jk罗琳在哈佛毕业典礼演讲(中英文)

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.

顺便提一句 ，我必须声明自己并没有为父母的观点而责

怪他们的意思。你不能总是责怪父母指错了方 向

;

当你长大

成人、可以独立掌舵的时 候，这份责任就应该由你独立承担

了。况且，父母希望我永远都不要经受贫穷，而我不能 谴责

这一期望。他们自己饱受贫寒之苦，而我也曾经是个穷人，

我十分赞同他们的想法——贫穷决不是什么高贵的经历。伴

随贫穷而来的是恐惧和紧张， 有时还会陷入忧伤沮丧之中

;

这些都意味着无尽的卑微和艰难。 凭借自己的力量挣脱贫困

境地，这的确是值得自豪的事情，但是只有愚蠢的人才会一

厢情愿的为贫穷本身涂抹浪漫的色彩

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.

当我 像你们这么大的时候，我最害怕的甚至还不是贫穷，

而是失败。

当我像你们这么大的时候，我对大 学里的课程没什么动

力，总是在咖啡馆里花上大把的时间写小说，而用于听课的

时间则寥寥无几。尽管如此，我却有些让自己能通过考试的

窍门

;

而考试，在若干年中，就成了衡量我和我同龄人的成

< br>败的标准。

我不会笨到认为你们这些年轻、有天赋、受过良好教育

的孩子就从来不知道困 难和心碎的滋味。天赋和智力并不能

让人免受命运的捉弄

;

我也从不认为在这里的所有人都享有

不可破坏的特权与满足。

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

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.

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.

然而，毕业于哈佛大学这一事实暗示着你们并不十分熟

悉失败。驱动你 们前行的对于失败的恐惧可能更为接近对于

成功的渴望。事实上，你们心目中的失败很可 能与普通人设

想的成功相差无几，毕竟你们在学业上的成功已经高到遥不

可及。

最终，我们都要按自己的想法给失败下一个定义

;

但是

如果你允许的话，这个世界会迫不及待的为你设定一套标准。

因 此我觉得，

不管按照什么惯行标准，

仅仅在毕业七年之后，

我都确确实实的失败了，而且败得彻彻底底。我那罕见的短

暂婚姻走 到了尽头，自己又失业了。一个单身母亲，沦落到

当代英国最为贫困的境地，只不过还没 到无家可归的程度而

已。我父母害怕发生在我身上的事情，我害怕发生在自己身

上的事情，都降临了。无论按照什么标准来看，我都是我所

知道的最大的 失败。

现在，我站在这里，告诉你们失败可是件一点也不好玩

的事情。那个时候我的人生被黑暗 笼罩，根本想不到在未来

的时光里这段经历竟会被报道为神话般的坚定意志。那时候

我不知道黑暗的隧道何时才是尽头，而尽头的任何光亮都像

是渺茫的 希望而非稳固的现实。

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.

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 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

to

me

than

any

qualification I ever earned.

什么我还要谈起失败的好处呢

?

简单的说，是因为失败

会为我们揭去表面 那些无关紧要的东西。我不再装模作样，

终于重新做回自己，开始将所有的精力投入到自 己在意的唯

一作品。如果我此前在其它的任何什么方面有所成功，我恐

< br>怕都会失去在自己真正归属的舞台上获得成功的决心。我最

大的恐惧终于成为现实 ，

而我却因此获得了自由，

我还活着，

还有我深爱的女儿，我还有一架老式打字机和一个宏大的梦

想。这片顽固的低谷成为我脚 下坚定的基石，在此之上，我

重筑了自己的人生。

你们也许不会像我摔得这样惨，但 是人生路上总会有些

失败。你也许可以毫无失败的度过一生，但你将活得如此小

心翼翼，就好像你几乎没有活过——不管从什么意义上讲，

你都注定要失 败的。

失败赋予我内心的安全感，而这是考试及格也不能让我

感受到的。失败让我明白关于自己 的一些东西，这是除了失

败以外我决不可能获得的认知。我意识到自己拥有坚强的意

志，而且比我以前设想的还要自律

;

我还发 现我拥有的朋友

们是如此宝贵，其价值连宝石也不能媲美。

你在挫折中成长，更聪明，更强壮 ，这意味着从此以后

你已拥有了牢不可催的生存能力。直到通过逆境的考验，你

才会真正了解自己，以及你周围的人赋予你的力量。这些认

知都是宝贵的 财富，我历经艰辛才获得的财富，这比我得到

的任何资格证书都更有价值。

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