

　　The patient who was in this room was a woman in her 30s. And I remember her eyes. She had these huge, brown, sorrowful eyes. She was emaciated and on the verge of death. Her intestines were not holding anything and so the workers had they put a pan under her bed, and cut a hole in the bottom of the bed and everything in her was just pouring out into that pan. And I could tell that she had AIDS. Both in the way she looked and the fact that she was off in this corner alone.

　　这位病人是一个30岁左右的妇女。我还记得她的眼睛的样子。她有着大而悲伤的棕色的眼睛。当时的她如此憔悴并且徘徊在死亡的边缘。她的肠道里什么东西也盛不下，所以那里的工作人员就在她的床下放了一个盘子，然后在床的底部开了个洞，这样一切东西就能倾泻到那个盘子中。我看得出她得了艾滋病。不仅可以从她的外表，而且也可以从她独自在这个角落中看出来。