JK罗琳在2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

2015-03-13 14:52:24来源：网络

　　So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away ofthe inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, andbegan to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I reallysucceeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the onearena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised,and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter anda big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

　　那么为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢?因为失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。我因此不再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。

　　You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible tolive without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not havelived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

　　你们可能永远没有达到我经历的那种失败程度，但有些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。

　　Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failuretaught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had astrong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friendswhose value was truly above the price of rubies.

　　失败使我的内心产生一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。

　　The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are,ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strengthof your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift,for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I everearned.

　　从挫折中获得智慧、变得坚强，意味着你比以往任何时候都更有能力生存。只有在逆境来临的时候，你才会真正认识你自己，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。

　　So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowingthat life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, arenot your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Lifeis difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to knowthat will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

　　如果给我一部时间机器，我会告诉21岁的自己，人的幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成绩单，你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。

　　You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of thepart it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I will defend the value ofbedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, andtherefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative andrevelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whoseexperiences we have never shared.

　　对于第二个主题的选择——想象力的重要性——你们可能会认为是因为它对我重建生活起到了帮助，但事实并非完全如此。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。

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