清华吴彦祖演讲文字版

演讲稿《Chess Board》

The world is a chessboard, on which we play a game that was never supposed to be fair but still excites us with its numerous possibilities.

世界是一个棋盘，在这个游戏中，我们玩的游戏从来都不应该是公平的，但仍然让我们充满了无限的可能性。

When I was 16, my dad recommended that I should sign up for a chess club and learn how to play.

当我十六岁的时候，我爸爸建议我去，参加一个国际象棋俱乐部，学习如何玩。

So I went, and my level was good enough to play against a bunch of 10 year olds.

所以我去了，我的水平只够和一群十岁的孩子玩。

What’s even more humiliating was that I actually had a hard time playing against them.

更丢脸的是，我和他们比赛真的很艰难。

So reasonably, I became skeptical of the game and thought that it was unfair.

合理地说，我开始质疑这个游戏，并认为它是不公平的。

You know on the chessboard there’s a king, a queen, rooks(车), bishops(象), knights(马), and pawns(兵), different pieces with different status and importance possessing different capabilities.

你知道，在棋盘上，有一个国王，一个皇后，车，象，马，卒，地位不同，重要性不同的棋子，具有不同的能力。

They stand in their strictly drawn little squares and line up accordingly to their value.

他们站着，严格地画出小正方形，，并按照他们的价值排列。

And let’s face it. It’s the same in real life. Some of us matter, while some of us don’t, at least not that much.

让我们看看现实生活中面对的同样问题。我们中的一些人重要，但是我们中的一些人不是，至少没有那么重要。

Among the very first lines of “the Declaration Of Independence(独立宣言)”, this one goes: “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

在独立宣言的前几行中，有这么几句话，我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的，

“人人生而平等”

What a beautiful line, but how can we convince ourselves that we are born equal while our ancestors didn’t die equal?

多么美丽的一句话

但是我们如何才能说服自己，我们生来平等呢？我们的祖先死时并不平等。

I hate to say this, but we do inherit most of the social capitals that get to decide what kind of a role we start with when we come to this world.

我不想这么说，但我们确实继承了大部分的社会资本。

他们可以决定我们来到这个世界时，从哪里开始。

However, the game still gets played for a reason.

然而，这款游戏存在即合理。

The board of 64 little squares is magically enough to create a stage for wonderful things to happen.

64个小正方形的棋盘具有足够的魔力，可以为奇妙的事情创造一个舞台。

In just the first four moves there are 318 million different ways to play.

开始的四个动作中，有三点一八亿种不同的方式

And in a game between two equal players there will be around 50 moves in total and just think about many moves we take in life time.

在这个游戏的两个相同玩家中，总共会有五十步。想想我们一生中有多少动作。

I’ll say countless. And no one is able to predict what’s going to happen next, which, I think, is the true beauty of our world.

我要说无数。没有人能预测接下来会发生什么。我认为这是我们这个世界的真正美丽。

And that just paints a silver lining, like a little solider, like you and me.

而那给了像你我这样的无名小卒，画出一线希望。

Because with a little but sufficient ability to checkmate and then win the game by planning out my tactics and encountering the coincidences along the way.

I may somehow work mu way up until the last rank and become a queen at the end of the game.

因为有点点但足够的能力，通过计划我的战术，加上一些机缘巧合，我可能会以某种方式，一直走到最后一名，成为一名女王，并以此赢得比赛。

The world is not fair, but it doesn’t make it any less worthy of living.

在游戏的最后，世界是不公平的，但它并不会使它变得不那么值得活下去。

So go play with what you have carefully but boldly at the same time to unleash the unknown possibilities of life or change the game.

所以拿出你的本事去拼吧。小心谨慎但也要放开手脚，去释放生活中未知的可能性，或者改变游戏。

Thank you.