爱，女士们先生们，爱是人类家庭最珍贵的遗产，是最贵重的馈赠，是最无价的传统，是我们应该代代相传的财富。以前，我们或许没有现在所享受的富有，房子里可能没有电，很多孩子挤在没有取暖设施的狭小房间里。但这些家庭里没有黑暗，也没有寒冷。他们点燃爱之光，贴紧的心让他们感到温暖。父母不为各种享受和权利的欲望分心，孩子才是他们的生活中最重要的。
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.
我们都知道，我们两国在托马斯·杰弗逊提出的所谓“几个不可妥协的权利”上决裂。当我们美国人和英国人在争执各自要求的公平时，又有什么关于孩子们不可妥协的权利之争呢，对这些权利的逐步剥夺已经导致了世界上的很多孩子失去欢快乐趣和童年的安全感。因此我建议今晚我们就为每个家庭建立一部全体儿童权利条约，这些条例是：
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. I would therefore like to propose tonight that we instal in every home a Children's Universal Bill of Rights, the tenets of which are:
不必付出就可享受的被爱的权利
不必乞求就可享有的被保护的权利
即使来到这个世界时一无所有，也要有被重视的权利
即使不引人注意也会有被倾听的权利
不须要与晚间新闻和复活节抗争，就能在睡觉前听一段故事的权利
不须要躲避子弹，可以在学校受教育的权利
哪怕你只有妈妈才会爱的脸蛋，也要有被人尊重的权利。
The right to be loved, without having to earn it
The right to be protected, without having to deserve it
The right to feel valuable, even if you came into the world with nothing
The right to be listened to without having to be interesting
The right to be read a bedtime story without having to compete with the evening news or EastEnders
The right to an education without having to dodge bullets at schools
The right to be thought of as adorable (even if you have a face that only a mother could love).
朋友们，人类所有知识的创立，人类意识的萌芽必然需要我们每一个人都成为被爱的对象。哪怕你不知道自己的头发是红色还是棕色，不知道自己是白人还是黑人，不知道自己信仰哪个宗教，你也应该知道自己是被爱着的。
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.
大概十二年前，我正好在准备我的真棒巡演，一个小男孩和他的父母亲来加州看我。癌症正在威胁着他的生命，他告诉我他非常爱我和我的音乐。他的父母告诉我他生命将尽，说不上哪一天就会离开，我就对他说:“你瞧，三个月之后我就要到堪萨斯州你住的那个城市去开演唱会，我希望你来看我的演出，我还要送给你一件我在一部录影带里穿过的夹克。”他眼睛一亮，说:“你要把它送给我？” 我说:“当然，不过你必须答应我穿着它来看我的演出。”我只想尽力让他坚持住，就对他说:“我希望在我的演唱会上看见你穿着这件夹克戴着这只手套。”于是，我又送了一只镶着莱茵石的手套给他。一般我决不送手套给别人。但他就要去天堂了。不过，也许他离那儿实在太近，我到他的城市时，他已经走了，他们埋葬他时给他穿上那件夹克戴上那只手套。他只有10岁。上帝知道，我知道，他曾经多么努力地支持过。但至少，在他离开时，他知道自己是被深爱着的，不仅被父母亲，甚至还有几乎是个陌生人的我也同样爱他。拥有了这些爱，他知道他不是孤独地来到这个世界，同样也不是孤独地离开。
About 12 years ago, when I was just about to start my Bad tour, a little boy came with his parents to visit me at home in California. He was dying of cancer and he told me how much he loved my music and me.
His parents told me that he wasn't going to live, that any day he could just go, and I said to him: "Look, I am going to be coming to your town in Kansas to open my tour in three months. "I want you to come to the show. I am going to give you this jacket that I wore in one of my videos." His eyes lit up and he said: "You are gonna give it to me?" I said "Yeah, but you have to promise that you will wear it to the show." I was trying to make him hold on. I said: "When you come to the show I want to see you in this jacket and in this glove" and I gave him one of my rhinestone gloves -- and I never usually give the rhinestone gloves away. And he was just in heaven. But maybe he was too close to heaven, because when I came to his town, he had already died, and they had buried him in the glove and jacket. He was just 10 years old. God knows, I know, that he tried his best to hold on. But at least when he died, he knew that he was loved, not only by his parents, but even by me, a near stranger, I also loved him. And with all of that love he know that he didn't come into this world alone, and he certainly didn't leave it alone.
如果你降临或离开这个世界时都感到被爱，那么这些时间里发生的所有意外你都能对付得了。教授可能降你的级，可你自己并没有降级，老板可能排挤你，可你不会被排挤掉，一个辩论对手可能会击败你，可你却仍能胜利。他们怎么能真正战胜你击倒你呢？因为你知道你是值得被爱的，其余的只是一层包装罢了。可是，如果你没有被爱的记忆，你就无法发现世界上有什么东西能够让你充实。无论你挣了多少钱，无论你有多出名，你仍然觉得空虚。
If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in-between can he dealt with. A professor may degrade you, but you will not feel degraded, a boss may crush you, but you will not be crushed, a corporate gladiator might vanquish you, but you will still triumph. How could any of them truly prevail in pulling you down? For you know that you are an object worthy of love. The rest is just packaging. But if you don't have that memory of being loved, you are condemned to search the world for something to fill you up. But no matter how much money you make or how famous you become, you will still feel empty.
你真正寻找的只是无条件的爱和完全的包容。而这些在你诞生时就被拒绝给予。朋友们，让我给大家描述一下这样的情景，在美国每一天将有--6个不满 20岁的青年自杀，12个20岁以下的孩子死于武器---记住这只是一天，不是一年。另外还有399个年轻人因为服用麻醉品而被逮捕，1352个婴儿被十几岁的妈妈生出来，这都发生在世界上最富有最发达的国家。
What you are really searching for is unconditional love, unqualified acceptance. And that was the one thing that was denied to you at birth. Friends' let me paint a picture for you. Here is a typical day in America - six youths under the age of 20 will commit suicide, 12 children under the age of 20 will die from firearms -- remember this is a day, not a year. Three hundred and ninety-nine kids will be arrested for drug abuse, 1,352 babies will be born to teen mothers. This is happening in one of the richest, most developed countries in the history of the world.
是的，我国所充斥的暴力，其他的工业化国家无法相提并论。这只是美国年轻人宣泄自己所受的伤害和愤怒的途径，但是，难道英国就没有同样烦恼痛苦的人么？调查表明英国每小时都会有三个十来岁的孩子自残，经常割烫自己的身体或者服用过量药剂。这是他们现在用来发泄痛苦烦恼的方法。在大不列颠，有20%的家庭一年只能聚在一起吃一次晚饭，一年才一次！
Yes, in my country there is an epidemic of violence that parallels no other industrialized nation. These are the ways young people in America express their hurt and their anger. But don't think that there is not the same pain and anguish among their counterparts in the UK. Studies in this country show that every single hour, three teenagers in the UK inflict harm upon themselves, often by cutting or burning their bodies or taking an overdose. This is now they have chosen to cope with the pain of neglect and emotional agony. In Britain, as many as 20% of families will only sit down and have dinner together once a year. Once a year!
80年代的研究发现，听教多的孩子都有较强的识读能力和动手能力，而且，远比看着学的有效果。然而，英国只有不到33%的二至八岁的孩子才能固定地在晚睡前听段故事。如果我们没有意识到75%的家长在他们的那个年龄都是听着故事过来的，那么大家可能就不会想到什么了。很显然，我们没有问过自己这些痛苦愤怒和暴力从何而来。不言而喻，孩子们特别憎恨被忽略，害怕冷漠，他们哭泣只是为了引起注意。在美国，各种儿童保护机构表示，平均每年，有千万儿童成为了因忽略冷漠是受害者，这是一种虐待！富有的家庭，幸运的家庭，完全被电子器件束缚了。父母亲回到家里，可是他们没有真正回家，他们的灵魂还在办公室。
And what about the time-honored tradition of reading your kid a bedtime story? Research from the 1980s showed that children who are read to, had far greater literacy and significantly outperformed their peers at school. And yet, less than 33% of British children ages two to eight have a regular bedtime story read to them. You may not think much of that until you take into account that 75% of their parents did have that bedtime story when they were that age. Clearly, we do not have to ask ourselves where all of this pain, anger and violent behavior comes from. It is self-evident that children are thundering against the neglect, quaking against the indifference and crying out just to be noticed. The various child protection agencies in the US say that millions of children are victims of maltreatment in the form of neglect, in the average year. Yes, neglect. In rich homes, privileged homes, wired to the hilt with every electronic gadget. Homes where parents come home, but they're not really home, because their heads are still at the office.
那么孩子们呢？啊，只好以他们所能得到的一些感情的碎片勉强过活。在无休止的电视，电脑游戏和录像带上又能得到多少呢！这些让我觉得扭曲灵魂震撼心灵的又冷又硬的东西正好可以让大家明白，我为什么要花费这么多时间精力来支援拯救孩子的活动让它能获得巨大的成功。我们的目的很简单——重建父母儿女之间的融洽关系，重许我们的承诺去点亮所有终究有一天会来到这个世界美丽孩子们的前行路途。（这次公开演讲之后，你们能对我敞开心扉，我觉得我会和你们聊更多。不过如果对我们每个人各自的故事都作统计的话就可能侵犯个人隐私了。）常言道，抚养孩子就像跳舞。你走一步，你的孩子跟一步。而我发觉养育孩子时，你对孩子的付出只是故事的一半，而另一半就是孩子对父母的回报。
And their kids? Well, their kids just make do with whatever emotional crumbs they get. And you don't get much from endless TV, computer games and videos. These hard, cold numbers which for me, wrench the soul and shake the spirit, should indicate to you why I have devoted so much of my time and resources into making our new Heal the Kids initiative a colossal success. Our goal is simple - to recreate the parent/child bond, renew its promise and light the way forward for all the beautiful children who are destined one day to walk this earth. But since this is my first public lecture, and you have so warmly welcomed me into your hearts, I feel that I want to tell you more. We each have our own story, and in that sense statistics can become personal. They say that parenting is like dancing. You take one step, your child takes another. I have discovered that getting parents to rededicate themselves to their children is only half the story. The other half is preparing the children to reaccept their parents. |
