第一篇：《哈利波特》作者：羅琳 在哈佛大學(xué)的演講

立波特作家羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)的演講：失敗的額外收益與想象力的重要性

浮士德主席，哈佛公司和監(jiān)察委員會的各位成員，大學(xué)的員工，自豪的父母，以及所有的畢業(yè)生們：

首先我想說的是“謝謝你們”。這不僅因?yàn)楣鸾o了我非比尋常的榮譽(yù)，而且為了這幾個(gè)禮拜以來，由于想到這次畢業(yè)典禮演說而產(chǎn)生的恐懼與惡心讓我減肥成功。這真是一個(gè)雙贏的局面！現(xiàn)在我需要做的就是一次深呼吸，瞇著眼看著紅色的橫幅，然后欺騙自己，讓自己相信正在參加世界上受到最好教育群體的哈立波特大會。

做畢業(yè)典禮演說是一個(gè)重大的責(zé)任，我的思緒回到了自己的那次畢業(yè)典禮。那天的演講者是一位英國的杰出哲學(xué)家 Baroness Marry Warnock.對她演講的回憶對我寫這篇演講稿幫助巨大，因?yàn)槲野l(fā)現(xiàn)她說的話我居然一個(gè)字都沒有記住。這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)讓我釋然，使我得以繼續(xù)寫完演講稿，我不用再擔(dān)心，那種想成為“gay wizard”（harry porter中的魔法大師）的眩暈的愉悅，可能會誤導(dǎo)你們放棄在商業(yè)、法律、政治領(lǐng)域的大好前途。

你們看，如果你們在若干年后能記住“gay wizard”這個(gè)笑話，我就比Barkoness Mary Warnock有進(jìn)步了。所以，設(shè)定一個(gè)可以實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)是個(gè)人進(jìn)步的第一步。

實(shí)際上，我已經(jīng)絞盡腦汁、費(fèi)勁心思去想今天我應(yīng)該講什么好。我問自己：我希望在自己畢業(yè)那天已經(jīng)知道的是什么，而又有哪些重要的教訓(xùn)是我從那天開始到現(xiàn)在的21年間學(xué)會的。

我想到了兩個(gè)答案。在今天這個(gè)愉快的日子，我們聚在一起慶祝你們學(xué)習(xí)上的成功時(shí)，我決定和你們談?wù)勈〉氖找妗Ａ硗猓?dāng)你們?nèi)缃裉幱凇艾F(xiàn)實(shí)生活”的入口處時(shí)，我想向你們頌揚(yáng)想象力的重要性。

我選擇的這兩個(gè)答案似乎如同堂吉訶德式幻想一樣不切實(shí)際，或者顯得荒謬，但是請容忍我講下去。

對于我這樣一個(gè)已經(jīng)42歲的人來說，回頭看自己21歲畢業(yè)時(shí)的情景，并不是一件舒服的事情。我的前半生之前，我一直在自己內(nèi)心的追求與最親近的人對我的要求之間進(jìn)行不自在的抗?fàn)帯?/p>

我曾確信我自己唯一想做的事情是寫小說。但是我的父母都來自貧窮的家庭，都沒有上過大學(xué)，他們認(rèn)為我的異常活躍的想象力只是滑稽的個(gè)人怪癖，并不能用來付抵押房產(chǎn)，或者確保得到退休金。

他們曾希望我去拿一個(gè)職業(yè)文憑，而我想讀英國文學(xué)。最后,我們達(dá)成了一個(gè)回想起來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，我立刻報(bào)名學(xué)習(xí)古典文學(xué)了。

我忘了自己是怎么把學(xué)古典文學(xué)的事情告訴父母的了，他們也可能是在我畢業(yè)那天才第一次發(fā)現(xiàn)。在這個(gè)星球上的所有科目中，我想他們很難再發(fā)現(xiàn)一門比希臘神學(xué)更沒用的課程了。

我想順帶著說明，我并沒有因?yàn)樗麄兊挠^點(diǎn)而抱怨他們。現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不是抱怨父母引導(dǎo)自己走錯(cuò)方向的時(shí)候了，如今的你們已經(jīng)足夠大來決定自己前進(jìn)的路程，責(zé)任要靠自己承擔(dān)。而且，我也不能批評我的父母，他們是希望我能擺脫貧窮。他們以前遭受了貧窮，我也曾經(jīng)貧窮過，對于他們認(rèn)為貧窮并不高尚的觀點(diǎn)我也堅(jiān)決同意。貧窮會引起恐懼、壓力，有時(shí)候甚至是沮喪。這意味著小心眼、卑微和很多艱難困苦。通過自己的努力擺脫貧窮確實(shí)是件很值得自豪的事情，但只有傻瓜才對貧窮本身夸夸其談。

我在你們這個(gè)年齡的時(shí)候，最害怕的不是貧窮，而是失敗。

在你們這個(gè)年齡，盡管我明顯缺少在大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)的動力，我花了很多時(shí)間在咖啡吧寫故事，很少去聽課，但是我知道通過考試的技巧，當(dāng)然，這也是好多年來評價(jià)我，以及我同齡人是否成功的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

我想說，并不是我太遲鈍，我覺得你們還不曾知道什么是艱難困苦，或者什么是心碎的感覺，因?yàn)槟銈冞€年輕，而且天資聰明，受到良好教育。但是天賦和智商還未能使任何人免于命運(yùn)無常的折磨，我從來不認(rèn)為這里的每個(gè)人已經(jīng)享有平靜的恩典和滿足。

然而，你們能從哈佛畢業(yè)這個(gè)現(xiàn)實(shí)表明，你們對失敗還不是很熟悉，對于失敗的恐懼與對于成功的渴望可能對你們有相同的驅(qū)動力。確實(shí)，你們對于失敗的概念可能與普通人的成功差不了太多。你們在學(xué)習(xí)這方面已經(jīng)站得相當(dāng)高了！

當(dāng)然，最終我們所有人不得不為自己決定什么是失敗的組成元素，但是如果你愿意的話，世界很愿意給你一堆的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。基于任何一種傳統(tǒng)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，我可以說，僅僅在我畢業(yè)7年后，我經(jīng)歷了一次巨大的失敗。我突然間結(jié)束了一段短暫的婚姻，失去了工作。作為一個(gè)單身媽媽，而且在這個(gè)現(xiàn)代化的英國，除了不是無家可歸，你可以說我有多窮就有多窮。我父母對于我的擔(dān)心，以及我對自己的擔(dān)心都成了現(xiàn)實(shí)，從任何一個(gè)通常的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來看，這是我知道的最大失敗。

現(xiàn)在，我不會站在這里和你們說失敗很好玩。我生命的那段時(shí)間非常的灰暗，那時(shí)我還不知道我的書會被新聞界認(rèn)為是神話故事的革命，我也不知道這段灰暗的日子要持續(xù)多久。那時(shí)候的很長一段時(shí)間里，任何出現(xiàn)的光芒只是希望而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。

那么我為什么還要談?wù)撌〉氖找婺兀績H僅是因?yàn)槭∫馕吨头俏业拿撾x，失敗后我找到了自我，不再裝成另外的形象，我開始把我所有的精力僅僅放在我關(guān)心的工作上。如果我在其他方面成功過，我可能就不會具備要求在自己領(lǐng)域內(nèi)獲得成功的決心。我變得自在，因?yàn)槲乙呀?jīng)經(jīng)歷過最大的恐懼。而且我還活著，我有一個(gè)值得我自豪的女兒，我有一個(gè)陳舊的打字機(jī)和很不錯(cuò)的寫作靈感。我在失敗堆積而成的硬石般的基礎(chǔ)上開始重筑我的人生。

你們可能不會經(jīng)歷像我那么大的失敗，但生活中面臨失敗是不可避免的。永遠(yuǎn)不失敗是不可能，除非你活得過于謹(jǐn)慎，這樣倒還不如根本就沒有在世上生活過，因?yàn)槟銖囊婚_始就失敗了。

失敗給了我內(nèi)心的安寧，這種安寧是順利通過測驗(yàn)考試獲得不了的。失敗讓我認(rèn)識自己，這些是沒法從其他地方學(xué)到的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己有堅(jiān)強(qiáng)的意志，而且，自我控制能力比自己猜想的還要強(qiáng)，我也發(fā)現(xiàn)自己擁有比紅寶石更真的朋友。

從挫折中獲得的知識越充滿智慧、越有力，你在以后的生存中則越安全。除非遭受磨難，你們不會真正認(rèn)識自己，也沒法知道你們之間關(guān)系有多鐵。這些知識才是真正的禮物，他們比我曾經(jīng)獲得的任何資格證書更為珍貴，因?yàn)檫@些是我經(jīng)歷過痛苦后才獲得的。

第二篇：JK羅琳哈佛大學(xué)演講

The Benefits of JK Rowling at Harvard 2008年J.K.羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講：失敗的好處和想象

Video of J K Rowling's Commencement Address, 力的重要性

“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the

Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the

Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association on Importance of Imagination Harvard University Commencement Address June 5th 2008.In this powerful, moving, yet also

funny speech Jo talks about her time working for J.K.Rowling

Amnesty International, her personal experiences Tercentenary Theatre, June 5, 2008 失敗的好處和想象力的重要性 with failure and the power of the imagination to 哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮 allow us to empathize with others.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 the world’s largest Gryffindors' reunion.首先請?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，對她演講的回憶，對我寫今天的演講稿，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-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，但請先容我講完。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.回顧21歲剛剛畢業(yè)時(shí)的自己，對于今天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

The Benefits of JK Rowling at Harvard 2 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.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.我想澄清一下：我不會因?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，就從來沒有遇到困難或心碎的時(shí)刻。擁有才華和智慧，從來不會使人對命運(yùn)的反復(fù)無常有所準(zhǔn)備；我也不會假設(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，畢竟你們在學(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)

The Benefits of JK Rowling at Harvard 3 年父母和我自己對未來的擔(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, 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，我可能就不會找到，在一個(gè)我確信真正屬于的舞臺上取得成功的決心。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)。

第三篇：jk羅琳哈佛大學(xué)演講及其翻譯

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.福斯特主席、哈佛同仁和監(jiān)察委員會的各位員工，各位老師，家長、同學(xué)們:

首先請?jiān)试S我說一聲謝謝。哈佛給予我的不僅僅是無上的榮譽(yù)，還有連日來因?yàn)橐幌氲竭@個(gè)演講，帶來的恐懼以及恐懼導(dǎo)致的陣陣惡心讓我減肥成功。這真是一個(gè) 雙贏的局面。現(xiàn)在我要做的就是深呼吸，瞇著眼睛看著眼前的大紅橫幅，安慰自己只是在世界上最大的矮人大會上。發(fā)表畢業(yè)演說是一個(gè)巨大的責(zé)任，我的思緒一下 子回到自己的畢業(yè)典禮上。那天做報(bào)告的是英國著名的哲學(xué)家Baroness Mary Warnock，通過對她的演講的回憶對我寫今天的演講稿給予了極大地幫助。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，讓我不再有任何恐懼。我可能會無意中影響你，放棄在商業(yè)、法律或政治等有前途的職業(yè)而為眩暈的愉悅成為一個(gè)快樂的魔法師。你們都明白，如果在若干年后您還記得'快樂的魔法師' 這個(gè)笑話，說明我已經(jīng)超越了Baroness Mary Warnock。

可實(shí)現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)：個(gè)人提高的第一步。其實(shí)，我為今天應(yīng)該告訴你們什么已經(jīng)殫精竭慮了。我曾問自己：我從畢業(yè)到現(xiàn)在的這些年里，學(xué)到和了解了什么重要的教訓(xùn)。我已想出了兩個(gè)答案。在這個(gè)美好的一天，當(dāng)我們正聚集在一起慶祝您畢業(yè)的時(shí)刻，我已決定與你們談?wù)勈〉暮锰帲涣硪环矫妫銈冋驹?現(xiàn)實(shí)生活'的門檻上，我要歌頌至關(guān)重要的想象力。這些似乎是不切實(shí)際或似是而非的選擇，但請?jiān)徫摇Ｗ屢粋€(gè)已經(jīng)42歲的人回顧在她21歲畢業(yè)時(shí)情景，是個(gè)讓人有點(diǎn)不舒服的經(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我的期望兩者之間取得平衡。我一直深信我唯一想做的事----寫小說。不過，我的父母兩人都來自貧窮的背景，而且沒 有任何一人上過大學(xué)。他們都堅(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，絕不可支付按揭或保證安穩(wěn)的退休金。他們希望我拿到一個(gè)職業(yè)學(xué)位。可我想學(xué)習(xí)英語文學(xué)。最終達(dá)成了一個(gè)折衷的意見，現(xiàn)在想起來仍不令人滿意，最終，我去學(xué)習(xí)現(xiàn)代語言。幾乎剛把車停在路盡頭的墻角（譯者加指去校報(bào)道），我放棄了德 語并逃到古典文學(xué)的殿堂。我不記得是否告訴我的父母我是學(xué)習(xí)古典文學(xué)的。也許他們很可能在我畢業(yè)那天才第一次發(fā)現(xiàn)我的專業(yè)是什么。在這個(gè)星球上的所有科目 里，我想他們會認(rèn)為再沒有比希臘神話學(xué)更糟糕的了。

我想澄清一下：我不會因?yàn)樗麄兊挠^點(diǎn)而責(zé)怪我的父母。埋怨父母給你指錯(cuò)方向是有時(shí)間段的。當(dāng)你長到自己可以掌握方向時(shí)，你就要自己承擔(dān)責(zé)任了。尤其是，我不會因?yàn)樽约合Ｍ灰?jīng)歷貧窮而責(zé)怪我的父母。他們是貧窮的，我也一直很貧窮。貧困帶來的恐懼，壓力有時(shí)是絕望，這意味著屈辱和苦難。用您自己的努力擺 脫貧困這確實(shí)是一件對自己而言驕傲的事情。但貧窮本身只有對傻瓜而言才是浪漫的。

我在你們這個(gè)年齡時(shí)，最害怕的不是貧窮，而是失敗。像你們這樣大時(shí)，我明顯缺乏在大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)的動力。我花了太久在咖啡吧寫故事，而在課堂的時(shí)間就很少了。我 有一個(gè)通過考試的訣竅，并且數(shù)年間一直認(rèn)為我的生活在我的同齡人中是成功的現(xiàn)在。我不愚蠢假設(shè)因?yàn)槟銈兊哪贻p，天才和受過良好教育就從來沒有困難或心碎的 時(shí)刻。才華和智商從來不會對命運(yùn)的反復(fù)無常有所準(zhǔn)備。我也不會假設(shè)大家都坐這里冷靜地滿足于自身的優(yōu)越感。但從哈佛畢業(yè)的事實(shí)表明，你們對失敗不熟悉。害 怕失敗像渴望成功一樣強(qiáng)烈。事實(shí)上，您對失敗的理解可能和普通人對成功的看法不會太遠(yuǎn)。因?yàn)槟銈円呀?jīng)站在如此之高的位置。最終，我們所有人都必須自己決定 什么構(gòu)成失敗，但如果你愿意，世界是相當(dāng)渴望給你一套標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的。因而我可以公平地講，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，我的失敗就達(dá)到了空 前的規(guī)模：一個(gè)異常短暫的破裂的婚姻、失業(yè)、一個(gè)單親家長，像在現(xiàn)代英國的窮人一樣，只是還沒有到無家可歸的地步罷了。眼前時(shí)刻浮現(xiàn)著父母和自己對未來的 擔(dān)心。按照慣常的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來看，我是我所見過的最大的失敗者。現(xiàn)在，我不打算站在這里告訴你失敗是好玩的，我的那段生活經(jīng)歷是困窘不堪的；我更不知道新聞媒體 所說的童話故事般的革命；我也不知道那種困苦要持續(xù)多久；在相當(dāng)長的一段時(shí)間里，任何盡頭的光明都只是一個(gè)希望而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。

那么，為什么我要談?wù)撌〉暮锰幠兀恐皇且驗(yàn)槭∫馕吨鴦冸x你不必需的東西。我不是在偽裝自己，我只是直接把所有精力放在最重要的工作上。如果我不是沒 有在其他領(lǐng)域成功過，我可能絕不會有在真正屬于自己的舞臺上取得成功的決心。我獲得了自由，因?yàn)槲易詈ε碌囊呀?jīng)發(fā)生了，但是我還活著，我還有一個(gè)我深愛著 的女兒，還有一個(gè)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)大創(chuàng)意（指寫哈利波特）。所以困境的谷底成為我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。你可能永遠(yuǎn)不會有我這種失敗的經(jīng)歷，但有些失敗，在生 活中是不可避免的。毫無挫折的生活是不存在，除非你生活的萬般小心，可有些失敗還是會發(fā)生。失敗讓我內(nèi)心安全，是我從通過考試中沒有得到過的。失敗教會我 一些不能用其他方法獲得的東西，我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己有堅(jiān)強(qiáng)的意志，比想象中還多的原則，我也發(fā)現(xiàn)我擁有朋友----他們的價(jià)值遠(yuǎn)在紅寶石之上。從挫折中得到知識將 使你更加明智和堅(jiān)強(qiáng)，也就是說您比以往任何時(shí)候更有能力生存。你從來沒有真正認(rèn)識自己，或通過逆境的檢驗(yàn)認(rèn)識到您的朋友的力量，直到兩者經(jīng)受逆境的考驗(yàn)。對所有人而言，這種認(rèn)知是一個(gè)真正的禮物。這是痛苦的勝利比我取得的任何資格有著更高的價(jià)值。給我一部時(shí)間機(jī)器，我會告訴21歲的自己：個(gè)人的幸福在于知道生命是不是一個(gè)獲得或取得的核對清單。你的資歷、簡歷，都不 是你的生活，雖然你會遇到很多人和我同齡或者更老一點(diǎn)的人依然混淆兩者。生活是困難的，復(fù)雜的，超出任何人的控制。謙恭地認(rèn)識到這一點(diǎn)將使你歷經(jīng)滄桑后能 夠更好的生存。

你可能會認(rèn)為我選擇了我的第二個(gè)主題：想象力的重要性因?yàn)檫@是重建我生活的一部分。但事實(shí)并非完全如此，雖然我永遠(yuǎn)捍衛(wèi)睡前故事的價(jià)值，我已經(jīng)學(xué)會了想 象擁有的更廣泛的意義。想象力不僅是人類獨(dú)具能力：設(shè)想還不存在的事物是所有發(fā)明和創(chuàng)新的源泉。這種改造和揭露的能力，使我們能夠?qū)ψ约何唇?jīng)歷的苦難者產(chǎn) 生同理心。其中一個(gè)影響最大的經(jīng)歷在我寫哈利波特的生活之前，但大部分是在我隨后寫的那些書里。這個(gè)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。在我的小辦公室，我看到了人們在匆忙中寫的信，這些信是從極權(quán) 主義政權(quán)那里偷運(yùn)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。我看到那些無跡可尋的人的照片-----由他們的家人和朋友鋌 而走險(xiǎn)地送到大赦國際來的。我看過拷問受害者的證詞和被害的照片，我也讀過筆跡、目擊證人的供詞以及即決審判和處決的綁架和*犯的檔案。我有很多的合作者 是前政治犯，他們已離開家園流離失所，或逃亡流放，因?yàn)樗麄兇竽懙貞岩烧拿裰鲉栴}。來我們辦公室的訪客有告密者以及想了解迫害真相的人。

我將永遠(yuǎn)不會忘記：一個(gè)非洲酷刑的受害者-----一名當(dāng)時(shí)比我還小的年輕男子，他因在故鄉(xiāng)的悲慘經(jīng)歷導(dǎo)致精神錯(cuò)亂。當(dāng)他 在攝像機(jī)前講述被殘暴的摧殘的時(shí)候，他顫抖失控。他比我稍高一點(diǎn)，但當(dāng)時(shí)看來卻像個(gè)脆弱的孩童。后來，我被安排護(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!

并且只要我還活著，我就會記得走過一個(gè)空蕩蕩的的走廊。突然從背后的門里傳來我從未聽過的尖叫的痛苦和恐懼，門打開了，研究員探出她的頭告訴我為坐在她 旁邊的青年男子，調(diào)一杯熱飲料。他剛被告知消息：為了報(bào)復(fù)他對國家政權(quán)的批評，他母親已被捕并執(zhí)行了槍決。在我20多歲的時(shí)候，我工作的每一天，都在提醒 我是多么的幸運(yùn)。生活在一個(gè)民選政府的國家，律師和公開審理，是每個(gè)人的權(quán)利。每天我都能看到很多有關(guān)惡人的證據(jù)，他們?yōu)榱双@得或維持權(quán)力而對自己的同胞 所犯下的暴行。我開始做噩夢，都和我的所見所聞有關(guān)，并且我也了解到更多關(guān)于人類的善良。在國際特赦組織學(xué)到的比以前多得多。大赦動員成千上萬有自由信仰 的人，去為那些因信仰而遭遇不幸的人奔走抗?fàn)帯Ｈ祟愅硇牡牧α浚l(fā)的集體拯救生命的行動，釋放囚犯。眾多幸福安康的普通百姓，攜手合作挽救那些素不相 識或再也不能相逢的人。這在道德上是中立的，是我生命中一段最謙恭和發(fā)人深省的生活經(jīng)歷。

不同于這個(gè)星球上的任何其他生物，人類可以學(xué)習(xí)理解未經(jīng)歷過的 東西。他們可以設(shè)身處地為別人著想當(dāng)然，這是一種能力就像我虛構(gòu)的魔法世界一樣。這在道德上也是中立的。一個(gè)人可能會利用這種能力去操縱、或控制，但也有 很多人選擇去了解或同情。很多人一點(diǎn)也不喜歡鍛煉自己的想象力，他們選擇待在舒適的生活范圍內(nèi)，從來不麻煩地去想想如果自己出生在別處一切會怎么樣。他們 拒絕聽到尖叫聲或向籠子里窺視，他們可以封閉自己的內(nèi)心。只要痛苦不觸及他們個(gè)人，他們可以拒絕去了解。我可能會因誘惑而嫉妒那樣生活的人，除了我不認(rèn)為 他們會比我少做噩夢。選擇住在狹窄的空間可導(dǎo)致某種形式的精神廣場恐懼癥，并給自己帶來恐懼感。我認(rèn)為不想看到更多怪物的人，他們常常更害怕。更甚的是，那些選擇不同情的人可能激活真正的怪獸，因?yàn)槲覀冏约簺]有嚴(yán)懲邪惡，冷漠與無視卻讓我們犯下了邪惡的共謀罪。

在21歲時(shí)，我從古典文學(xué)中學(xué)到很多知識。其中之一我所不明白的是，希臘作家普魯塔克所說的：我們內(nèi)心的實(shí)現(xiàn)將改變外在現(xiàn)實(shí)。那是一個(gè)多么驚人的論斷，并在我們生活的每天被無數(shù)次論證。這在某種程度上表明，我們與外部世界有逃不掉的瓜葛。事實(shí)上，我們以自己的存在來接觸其他人的生命。但哈佛大學(xué)的級的畢 業(yè)生們，你們中的多少人會去觸及他人的生命呢？

你們的智慧、努力工作的能力以及所受的教育將給予你們獨(dú)特的地位和責(zé)任。即使您的國籍把你與別人分開了，你們絕大部份仍屬 于世界上僅存的超級大國。你們表決的方式，你們生活的方式，你們抗議的方式，你們給自己的政府帶來的壓力，其影響力將超越你們的國界，這是你們的特權(quán)，也 是你們的負(fù)擔(dān)。

如果您選擇使用您的地位和影響力去代表那些沒有發(fā)言權(quán)的人，發(fā)出聲音；

如果您不僅去幫助強(qiáng)者，而且還會同情并幫扶弱者； 如果你會設(shè)身處地為不如你的人著想；

那么，您的存在將不僅是你家族的驕傲，也是無數(shù)因你幫助而過上幸福生活的人的驕傲。我們不需要魔法來改變世界，我們已經(jīng)擁有了需要的所有的力量。我們有能力想象會更好。

我的演講也接近尾聲了。對你們，我有最后一個(gè)希望，也是我在21歲時(shí)就一直在思考的。畢業(yè)那天坐在我身邊的朋友將是我終身的朋友。他們是我的孩子的教父 母，是我在遇到麻煩是可以求助的人，是當(dāng)我用他們的姓名作為食死徒的名字而不會起訴我的朋友（譯者注：食死徒是哈利波特中人物在此指羅琳的朋友不會因?yàn)樗?用他們的名字而遭起訴）。

在我們畢業(yè)的時(shí)候，我們因無盡的愛而在此相聚。我們有共同的永不再有的經(jīng)歷。當(dāng)然，如果我們中的任何人競選首相，那么今天的照片將是極為寶貴的證明。所以，今天我可以給你們的，沒有比同伴的友誼更好的祝福了。

明天，我希望你們即使記不得我的名字，你還記得那些塞內(nèi)加，他是我在羅馬文學(xué)著作中結(jié)識的另一位哲學(xué)家。在我退出職業(yè)生涯后，尋找古老的生活智慧： 生活就像故事一樣，不在乎長度，而在于質(zhì)量。這才是問題的關(guān)鍵。我在此祝大家生活愉快！非常感謝Thank you!

第四篇：jk羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講

J·K·羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講

J·K·羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講

作者： 阮一峰

日期： 2008年6月17日

一、今年6月5日是哈佛大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮，請來的演講嘉賓是《哈利波特》的作者J.K.羅琳女士。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。

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，慶祝你們在學(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

第五篇：《哈利波特》作者JK羅琳的11堂人生課（小編推薦）

So you didn’t have a perfect childhood? Sorry for your loss.What a great excuse you may have for not going all the way to make your dreams come true.你的童年不夠美好?對此我深表遺憾。可這又算什么理由，竟能阻礙你一路追逐夢想的實(shí)現(xiàn)!

Warning: today your excuses may be gone forever, no matter what your life looks like.After reading these golden nuggets of life delivered by JK Rowling to a graduating class at Harvard, you will be in on her life secrets.These mini lessons take you from any excuse to the life of your dreams.Read at your own risk.By the end of this post, you will have no reason left to stuff your big and little dreams under the mattress.提醒一句：不管生活過得怎樣，從今天起或許你將再也不找借口了。讀完JK羅琳給哈佛畢業(yè)生們的金玉良言，你便能學(xué)到她的人生智慧。這些言簡意賅的道理將使你不再為人生夢想而不斷找借口。請勇敢往下讀吧。最后，你將再也不會找任何借口任由各種夢想擱淺停滯了!

A lightning idea struck, and she became a billionaire author.Are you ready to enter your magical life? Here are some of her life philosophies that you too can take on.只是靈光一閃，羅琳就變成了億萬文豪。你是否也準(zhǔn)備開啟自己的奇幻人生了呢?下面是羅琳的人生哲學(xué)，或許你能從中受益：

1.Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.最低谷成了我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)根基。

Here is how JK perceived her rock bottom:

羅琳是這樣理解人生低谷的：

I had failed on an epic scale.An exceptionally short lived marriage had imploded and I was a jobless alone parent and as poor as it was possible to be in Britain without being homeless.我遇到了前所未有的挫敗。意外短暫的婚姻遺憾而終，我成了一個(gè)沒有工作的單身母親，除了還不至于無家可歸外，當(dāng)時(shí)要多窮有多窮。

You too can build up from your own rock bottom, laying a foundation for your dreams and goals, no matter where you are at in this very moment.不管此時(shí)此刻境遇如何，你都可以從低谷開始，為自己的夢想和目標(biāo)夯實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。

2.Failure gave me an inner security that I have never had by passing examinations.失敗給了我一種內(nèi)心安全感，這是我通過考試都不曾有過的感覺。

Does inner security comes from a job, money, getting an A? The perfect spouse or relationship?

內(nèi)心安全感源于工作、金錢還是成績得A?抑或完美的伴侶或人際關(guān)系?

Not according to Jo.Her inner security came from failure.至少羅琳不是如此。她的內(nèi)心安全感來自于失敗。

Failure meant the stripping away of the inessential.失敗意味著剝離無關(guān)緊要的一切。

What can you strip away? What is inessential in your life? What will be left? What’s left is only what’s important to you along with inner security that you are choosing only a path that is right for you.你能擺脫什么?哪些是你生活中無關(guān)緊要的?剩下的又會是什么?剩下的才是真正重要的，懷著內(nèi)心的安全感，你選擇那條唯一正確的道路。

3.Poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.It means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.無知的人才會將貧窮浪漫化。貧窮意味著數(shù)不盡的羞辱和艱辛。

Some people associate poverty with spirituality.Or they think that it’s romantic to be writhing in hunger and cold, scratching out your craft anyway, digging deep.有人將貧窮與靈性修養(yǎng)聯(lián)系在一起，或者認(rèn)為在饑餓寒冷中痛苦掙扎、任憑本領(lǐng)漸漸磨滅、深入骨髓的境遇，是浪漫的。

Jo disagrees.Why romanticize humiliation and hardships?

羅琳對此并不認(rèn)同。為什么要把羞辱和艱辛浪漫化呢?

I cannot criticize my parents for hoping 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.我不能指責(zé)父母希望我永遠(yuǎn)都不要經(jīng)歷貧窮。他們一直活在貧窮之中，我自己也是。所以我非常認(rèn)同父母的看法：貧窮并不是什么體面的境遇。

It may be time for you to romanticize wealth and abundance, and look forward to bringing your gifts to this world, while satiated, with some extra money in the bank.Now that is ennobling.或許現(xiàn)在你應(yīng)該將財(cái)富浪漫化，期待為世界貢獻(xiàn)自己的價(jià)值，同時(shí)能獲得回報(bào)，銀行里有點(diǎn)存款。這才是體面的境遇。

4.Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the fates.天賦和才能并不會使你免遭命運(yùn)無常的捉弄。

So you have a college education or know you’re smart.That’s great, but as far as the fates, well as Jo says, Your qualifications are not your life.There’s no room for self-judgment here—life is what it is for all of us.Do what you can to get what you want.Keep on keeping on, and don’t give up.你有大學(xué)文憑，自認(rèn)為很聰明，是吧?那也無可厚非。但在命運(yùn)這里，羅琳認(rèn)為你的資歷并不能構(gòu)成你的人生。毫無自我評判的余地——生活對所有人都是自行其道。所以，請量力而行地爭取渴望的東西。請堅(jiān)持再堅(jiān)持，千萬不要放棄!

5.The moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.當(dāng)你成熟到足夠自己把握方向盤的時(shí)候，責(zé)任也隨之而來。

If you’re blaming someone else for you not finding your own dream and bringing it to life, grab the wheel;you’re old enough to drive.如果你還不知道自己的夢想是什么、該如何實(shí)現(xiàn)，卻又去埋怨別人的話，就請握好方向盤吧——你已經(jīng)到了可以自己駕駛的年紀(jì)了。

I do not blame my parentsthere is an expiry date for blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction.I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected.我不會去怪父母埋怨父母錯(cuò)了方向也是有期限的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的毅力和自律遠(yuǎn)比想象的強(qiáng)大。

You have what it takes, so take it.The minute you stop blaming, you can start steering.既得之，則用之。一旦停止抱怨，你也就開始掌控了自己的方向。

6.We do not need magic to transform our world.We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already.我們不需要魔法來改變世界，因?yàn)槲覀兊膬?nèi)心就已經(jīng)擁有了所有力量。

Wouldn’t it be nice to have Harry or Hermione’s magic wand? Or to go into a wand shop and browse?

如果能擁有哈利或赫敏的魔杖豈不是很厲害?或者去魔杖店親自挑選呢?

If Jo tells you that you have magic and power inside yourself, then you do.Believe it, allow it to surface and get ready for a wild ride.如果羅琳認(rèn)為你自身就擁有神奇力量，那你確實(shí)就有。