尊敬的考恩校长,校长夫人,尊贵的嘉宾,不知名的嘉宾——你们知道自己是谁,不用介绍了,老师们还有令人害怕的西班牙语老师,感谢你们!感谢所有杜兰大学2009届毕业生们!我知道你们绝大多数还因为宿醉而头痛欲裂,狂欢到今天都还没有睡觉。但没听完我演讲不能毕业,所以要注意听了。
When I was asked to make the commencement speech, I immediately said yes. Then I went tolook up what commencement meant. Which would have been easy if I had a dictionary, butmost of the books in our house are Portia's, and they're all written in Australian. So I had tobreak the word down myself, to find out the meaning.
当我应邀来发表毕业演讲时,我毫不犹豫就答应了,然后我才去查毕业典礼是什么意思。如果我有字典的话就轻松多了,但我家里有的书大多都是波西亚的,而且都是澳式英语,所以我得自己拆分单词,摸索它的意思。
Commencement: common, and cement. Common cement. You commonly see cement onsidewalks. Sidewalks have cracks, and if you step on a crack, you break your mother's back.So there's that. But I'm honored that you've asked me here to speak at your common cement.
Commencement由common和cement构成,意思是“常见的水泥”。在人行道上你常看见水泥。人行道上有裂缝,你踩到了裂缝,撞伤了你妈妈的背。意思就是这样。但是我很荣幸应邀给你们做“常见的水泥”的演讲。
I thought that you had to be a famous alumnus-alumini-aluminum-alumis-you had to graduatefrom this school. And I didn't go to college here, and I don't know if President Cowen know, Ididn't go to college at all. Any collge. And I'm not saying you wasted your time, or money, butlook at me, I'm a huge celebrity.
我原以为要够有名,并且必须是贵校的校友才能来这里演讲。我没在这儿上过大学,而且,不知道考恩校长是否知道,我根本没念过大学,没上过任何大学。我不是说你们在浪费时间和金钱。看看我,我可是超级成功的名人。