第一篇：哈弗大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮羅琳講話

演講稿 工作總結(jié) 調(diào)研報(bào)告 講話稿 事跡材料 心得體會(huì) 策劃方案

哈弗大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮羅琳講話

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination Harvard University Commencement Address J.K.Rowling Tercentenary Theatre, June 5, 2008 失敗的好處和想象力的重要性 哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮 J.K.羅琳 2008年6月5日

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers，members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates，福斯特主席，哈佛公司和監(jiān)察委員會(huì)的各位成員，各位老師、家長、全體畢業(yè)生們：

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

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the world’s largest Gryffindors' reunion.首先請(qǐng)?jiān)试S我說一聲謝謝。哈佛不僅給了我無上的榮譽(yù)，連日來為這個(gè)演講經(jīng)受的恐懼和緊張，更令我減肥成功。這真是一個(gè)雙贏的局面。現(xiàn)在我要做的就是深呼吸幾下，瞇著眼睛看看前面的大紅橫幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法學(xué)院聚會(huì)上。

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 enormously 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.發(fā)表畢業(yè)演說是一個(gè)巨大的責(zé)任，至少在我回憶自己當(dāng)年的畢業(yè)典禮前是這么認(rèn)為的。那天做演講的是英國著名的哲學(xué)家Baroness Mary Warnock，對(duì)她演講的回憶，對(duì)我寫今天的演講稿，產(chǎn)生了極大的幫助，因?yàn)槲也挥浀盟f過的任何一句話了。這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)讓我釋然，讓我不再擔(dān)心我可能會(huì)無意中影響你放棄在商業(yè)，法律或政治上的大好前途，轉(zhuǎn)而醉心于成為一個(gè)快樂的魔法師。

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock.Achievable goals-

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the first step to self-improvement.你們看，如果在若干年后你們還記得“快樂的魔法師”這個(gè)笑話，那就證明我已經(jīng)超越了Baroness Mary Warnock。建立可實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)——這是提高自我的第一步。

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.實(shí)際上，我為今天應(yīng)該和大家談些什么絞盡了腦汁。我問自己什么是我希望早在畢業(yè)典禮上就該了解的，而從那時(shí)起到現(xiàn)在的21年間，我又得到了什么重要的啟示。

I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.我想到了兩個(gè)答案。在這美好的一天，當(dāng)我們一起慶祝你們?nèi)〉脤W(xué)業(yè)成就的時(shí)刻，我希望告訴你們失敗有什么樣的益處；在你們即將邁向“現(xiàn)實(shí)生活”的道路之際，我還要褒揚(yáng)想象力的重要性。These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but bear with me.這些似乎是不切實(shí)際或自相矛盾的選擇，但請(qǐng)先容我講完。Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly

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uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.回顧21歲剛剛畢業(yè)時(shí)的自己，對(duì)于今天42歲的我來說，是一個(gè)稍微不太舒服的經(jīng)歷。可以說，我人生的前一部分，一直掙扎在自己的雄心和身邊的人對(duì)我的期望之間。

I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that could never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.我一直深信，自己唯一想做的事情，就是寫小說。不過，我的父母，他們都來自貧窮的背景，沒有任何一人上過大學(xué)，堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為我過度的想象力是一個(gè)令人驚訝的個(gè)人怪癖，根本不足以讓我支付按揭，或者取得足夠的養(yǎng)老金。

I know the irony strikes like with the force of a cartoon anvil now, but… 我現(xiàn)在明白反諷就像用卡通鐵砧去打擊你，但...They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree;I wanted to study English Literature.A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.精心收集

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他們希望我去拿個(gè)職業(yè)學(xué)位，而我想去攻讀英國文學(xué)。最后，達(dá)成了一個(gè)雙方都不甚滿意的妥協(xié)：我改學(xué)現(xiàn)代語言。可是等到父母一走開，我立刻放棄了德語而報(bào)名學(xué)習(xí)古典文學(xué)。

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.我不記得將這事告訴了父母，他們可能是在我畢業(yè)典禮那一天才發(fā)現(xiàn)的。我想，在全世界的所有專業(yè)中，他們也許認(rèn)為，不會(huì)有比研究希臘神話更沒用的專業(yè)了，根本無法換來一間獨(dú)立寬敞的衛(wèi)生間。I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression;it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.精心收集

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我想澄清一下：我不會(huì)因?yàn)楦改傅挠^點(diǎn)，而責(zé)怪他們。埋怨父母給你指錯(cuò)方向是有一個(gè)時(shí)間段的。當(dāng)你成長到可以控制自我方向的時(shí)候，你就要自己承擔(dān)責(zé)任了。尤其是，我不會(huì)因?yàn)楦改赶Ｍ也灰^窮日子，而責(zé)怪他們。他們一直很貧窮，我后來也一度很窮，所以我很理解他們。貧窮并不是一種高貴的經(jīng)歷，它帶來恐懼、壓力、有時(shí)還有絕望，它意味著許許多多的羞辱和艱辛。靠自己的努力擺脫貧窮，確實(shí)可以引以自豪，但貧窮本身只有對(duì)傻瓜而言才是浪漫的。What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.我在你們這個(gè)年齡，最害怕的不是貧窮，而是失敗。

At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.我在您們這么大時(shí)，明顯缺乏在大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)的動(dòng)力，我花了太久時(shí)間在咖啡吧寫故事，而在課堂的時(shí)間卻很少。我有一個(gè)通過考試的訣竅，并且數(shù)年間一直讓我在大學(xué)生活和同齡人中不落人后。

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak.Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.我不想愚蠢地假設(shè)，因?yàn)槟銈兡贻p、有天份，并且受過良好的教育，精心收集

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就從來沒有遇到困難或心碎的時(shí)刻。擁有才華和智慧，從來不會(huì)使人對(duì)命運(yùn)的反復(fù)無常有所準(zhǔn)備；我也不會(huì)假設(shè)大家坐在這里冷靜地滿足于自身的優(yōu)越感。

However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.相反，你們是哈佛畢業(yè)生的這個(gè)事實(shí)，意味著你們并不很了解失敗。你們也許極其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失敗。說實(shí)話，你們眼中的失敗，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，畢竟你們?cè)趯W(xué)業(yè)上已經(jīng)達(dá)到很高的高度了。

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.最終，我們所有人都必須自己決定什么算作失敗，但如果你愿意，世

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界是相當(dāng)渴望給你一套標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的。所以我承認(rèn)命運(yùn)的公平，從任何傳統(tǒng)的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)看，在我畢業(yè)僅僅七年后的日子里，我的失敗達(dá)到了史詩般空前的規(guī)模：短命的婚姻閃電般地破裂，我又失業(yè)成了一個(gè)艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當(dāng)代英國最窮的人之一，真的一無所有。當(dāng)年父母和我自己對(duì)未來的擔(dān)憂，現(xiàn)在都變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。按照慣常的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來看，我也是我所知道的最失敗的人。

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.現(xiàn)在，我不打算站在這里告訴你們，失敗是有趣的。那段日子是我生命中的黑暗歲月，我不知道它是否代表童話故事里需要?dú)v經(jīng)的磨難，更不知道自己還要在黑暗中走多久。很長一段時(shí)間里，前面留給我的只是希望，而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive，精心收集

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and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.那么為什么我要談?wù)撌〉暮锰幠兀恳驗(yàn)槭∫馕吨鴦冸x掉那些不必要的東西。我因此不再偽裝自己、遠(yuǎn)離自我，而重新開始把所有精力放在對(duì)我最重要的事情上。如果不是沒有在其他領(lǐng)域成功過，我可能就不會(huì)找到，在一個(gè)我確信真正屬于的舞臺(tái)上取得成功的決心。我獲得了自由，因?yàn)樽詈ε碌碾m然已經(jīng)發(fā)生了，但我還活著，我仍然有一個(gè)我深愛的女兒，我還有一個(gè)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成為我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。

You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.你們可能永遠(yuǎn)沒有達(dá)到我經(jīng)歷的那種失敗程度，但有些失敗，在生活中是不可避免的。生活不可能沒有一點(diǎn)失敗，除非你生活的萬般小心，而那也意味著你沒有真正在生活了。無論怎樣，有些失敗還是注定地要發(fā)生。

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected;I also found out that I had friends whose

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value was truly above rubies.失敗使我的內(nèi)心產(chǎn)生一種安全感，這是我從考試中沒有得到過的。失敗讓我看清自己，這也是我通過其他方式無法體會(huì)的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我比自己認(rèn)為的，要有更強(qiáng)的意志和決心。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，我擁有比寶石更加珍貴的朋友。

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 strength of 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 ever earned.從挫折中獲得智慧、變得堅(jiān)強(qiáng)，意味著你比以往任何時(shí)候都更有能力生存。只有在逆境來臨的時(shí)候，你才會(huì)真正認(rèn)識(shí)你自己，了解身邊的人。這種了解是真正的財(cái)富，雖然是用痛苦換來的，但比我以前得到的任何資格證書都有用。

Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.如果給我一部時(shí)間機(jī)器，我會(huì)告訴21歲的自己，人的幸福在于知道

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生活不是一份漂亮的成績單，你的資歷、簡(jiǎn)歷，都不是你的生活，雖然你會(huì)碰到很多與我同齡或更老一點(diǎn)的人今天依然還在混淆兩者。生活是艱辛的，復(fù)雜的，超出任何人的控制能力，而謙恭地了解這一點(diǎn)，將使你歷經(jīng)滄桑后能夠更好的生存。

You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I will defend the value of bedtime 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, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.對(duì)于第二個(gè)主題的選擇——想象力的重要性——你們可能會(huì)認(rèn)為是因?yàn)樗鼘?duì)我重建生活起到了幫助，但事實(shí)并非完全如此。雖然我愿誓死捍衛(wèi)睡前要給孩子講故事的價(jià)值觀，我對(duì)想象力的理解已經(jīng)有了更廣泛的含義。想象力不僅僅是人類設(shè)想還不存在的事物這種獨(dú)特的能力，為所有發(fā)明和創(chuàng)新提供源泉，它還是人類改造和揭露現(xiàn)實(shí)的能力，使我們同情自己不曾經(jīng)受的他人苦難。

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.精心收集

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Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London.其中一個(gè)影響最大的經(jīng)歷發(fā)生在我寫哈利波特之前，為我隨后寫書提供了很多想法。這些想法成形于我早期的工作經(jīng)歷，在20多歲時(shí)，盡管我可以在午餐時(shí)間里悄悄寫故事，可為了付房租，我做的主要工作是在倫敦總部的大赦國際研究部門。

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them.I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends.I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.在我的小辦公室，我看到了人們匆匆寫的信件，它們是從極權(quán)主義政權(quán)被偷送出來的。那些人冒著被監(jiān)禁的危險(xiǎn)，告知外面的世界他們那里正在發(fā)生的事情。我看到了那些無跡可尋的人的照片，它們是被那些絕望的家人和朋友送來的。我看過拷問受害者的證詞和被害的照片。我打開過手寫的目擊證詞，描述綁架和強(qiáng)奸犯的審判和處決。Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the

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temerity to think independently of their government.Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those who they had left behind.我有很多的同事是前政治犯，他們已離開家園流離失所，或逃亡流放，因?yàn)樗麄兏矣趹岩烧ⅹ?dú)立思考。來我們辦公室的訪客，包括那些前來提供信息，或想設(shè)法知道那些被迫留下的同志發(fā)生了什么事的人。I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.我將永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)忘記一個(gè)非洲酷刑的受害者，一名當(dāng)時(shí)還沒有我大的年輕男子，他因在故鄉(xiāng)的經(jīng)歷而精神錯(cuò)亂。在攝像機(jī)前講述被殘暴地摧殘的時(shí)候，他顫抖失控。他比我高一英尺，卻看上去像一個(gè)脆弱的兒童。我被安排隨后護(hù)送他到地鐵站，這名生活已被殘酷地打亂的男子，小心翼翼地握著我的手，祝我未來生活幸福。

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the

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researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.只要我活著，我還會(huì)記得，在一個(gè)空蕩蕩的的走廊，突然從背后的門里，傳來我從未聽過的痛苦和恐懼的尖叫。門打開了，調(diào)查員探出頭請(qǐng)求我，為坐在她旁邊的青年男子，調(diào)一杯熱飲料。她剛剛給他的消息是，為了報(bào)復(fù)他對(duì)國家政權(quán)的批評(píng)，他的母親已經(jīng)被捕并執(zhí)行了槍決。

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.在我20多歲的那段日子，每一天的工作，都在提醒我自己是多么幸運(yùn)。生活在一個(gè)民選政府的國家，依法申述與公開審理，是所有人的權(quán)利。

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.每一天，我都能看到更多有關(guān)惡人的證據(jù)，他們?yōu)榱双@得或維持權(quán)力，對(duì)自己的同胞犯下暴行。我開始做噩夢(mèng)，真正意義上的噩夢(mèng)，全都和

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我所見所聞?dòng)嘘P(guān)。

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.同時(shí)在這里我也了解到更多關(guān)于人類的善良，比我以前想象的要多很多。

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.大赦動(dòng)員成千上萬沒有因?yàn)閭€(gè)人信仰而受到折磨或監(jiān)禁的人，去為那些遭受這種不幸的人奔走。人類同理心的力量，引發(fā)集體行動(dòng)，拯救生命，解放囚犯。個(gè)人的福祉和安全有保證的普通百姓，攜手合作，大量挽救那些他們素不相識(shí)，也許永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)見面的人。我用自己微薄的力量參與了這一過程，也獲得了更大的啟發(fā)。

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.不同于在這個(gè)星球上任何其他的動(dòng)物，人類可以學(xué)習(xí)和理解未曾經(jīng)歷過的東西。他們可以將心比心、設(shè)身處地的理解他人。

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Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.當(dāng)然，這種能力，就像在我虛構(gòu)的魔法世界里一樣，在道德上是中立的。一個(gè)人可能會(huì)利用這種能力去操縱控制，也有人選擇去了解同情。And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages;they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;they can refuse to know.而很多人選擇不去使用他們的想象力。他們選擇留在自己舒適的世界里，從來不愿花力氣去想想如果生在別處會(huì)怎樣。他們可以拒絕去聽別人的尖叫，看一眼囚禁的籠子；他們可以封閉自己的內(nèi)心，只要痛苦不觸及個(gè)人，他們可以拒絕去了解。

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do.Choosing to live in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.我可能會(huì)受到誘惑，去嫉妒那樣生活的人。但我不認(rèn)為他們做的噩夢(mèng)會(huì)比我更少。選擇生活在狹窄的空間，可以導(dǎo)致不敢面對(duì)開闊的視野，精心收集

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給自己帶來恐懼感。我認(rèn)為不愿展開想像的人會(huì)看到更多的怪獸，他們往往更感到更害怕。

What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.更甚的是，那些選擇不去同情的人，可能會(huì)激活真正的怪獸。因?yàn)楸M管自己沒有犯下罪惡，我們卻通過冷漠與之勾結(jié)。

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.我18歲開始從古典文學(xué)中汲取許多知識(shí)，其中之一當(dāng)時(shí)并不完全理解，那就是希臘作家普魯塔克所說：我們內(nèi)心獲得的，將改變外在的現(xiàn)實(shí)。

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people's lives simply by existing.那是一個(gè)驚人的論斷，在我們生活的每一天里被無數(shù)次證實(shí)。它指明我們與外部世界有無法脫離的聯(lián)系，我們以自身的存在接觸著他人的生命。

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch

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other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world's only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.但是，哈佛大學(xué)的2008屆畢業(yè)生們，你們多少人有可能去觸及他人的生命？你們的智慧，你們努力工作的能力，以及你們所受到的教育，給予你們獨(dú)特的地位和責(zé)任。甚至你們的國籍也讓你們與眾不同，你們絕大部份人屬于這個(gè)世界上唯一的超級(jí)大國。你們表決的方式，你們生活的方式，你們抗議的方式，你們給政府帶來的壓力，具有超乎尋常的影響力。這是你們的特權(quán)，也是你們的責(zé)任。

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better.We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.精心收集

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演講稿 工作總結(jié) 調(diào)研報(bào)告 講話稿 事跡材料 心得體會(huì) 策劃方案

如果你選擇利用自己的地位和影響，去為那些沒有發(fā)言權(quán)的人發(fā)出聲音；如果你選擇不僅與強(qiáng)者為伍，還會(huì)同情幫扶弱者；如果你會(huì)設(shè)身處地為不如你的人著想，那么你的存在，將不僅是你家人的驕傲，更是無數(shù)因?yàn)槟愕膸椭淖兠\(yùn)的成千上萬人的驕傲。我們不需要改變世界的魔法，我們自己的內(nèi)心就有這種力量：那就是我們一直在夢(mèng)想，讓這個(gè)世界變得更美好。

I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children's godparents, the people to whom I've been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I've used their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.我的演講要接近尾聲了。對(duì)你們，我有最后一個(gè)希望，也是我21歲時(shí)就有的。畢業(yè)那天坐在我身邊的朋友現(xiàn)在是我終身的摯交，他們是我孩子的教父母，是在我遇到麻煩時(shí)愿意伸出援手，在我用他們的名字給哈利波特中的“食死徒”起名而不會(huì)起訴我的朋友。我們?cè)诋厴I(yè)典禮時(shí)坐在了一起，因?yàn)槲覀冴P(guān)系親密，擁有共同的永遠(yuǎn)無法再來的經(jīng)歷，當(dāng)然，也因?yàn)榧傧胍俏覀冎械娜魏稳烁?jìng)選首相，那照片將是極為寶貴的關(guān)系證明。

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演講稿 工作總結(jié) 調(diào)研報(bào)告 講話稿 事跡材料 心得體會(huì) 策劃方案

So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: 所以今天我可以給你們的，沒有比擁有知己更好的祝福了。明天，我希望即使你們不記得我說的任何一個(gè)字，你們還能記得哲學(xué)家塞內(nèi)加的一句至理明言。我當(dāng)年沒有順著事業(yè)的階梯向上攀爬，轉(zhuǎn)而與他在古典文學(xué)的殿堂相遇，他的古老智慧給了我人生的啟迪： As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.生活就像故事一樣：不在乎長短，而在于質(zhì)量，這才是最重要的。I wish you all very good lives.我祝愿你們都有美好的生活。Thank you very much.非常感謝大家。

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第二篇：jk羅琳在哈弗大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講

她的演講題目是《失敗的好處和想象的重要性》（The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination）。我讀了一遍講稿，覺得很好，很感染人。她幾乎沒有談到哈里波特，而是說了年輕時(shí)的一些經(jīng)歷。雖然J·K·羅琳現(xiàn)在很有錢，是英國僅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾經(jīng)有一段非常艱辛的日子，30歲了，還差點(diǎn)流落街頭。她主要談的是，自己從這段經(jīng)歷中學(xué)到的東西。去年的演講嘉賓是比爾·蓋茨，我翻譯了他的演講，影響挺大。今年，我繼續(xù)翻譯，有興趣的朋友可以在網(wǎng)上找到原文和視頻。

二、她首先說了自己如何構(gòu)思演講稿，以及選擇的兩個(gè)演講主題。

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.福斯特校長，哈佛集團(tuán)的各位成員，監(jiān)管理事會(huì)的各位理事，各位老師，各位自豪的家長，以及最重要的各位畢業(yè)生同學(xué)，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 have 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 Gryffindor reunion.我想說的第一句話，就是“謝謝”。不僅因?yàn)楣鸾o了我這樣非同一般的榮譽(yù)，還因?yàn)闉榱藰?gòu)思今天的演講，我忍受了幾個(gè)星期的擔(dān)驚受怕、茶飯不思的生 活，使得我體重減輕。這真可謂“雙贏”啊！現(xiàn)在，我唯一要做的就是深呼吸，偷偷看一眼四周飄揚(yáng)的紅色旗幟，讓自己相信真的來到了世界上最大的“格蘭芬多” 聚會(huì)。

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 enormously 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, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.在畢業(yè)典禮上發(fā)表演講，是一項(xiàng)巨大的責(zé)任，令我倍感壓力。直到我回憶起了自己的畢業(yè)典禮，才稍稍放松。那一次的演講嘉賓是杰出的英國哲學(xué)家瑪麗·沃 諾克。回想她的演講，極大地幫助我寫作自己的演講稿，因?yàn)槲野l(fā)現(xiàn)一點(diǎn)也不記得她的任何一句話了。這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)讓我如釋重負(fù)，不再害怕自己在不經(jīng)意間就對(duì)你們產(chǎn) 生影響，讓你們放棄在商業(yè)、法律、政治方面的大好前途，去追求成為一個(gè)快樂巫師的那種令人眩暈的愉悅。

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.你們明白嗎？如果多年以后，你們只記得我講的這個(gè)“快樂巫師”的笑話，我就已經(jīng)超過瑪麗·沃諾克了。可以實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)，是自己改進(jìn)的第一步。

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.實(shí)際上，我真的是絞盡腦汁，思索今天自己到底應(yīng)該講什么。我問自己，當(dāng)年我畢業(yè)的時(shí)候，希望知道哪些事情；以及21年后的今天，我又從人生中得到哪些重要的經(jīng)驗(yàn)教訓(xùn)。

I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called 'real life', I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.我得到了兩個(gè)回答。這個(gè)美妙的日子，我們聚集一堂，慶祝你們?cè)趯W(xué)業(yè)上的成功，但是我決定跟你們說說失敗的好處。以及當(dāng)你們站在所謂“真實(shí)世界”的門檻之上的時(shí)候，我要頌揚(yáng)想象力的重要性。

These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.這樣的主題可能看上去有點(diǎn)異想天開和自相矛盾，但是請(qǐng)聽下去。

三、她開始回憶自己大學(xué)畢業(yè)時(shí)的情景：

Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.對(duì)于一個(gè)42歲的婦女來說，回想自己21歲畢業(yè)時(shí)的情景，是一種稍稍令人不安的經(jīng)歷。回到21年之前，我正遭受煎熬，不知道在自己內(nèi)心的追求與父母對(duì)我的期望之間，應(yīng)該如何平衡。I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.當(dāng)時(shí)，我確信自己一生中唯一想做的事情，就是去寫小說。但是，我的父母出身貧寒，沒有受過大學(xué)教育。他們認(rèn)為，我那些不安分的想象力只是一種怪癖，根本不能用來還房貸，或者掙來養(yǎng)老金。我現(xiàn)在知道，這種人生的反諷，有著卡通片里大鐵砧般的巨大打擊力。So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree;I wanted to study English Literature.A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.他們希望我再去讀個(gè)職業(yè)學(xué)位，而我想去研究英國文學(xué)。最后，達(dá)成了一個(gè)雙方都不甚滿意的妥協(xié)：我改學(xué)語言學(xué)。可是等到父母的車消失在公路的轉(zhuǎn)角，我就立刻拋掉了德語，奔向古典文學(xué)的道路。

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.我不記得將這事告訴了父母。他們可能是在畢業(yè)典禮那一天才發(fā)現(xiàn)的。我想，在全世界的所有專業(yè)中，他們也許認(rèn)為，不會(huì)有比研究希臘神話更沒用的專業(yè)了，根本無法換來一間獨(dú)立的寬敞衛(wèi)生間。

I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression;it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.我要申明，我并不責(zé)怪父母有這種看法。父母只在一段時(shí)間內(nèi)，對(duì)你的人生方向負(fù)責(zé)；當(dāng)你長大以后，你自己就控制了人生方向，必須自己承擔(dān)責(zé)任。而且，他們只是希望我不要過窮日子，我不能批評(píng)他們。他們自己很窮，我后來一度也很窮，所以我很理解他們，貧窮是一種悲慘的經(jīng)歷。它帶來恐懼、壓力、有時(shí)還有抑 郁。它意味著許許多多的羞辱和艱辛。靠自己的努力擺脫貧窮，確實(shí)讓人自豪，但是只有傻瓜才會(huì)將貧窮本身浪漫化。接著，她談到了自己那些最悲慘的日子：

A mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.我畢業(yè)后只過了7年，就失敗得一塌糊涂。

An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.短命的婚姻閃電般地破裂，我還失業(yè)了，成了一個(gè)艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當(dāng)代英國最窮的人之一，真的一無所有。我父母對(duì)我的擔(dān)憂，我對(duì)自己的擔(dān)憂，都變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。用平常人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，我是我所知道的最失敗的人。

That period of my life was a dark one.I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.那段日子是我生命中的黑暗歲月。我不知道還要在黑暗中走多久，很長一段時(shí)間中，我有的只是希望，而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。

但是，J.K.羅琳認(rèn)為，沒有那段日子的失敗，就不會(huì)有后來的她。

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.為什么我說失敗是有好處的？因?yàn)槭⒛切┓潜举|(zhì)的東西都剝離了。我不再偽裝自己，我找到了真正的我，我將自己所有的精力，投入完成對(duì)我最重要的唯一一項(xiàng)工作。

Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.要是我以前在其他地方成功了，那么我也許永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)有這樣的決心，投身于這個(gè)我自信真正屬于我的領(lǐng)域。

I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.我自由了，因?yàn)槲易畲蟮目謶忠呀?jīng)成為現(xiàn)實(shí)，而我卻還依然活著，依然有一個(gè)深愛著的女兒，我還有一臺(tái)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)大大的夢(mèng)想。我生命中最低的低點(diǎn)，成為我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected;I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.失敗使我的內(nèi)心產(chǎn)生一種安全感，以前通過考試也沒有的安全感。失敗讓我看清自己，以前我從沒認(rèn)識(shí)到自己是這樣的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我比自己以為的，有更強(qiáng)的意志和決心。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，我有一些比寶石更珍貴的朋友。

You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of 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 ever earned.只有到逆境來臨的那一天，你才會(huì)真正了解你自己，了解你結(jié)識(shí)的人。這種了解是真正的財(cái)富，雖然是用痛苦換來的，但是它比我以前得到的任何證書都有用。

在演說的下半部分，她還談了畢業(yè)后在大*赦*國*際（Amnesty International）倫敦總部的第一份工作。這部分內(nèi)容也很精彩，不過我就不翻譯了，大家可以去看原文。

三、我要重點(diǎn)談的，是演說的結(jié)尾部分。

一般來說，在演講結(jié)束時(shí)，嘉賓將對(duì)畢業(yè)生提出期望。我們可以看到，在這種場(chǎng)合，幾乎所有嘉賓，都沒有說“祝愿同學(xué)們?nèi)〉脗€(gè)人成功”，而是說“希望同學(xué)們努力去減輕人類的苦難”。比爾·蓋茨去年說：

Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world's worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty...the prevalence of world hunger...the scarcity of clean water...the girls kept out of school...the children who die from diseases we can cure? 哈佛是否鼓勵(lì)她的老師去研究解決世界上最嚴(yán)重的不平等？哈佛的學(xué)生是否從全球那些極端的貧窮中學(xué)到了什么......世界性的饑荒......清潔的水資源的缺乏......無法上學(xué)的女童......死于非惡性疾病的兒童......哈佛的學(xué)生有沒有從中學(xué)到東西？

Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?

那些世界上過著最優(yōu)越生活的人們，有沒有從那些最困難的人們身上學(xué)到東西？ These are not rhetorical questionsin talent, privilege, and opportunity-there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.想一想吧，我們?cè)谶@個(gè)院子里的這些人，被給予過什么----天賦、特權(quán)、機(jī)遇----那么可以這樣說，全世界的人們幾乎有無限的權(quán)力，期待我們做出貢獻(xiàn)。J.K.羅琳今年說：

the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.你們是哈佛畢業(yè)生的這個(gè)事實(shí)，說明你們并不很了解失敗。你們也許極其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失敗。說實(shí)話，你們眼中的失敗，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，畢竟你們?cè)趯W(xué)業(yè)上已經(jīng)很成功了。

But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.......That is your privilege, and your burden.但是，所有各位哈佛大學(xué)2008屆畢業(yè)生，你們對(duì)其他人的生活了解多少？你們的智慧、你們的能力、你們所受的教育，給了你們獨(dú)一無二的優(yōu)勢(shì)，也給了你們獨(dú)一無二的責(zé)任。......你們的優(yōu)勢(shì)就是你們的責(zé)任。

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better.你們要用自己的地位和影響，為那些被忽略的人們說話；你們不僅要看到那些有權(quán)有勢(shì)者，也要看到那些無權(quán)無勢(shì)者；你們要學(xué)會(huì)設(shè)想，那些條件不如你們的人們是如何生活的；那樣的話，不僅你們的親人們將為你們感到自豪，而且千千萬萬的人們將因?yàn)槟銈兊膸椭畹酶谩?/p>

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.我們不需要改變世界的魔法，我們自己的體內(nèi)就有這樣的力量：那就是我們一直在夢(mèng)想，讓這個(gè)世界變得更美好

第三篇：JK羅琳在哈弗的演講

J.K.羅琳2008哈佛畢業(yè)典禮演講

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.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 have 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 Gryffindor reunion.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 enormously 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, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become.Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels.However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree;I wanted to study English Literature.A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages.Hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction;the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty.They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression;it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak.Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high have you already flown.Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun.That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena 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 and a big idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected;I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.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 strength of 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 than any qualification I ever earned.So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime 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, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them.I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends.I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people’s places.Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are.They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages;they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally;they can refuse to know.I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do.Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice;if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless;if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change.We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.I wish you all very good lives.Thank you very much.

第四篇：哈弗大學(xué)

美國哈佛大學(xué)簡(jiǎn)介（圖）

摘要：哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard University）成立于1636年，是美國歷史最悠久的高等學(xué)府。哈佛大學(xué)位于美國馬薩諸塞州劍橋城。哈佛大學(xué)是一所私立大學(xué)，是知名的“常春藤盟校”的八大成員之一。

不知道有多少憧憬美國名校的申請(qǐng)人都有著自己的“哈佛夢(mèng)”，夢(mèng)想著自己有一天能夠穿上代表哈佛的深紅色衣服，徜徉在劍橋城的哈佛校園內(nèi)，手捧書本坐在草坪上。哈佛大學(xué)意味著頂級(jí)學(xué)術(shù)環(huán)境，意味著世界一流的教育，意味著高起點(diǎn)和美好的前程。

哈佛大學(xué)（Harvard University）成立于1636年，是美國歷史最悠久的高等學(xué)府。哈佛大學(xué)位于美國馬薩諸塞州劍橋城。哈佛大學(xué)是一所私立大學(xué)，是知名的“常春藤盟校”的八大成員之一。在美國知名大學(xué)排名網(wǎng)站USnews 上，哈佛大學(xué)連續(xù)多年排名第一位。而在世界各報(bào)刊和研究機(jī)構(gòu)排行中，哈佛大學(xué)常年雄踞榜首。

作為如此名校，哈佛大學(xué)對(duì)于申請(qǐng)人的篩選也相當(dāng)嚴(yán)格。Princeton Review把哈佛大學(xué)評(píng)為美國最難申請(qǐng)的大學(xué)第四位。

哈佛大學(xué)的校訓(xùn)是真理（Veritas），這個(gè)校訓(xùn)也出現(xiàn)在哈佛大學(xué)的校徽上。

哈佛大學(xué)校徽

哈佛大學(xué)歷史上出現(xiàn)過數(shù)不盡的名人和諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)得主。哈佛的畢業(yè)生中出現(xiàn)了8任美國總統(tǒng)。我們所熟知的美國現(xiàn)任總統(tǒng)奧巴馬、前任總統(tǒng)羅斯福、肯尼迪和喬治·布什都是哈佛大學(xué)校友。也有不少中國知名人士畢業(yè)于哈佛，包括地質(zhì)學(xué)家竺可楨，散文家梁實(shí)秋，梁?jiǎn)⒊咏ㄖW(xué)家梁思成等等。當(dāng)前的臺(tái)灣國民黨主席馬英九獲得了哈佛大學(xué)法學(xué)博士學(xué)位。最近炙手可熱的NBA中國明星控球后衛(wèi)林書豪也出身哈佛。哈佛的教授中，有34名諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)得主。而哈佛歷史上一共有40位諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)得主和30位普利策獎(jiǎng)得主。

哈佛大學(xué)學(xué)生以研究生為主，約有12000多名研究生，近7000名本科生和2400多名教授。在全美排名上，哈佛大學(xué)商學(xué)院、醫(yī)學(xué)院排名首位，人文、政治和英文專業(yè)排名第一。文學(xué)院、法學(xué)院、醫(yī)學(xué)院、商學(xué)院以及工程學(xué)院是全美公認(rèn)的Number One。哈佛大學(xué)共設(shè)10個(gè)研究生院，包括文理學(xué)院、商業(yè)管理學(xué)院、設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)院、牙科醫(yī)學(xué)學(xué)院、神學(xué)院、教育學(xué)院、法學(xué)院、醫(yī)學(xué)院、公共衛(wèi)生學(xué)院和肯尼迪政治學(xué)院；2個(gè)招收大學(xué)本科生的學(xué)院，即哈佛學(xué)院和拉德克利夫?qū)W院；并設(shè)繼續(xù)教育辦公室，專門負(fù)責(zé)暑期學(xué)校、附設(shè)課程和終身學(xué)習(xí)中心。

Harvard University 校園風(fēng)景

哈佛大學(xué)與麻省理工學(xué)院（MIT）的關(guān)系非常微妙，是一種既有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)又合作的關(guān)系。早年間，兩校的合并方案也被激烈討論過。哈佛與麻省在排名和研究上的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)非常激烈。由于同處劍橋市，為了充分利用資源，兩校的學(xué)生可以選擇另一所學(xué)校的課程來完成學(xué)分要求。在科研方面，兩校同樣進(jìn)行了廣泛的合作，包括哈佛MIT數(shù)據(jù)中心等。

第五篇：哈弗大學(xué)

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

Oxford University once famously claimed to have been founded by Alfred the Great in the 9th Century, but in fact, the University as we know it today began to take shape in the 12th Century when English Scholars were exiled from Paris University and began to congregate at Oxford’s Abbeys and Priories, which were buy then already established centers of learning.Today, 39 independent, self-governing colleges are related to the University in a type of federal system.Each is governed by a Head of House and a number of Fellows, who are academics specializing in a wide variety of disciplines, most of whom also hold University posts.Across both the Arts and the Sciences, Oxford research consistently ranks top both nationally and internationally.As well as being in the forefront of scientific, medical and technological achievement, the University has strong links with research institutions and industrial concerns both in the United Kingdom and overseas.The University is income from externally funded research grants and contracts in 1996-7 totaled over ￡107 million.The University’s great age also allows its teaching staff and research students to draw on a heritage of magnificent library and museum collections.Students working for higher degrees are an important and valued part of Oxford University.They currently make up over a quarter of the total student body of 15,641, drawn by the excellent facilities for research, which the University can offer;therefore the proportion of graduate students is increasing.In all these fields, Oxford attracts scholars from many parts of the world to join its teaching and research staff, and also values important role of overseas graduate students(approximately one third of the total graduate body)in providing intellectual stimulation and creating and maintaining academic links with colleges abroad.To gain entry into the University, students must first win a place by competitive examination at one of the colleges, which have their own admissions policies.The procedure for applications varies according to the subject you propose to study.There are no final deadlines for most applications, unless specified in a particular subject section, but there are many more applications than places available, and the process of acceptance by both faculty board and college can take some time;early application is therefore strongly advised.