ココネ なう。

スタンフォード大学のウェブサイト に掲載されている原稿をもとに、
原稿にはないのにスピーチで語られた部分は下線付きで、
原稿にはあるのにスピーチからから抜けてしまった語はカッコ内に表示しました。。

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.

Truth be told, I never graduated from college.
(Truth be told,) This is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.

That's it.
No big deal.
Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months,
but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.
So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born.

My biological mother was a young, unwed (college) graduate student,
and she decided to put me up for adoption.

She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,
so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.
Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night,
asking:“We have got an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?”

They said: “Of course.”

My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college
and that my father had never graduated from high school.

She refused to sign the final adoption papers.
She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would (someday) go to college.
This was the start in my life.


And 17 years later I did go to college.

But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford,
and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.

After six months, I couldn't see the value in it.
I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.
And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.

So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.

It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me,
and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn't all romantic.
I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms,
I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with,
and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.

I loved it.

And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
Let me give you one example:


Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.
Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.

Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes,
I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations,
about what makes great typography great.

It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.

But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.
And we designed it all into the Mac.
It was the first computer with beautiful typography.

If I had never dropped in on that single course in college,
the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class,
and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.
But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward;you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever
Because believing the dots will connect down the road,
will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even it leads you off the well-worn path.
And that will make all the difference.

(This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.)

こんばんは。

みなさん、Steve Jobs って知っていますか？
i-phone や i-pad を世に送り出しているApple 社の CEOですね。
今は、アップル社の業務範囲を従来型のパソコンからメディア配信事業へと拡大させています。
彼は、年間で１ドルの収入で、世界でもっとも給与が安い世界的な企業家といわれています。
ディズニーの筆頭株主だったりして、お金はたくさんもっているんでしょうね。

さて、この Steve Jobs は、
2006年だったと思いますが、Stanford University での卒業式で有名な演説をしています。*1
ご存知の方も多いかと思います。
Stay hungry. Stay foolish. というコトバで締めくくったスピーチです。

今日は、そのスピーチを取り上げたいと思います。
メモ帳機能を利用しながら、スピーチを紹介していくので、やや手間どるかもしれませんが、始めましょう。


2005年の commencement speech でした。
commencement というのは、大学レベル以上での卒業式のことで、学位授与式を含んでいます。

おもしろい表現ですね。
commencement とは。
始まりというのが commence という動詞だということを考えると。

さて、こんな始まりでした。

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world.

もちろん、Stanford Univ. はアメリカが誇る大学で、
one of the finest universities in the world であることは間違いないですね。
一流大学のことを topnotch universities ということがよくあります。

次に、こんな表現をしています。

Truth be told, I never graduated from college.

この Truth be told は「正直なところ」といった意味合いです。
彼自身は大学を卒業していないんですね。

そして、続けて、

This is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.

と表現し、聴衆から笑いを誘います。
大学の卒業に一番近づいた機会が今だ、という感じです。
そして、パンチの効いた表現で続けます。

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life.

That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

これはとてもキャジュアルな言い方ですね。
No big deal. とは「たいしたことではない」といった感じで、
実は、これから展開される３つの話はどれも意味深で人生を考えさせられるものばかりです。
なのに、

No big deal.

Just three stories.

と言うことで、聴衆を引き込む効果を生んでいます。
で、最初の話として、次のように言います。

The first story is about connecting the dots.

connecting the dots は彼のスピーチを有名にしたフレーズです。
点を結ぶ、ということですね。
もちろん、この段階で、connecting the dots の意味は聞き手にはわかりません。

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months,

いきなり、リード大学を中退したんだ、という話をします。そして、

but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit.
So why did I drop out?

何ヶ月かは聴講生として大学に残ったということが語られます。
ここから話は展開します。
しばらく、Steve Jobs の英語に耳を傾けてみましょう。

It started before I was born.
My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student,
and she decided to put me up for adoption.

実際、彼の生みの母親は大学院生で、アブダルファン・ジャンダリという名前でした。
そして、彼は養子に出されるのです。

She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates,
so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife.

すべて順調に進み、弁護士夫妻の養子になる予定でしたが、

Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl.

弁護士夫妻は女の子を養子にしたかったんですね。
それで、この話はご破算になり、

So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night.

ここでいう my parents とは、養子先の夫婦を指しています。
そして彼らは waiting list（待ちのリスト）に名前が載っており、真夜中に電話を受けたんですね。

got a call in the middle of the night asking:
“We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?”

これは生みの母が伝えた内容です。

They said: “Of course.”
My biological mother later found out

でも生みの母が何を発見したかといえば、

that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school.

生みの母は大学卒の人たちを希望していたのに、養子先の母は大学を卒業しておらず、
父親にいたっては高校も卒業していない、このことが判明します。

She refused to sign the final adoption papers.

でも、

She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

relent はむずかしい動詞ですが、気持ちを和らげる、という意味で、ここで「譲歩した」といった感じですね。

その条件は、Steve Jobs を大学に行かせるという約束です。
でも、先ほど、Steve 自身、大学を中退したこと、
そして、点と点が繋がるということを話しています。
この時点で、聞き手は何が起こったのだろうと関心を高めます。

そこで、Jobs は次のように言います。

And 17 years later I did go to college.
But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford,

naively とは「深く考えないで」という意味合いであり、日本語のナイーブとはだいぶ意味が異なります。
つまり、あまり考えないで、スタンフォードと同じぐらい授業料の高い大学を選んだ、と言っています。

and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition.

そうりゃそうですよね。
労働階級の両親がためた貯金はほとんど授業料にとられるのです。
そこで、

After six months, I couldn't see the value in it.

大学に価値を見出せない、

I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out.

将来どうしたいのか、わからない。
そして、大学にもその答えは期待できない。
こんな気持ちになったんですね。

And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life.
So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK.

中退しても、なんとかなるだろうということに trust した、これは楽観主義ですね。

It was pretty scary at the time,

実際に、恐れがないわけではなかったんですね。

but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

でも、振り返ってみて、それが人生で最高の選択だった、と回想しています。
どんな生活ぶりだったかといえば、

The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me,
and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

中退したからには、興味のない授業はとる必要がなく、興味のあるものだけ、聴講をしたんですね。

It wasn't all romantic.

でもそうした生活はあまりロマンティックではなかった。

どうだったかと言えば、

I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms,
I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with,
and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.

部屋はないので、友だちのところで寝たり、コーカコーラのビンを返却して５セントをもらって食べる足しにしたり、
Hare Krishna という仏教団体が提供する食事のため何マイルも歩いたといった感じです。
Hare Krishna は Beetles の George Harrison が強い影響を受けた宗教団体です。
そんな生活を

I loved it.

と表現し、

And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

直観によってやってきたことが、後に priceless な価値を持つ、と述べています。

Let me give you one example:

この例が connecting the dots と繋がります。
しばらく、英語だけを読んでください。

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country.
Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed.
Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this.

calligraphy は日本では「書道」にあたりますが、英語にも似たものがあるんですね。
いろんな字体で書く、古風な英語などはその典型例です。

I learned about serif and san serif typefaces,

セリフは印刷用語です。

about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great.
It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

英語の書体に魅せられたのですね。

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.
But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.
And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography.

If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts.
And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them.

Reed 大学での好き勝手に聴講した calligraphy の授業がなければ、美しいタイプ文字のマックもなく、
そして、Windows はマックの模倣なので、いまや、マック的な字体がＰＣの主流になっている。

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class,
and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward

ここからが１つの結論です。

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.
But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward;you can only connect them looking

So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever This approach has never let me down,
and it has made all the difference in my life.

これで第一話は終わります。

第二話と第三話はまた別の機会にやりましょう。
改めて読んでみると、計算され尽くしたすばらしいスピーチで、
おそらくベスト１０に入るものだと確信します。
youtube で実際のスピーチを聞くことができるので、試してみてくださいね。
では、今日は、これで終わります。

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