President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates:
尊敬的福斯特校长，哈佛集团的各位成员，监督理事会的各位理事，各位老师，各位自豪的家长，尤其是毕业生们：
The first thing I would like to say is "thank you". Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I've endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world's largest Gryffindors' reunion.
首先请允许我说一声谢谢。哈佛不仅给了我至高无上的荣誉，连日来一想到要发表这个毕业演说所经受的恐惧和紧张，更令我减肥成功。这真是“双赢”。现在，我只需要深呼吸几次，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，然后安慰自己，让自己相信我正在参加世界上最大的魔法学院聚会。
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormourly in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
发表毕业演说责任重大。至少我回想我当年的毕业典礼时是这么认为的。那天致辞的是英国著名的哲学家玛丽·沃诺克男爵夫人（编者注：玛丽·沃诺克男爵夫人，教育家，哲学家，存在主义作家，曾先后任职于牛津大学和剑桥大学，终身贵族）。回想她的演讲，对我完成这篇演讲稿有极大的帮助，因为我已完全不记得她当时讲了什么。这让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你们，使你们放弃在商业、法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
