邁克爾杰克遜牛津大學的演講——拯救人類，拯救地球

• 2026考研英語全程班 6班
• 26考研全科上岸規(guī)劃營「擇校▪規(guī)劃▪備考」
• 2026考研專業(yè)課復習資料「真題▪筆記▪講義▪題庫」

As I looked round Oxford today, I couldn’t help but be aware of the majesty and grandeur of this great institution, not to mention the brilliance of the great and gifted minds that have roamed these streets for centuries. The walls of Oxford have not only housed the greatest philosophical and scientific geniuses—they have also ushered forth some of the most cherished creators of children’s literature, from Tolkien to Lewis. Today I was allowed to hobble into the dining hall in Christ Church to see Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland immortalized in the stained glass windows. And even one of my own fellow Americans, the beloved Dr Seuss graced these halls and then went on to leave his mark on the imaginations of millions of children throughout the world.

今天我參觀牛津大學，不禁被這座偉大建筑的宏偉壯觀吸引，更不用說這里云集了幾個世紀以來的精英才俊們了，他們的睿智綻放著炫耀光芒。牛津不僅匯聚了最出色的哲學和科學英才，還培養(yǎng)出了從托爾金到劉易斯等眾多極富愛心的兒童文學家。今天，我有幸參觀了路易斯卡羅爾創(chuàng)作的《愛麗絲漫游仙境》，它被雕刻 在基督堂餐廳已經褪了色的彩色玻璃窗上。我甚至還發(fā)現我的一位美國同胞——受人敬愛的蘇斯博士——也為此增色，啟發(fā)著全世界千萬兒童的想象力。

I suppose I should start by listing my qualifications to speak before you this evening.

今晚，我想先從我有幸能在這里講話的原因開始。

Friends, I do not claim to have the academic expertise of other speakers who have addressed this hall, just as they could lay little claim at being adept at the moonwalk~and you know, Einstein in particular was really terrible at that. But I do have a claim to having experienced more places and cultures than most people will ever see. Human knowledge consists not only of libraries ofparchment and ink~it is also comprised of the volumes of knowledge that are written on the human heart, chiseled on the human soul, and engraved on the human psyche. And friends, I have encountered so much in this relatively short life of mine that I still cannot believe I am only 42. I often tell Shmuley that in soul years I，m sure that I，m at least 80-and tonight I even walk like I，m 80.

朋友們，正如其他一些來牛津演講的演講者不擅長月球漫步一樣，我也并不具 備他們所擁有的學術專業(yè)知識，而且你們都知道愛因斯坦是學識方面的權威。但我 可以說，比起大多數人，我游歷了更多的地方，也經歷了更多不同的文化。人類文 明不僅僅包括圖書館中紙墨記載的那一部分，還包括記錄在人們內心的，鐫刻進人 們靈魂的，銘記在人類精神中的那一部分。而且，朋友們，在我相對短暫的生命里 我經歷了這么多之后，我真的難以相信自己只有42歲。我經常對施慕禮說，我的心 理年齡肯定至少有80了，今晚我甚至像個80歲老人一樣走路。

So please harken to my message, because what I have to tell you tonight can bring healing to humanity and healing to our planet.

那么就請大家仔細聽我的演講，因為今天我要對大家講的或許會讓大家共同來 拯救人類，拯救地球!

Through the grace of God, I have been fortunate to have achieved many of my artistic and professional aspirations realized early in my lifetime. But these, friends are accomplishments, and accomplishments alone are not synonymous with who I am. Indeed，the cheery five-year-old who belted out Rockin3 Robin and Ben to adoring crowds was not indicative of the boy behind the smile.

多虧上帝的恩典，我很幸運地提前實現了許多自己一生的藝術和職業(yè)抱負。雖 然我為這些成績感到高興，但這些成績和我是誰完全沒有關系。事實上，在崇拜者面前活潑快樂地表演《搖滾知更鳥》和《本》的5歲小男孩并不意味著笑容背后的他 也同樣快樂。

Tonight，I come before you less as an icon of pop (whatever that means anyway), and more as an icon of a generation, a generation that no longer knows what it means to be children. All of us are products of our childhood. But I am the product of a lack of a childhood, an absence of that precious and wondrous age when we frolic playfully without a care in the world, basking in the adoration of parents and relatives, where our biggest concern is studying for that big spelling test come Monday morning. Those of you who are familiar with the Jackson Five know that I began performing at the tender age of five and that ever since then, I haven’t stopped dancing or singing.

今晚，我不想以一個流行偶像的身份——不管這個身份意味著什么——出現在 大家面前，我更愿意作一代人的見證，一代不再了解作為孩子有什么意義的人們的 見證。大家都有過童年，而我卻缺少童年，缺少那些寶貴的、美妙的、無優(yōu)無慮嬉 戲玩耍的時光，而那些日子我們本該愜意地沉浸在父母親人的疼愛中，最擔心的也 不過是星期一重要的拼寫考試。熟悉杰克遜五人樂隊的朋友都知道我5歲時就開始表 演，從那以后，就再也沒有停止過跳舞唱歌。雖然音樂表演的確是我最大的樂趣， 可是小時候我更想和其他的男孩子一樣，搭樹巢，打水仗，捉迷藏。

But while performing and making music undoubtedly remain as some of my greatest joys, when I was young I wanted more than anything else to be a typical little boy. I wanted to build tree houses, have water balloon fights, and play hide and seek with my friends. But fate had it otherwise and all I could do was envy the laughter and playtime that seemed to be going on all around me. There was no respite from my professional life. But on Sundays I would go Pioneering, the term used for the missionary work that Jehovah’s Wtnesses do. And it was then that I was able to see the magic of other people’s childhood. Since I was already a celebrity, I would have to don a disguise of fat suit, wig, beard and glasses and we would spend the day in the suburbs of Southern California, going door-to-door or making the rounds of shopping mails，distributing our Watchtower magazine. I loved to set foot in all those regular suburban houses and catch sight of the shag rugs and La-Z-Boy armchairs with kids playing Monopoly and grandmas baby-sitting and all those wonderful, ordinary and starry scenes of everyday life. Many, I know, would argue that these things seem like no big deal. But to me they were mesmerizing. I used to think that I was unique in feeling that I was without a childhood. I believed that indeed there were only a handful with whom I could share those feelings.

但是命中注定我只能羨慕那些笑聲，那些從我身邊溜走的歡樂時光，因為我 的職業(yè)生活不容停歇。不過，作為耶和華見證人，每個禮拜天我都要去參加教會工 作，那時我就能看到別人的童年是怎樣的充滿魔力。而自從我成名以后，我就不得 不用肥大的衣服、假發(fā)、胡須和眼鏡把自己偽裝起來。我們在加州南部的郊區(qū)度過一整天，挨家挨戶串門，或者在購物中心閑逛，發(fā)放我們的《守望臺》雜志。我也 喜歡在普通人家前駐足，看那些粗毛地毯，看那些小家伙們過家家，看所有的精彩 的、普通的、閃亮的日常生活情景。我知道很多人會認為這沒什么大不了，可對我 卻充滿了誘惑。我常常想，自己應該是唯一沒有體驗過童年的人，我想能和我分享 這種感覺的人更是少之又少。

When I recently met with Shirley Temple Black, the great child star of the 1930s and 40s，we said nothing to each other at first. We simply cried together, for she could share a pain with me that only others like my close friends Elizabeth Taylor and McCauley Culkin knew. I do not tell you this to gain your sympathy but to impress upon you my first important point—it is not just Hollywood child stars that have suffered from a nonexistent childhood.

前些時候，我有幸遇到了三四十年代的一位童星秀蘭鄧波兒，一見面我們什 么都不說，只是一起哭，因為她能分擔我的痛苦，這種痛苦只有我的一些密友,伊 麗莎白泰勒和麥考利庫爾金他們才知道。我說這些并不是要博得大家的同情， 只是想讓大家牢記一點這種失去童年的痛苦不僅僅屬于好萊塢的童星。現在，這已經成為全世界的災難。童年成了當代生活的犧牲品。我們使很多 孩子失去歡樂，失去自由，失去相應的權利，而且還認為一個孩子就該是這樣的。

Today, it’s a universal calamity, a global catastrophe. Childhood has become the great casualty of modern-day living. All around us we are producing scores of kids who have not had the joy, who have not been accorded the right, who have not been allowed the freedom, or knowing what it’s like to be a kid. Today children are constantly encouraged to grow up faster, as if this period known as childhood is a burdensome stage, to be endured and ushered through, as swiftly as possible. And on that subject, I am certainly one of the world’s greatest experts. Ours is a generation that has witnessed the abrogation of the parent-child covenant.

現在，孩子們經常被鼓勵長大得快一些，好像這個叫做童年的時期是一個累贅的階 段，大人們很不耐煩地想著法兒讓它盡可能地快些結束。在這個問題上，我無疑是 世界上最專業(yè)的人士之一了。我正是見證親子盟約廢除的一代人。

Psychologists are publishing libraries of books detailing the destructive effects of denying one’s children the unconditional love that is so necessary to the healthy development of their minds and character. And because of all the neglect， too many of our kids have, essentially, to raise themselves. They are growing more distant from their parents, grandparents and other family members, as all around us the indestructible bond that once glued together the generations, unravels. This violation has bred a new generation, Generation O let us call it, that has now picked up the torch from Generation X. The O stands for a generation that has everything on the outside-wealth, success, fancy clothing and fancy cars, but an aching emptiness on the inside. That cavity in our chests, that barrenness at our core, that void in our center is the place where the heart once beat and which love once occupied. And it，s not just the kids who are suffering. It，s the parents as well. For the more we cultivate little adults in kids，bodies, the more removed we ourselves become from our own childlike qualities，and there is so much about being a child that is worth retaining in adult life.

心理學家在書中詳述了因為不給予孩子絕對的愛而導致毀滅性的影響，由此說 明這種無條件的愛對他們精神和人格的健康發(fā)展是極其必要的。很多孩子因為被忽 視就自己照顧自己。他們漸漸疏遠自己的父母親、祖父母以及其他的家庭成員，我 們身邊那種曾經團結過一代人的不滅的凝集力就這樣散開了。這種違背常理的行為 造就了一代新人一~我們稱之為“0時代”，他們繼承著“X時代”人的使命——擁 有所有外在的東西，例如財富、成功、時裝和跑車，但他們的內心卻是痛苦和空虛 的。心胸空洞，靈魂荒蕪，而那些空白的地方曾經搏動著我們的心臟，曾經被愛占 據。其實，這不僅是孩子的痛苦，也是父母的煎熬。我們越是讓孩子們早熟，我們 就越來越遠離了天真，而這種天真就算孩子成為成年人后也值得擁有。

Love, ladies and gentlemen, is the human family’s most precious legacy, its richest bequest, its golden inheritance. And it is a treasure that is handed down from one generation to another. Previous ages may not have had the wealth we enjoy. Their houses may have lacked electricity, and they squeezed their many kids into small homes without central heating. But those homes had no darkness, nor were they cold. They were lit bright with the glow of love and they were warmed snugly by the very heat of the human heart. Parents, undistracted by the lust for luxury and status, accorded their children primacy in their lives.

女士們先生們，愛是人類家庭最珍貴的遺產，是最貴重的饋贈，是最無價的傳 統(tǒng)，是我們應該代代相傳的財富。以前，我們或許沒有現在這樣富有，屋里可能沒 有電，很多孩子可能擠在沒有取暖設施的狹小房間里。但這些家庭里沒有黑暗，也 沒有寒冷。他們點燃愛的光芒，溫暖著彼此緊貼的心靈。父母不為各種享受和權利 的欲望分心，孩子才是他們的生活中最重要的。

As you all know，our two countries broke from each other over what Thomas Jefferson referred to as “certain inalienable rights.” And while we Americans and British might dispute the justice of his claims, what has never been in dispute is that children have certain inalienable rights, and the gradual erosion of those rights has led to scores of children worldwide being denied the joys and security of childhood.

我們都知道，我們兩國在托馬斯杰弗遜提出的所謂“一些不可剝奪的權利” 上因意見不合而決裂。盡管美國人和英國人在各自要求的公平上有分歧，但在關于 孩子享有不可剝奪的權利這一點上卻是一致的。但是對這些權利的逐步剝奪已經導 致了世界上的很多孩子失去歡快樂趣和童年的安全感。

Friends, the foundation of all human knowledge, the beginning of human consciousness, must be that each and every one of us is an object of love. Before you know if you have red hair or brown, before you know if you are black or white, before you know of what religion you are a part, you have to know that you are loved.

朋友們，人類所有知識的基礎和人類意識的萌芽必然需要我們每一個人都成為 被愛的對象。哪怕你不知道自己的頭發(fā)是紅色還是棕色，不知道自己是白人還是黑 人，不知道自己信仰哪個宗教，你也應該知道自己是被愛著的。