1、 1 / 72008 年 JK 罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲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 an
2、d nausea 恶心 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 斜视 at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the worlds largest Gryffindor reunion 团聚.Delivering a commencement 毕业典
3、礼 address 演讲 is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast（投，掷） my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished（著名的、卓越的） British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on （深思）her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because
4、it turns out that I cant remember a single word she said. This liberating 释放、解放 discovery enables me to proceed 开始；进行 without any fear that I might inadvertently 不注意地、无意中 influence you to abandon promising（有望成功的 ; 前景很好的） careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy（眩晕的） delights of becomin
5、g a gay wizard.You see? If all you remember in years to come is the gay wizard joke, Ive come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.Actually, I have wracked（毁坏，破坏 绞尽脑汁） my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what
6、 I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired(期限 )终止，结束 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
7、 you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold 入口 of（即将经历） what is sometimes called real life, I want to extol（赞美，颂扬） the crucial importance of imagination.These may seem quixotic（唐吉诃德式的 不切实际的） or paradoxical 自相矛盾的 choices, but please bear with 忍受；对 (某人) 有耐心me.Looking back at
8、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 balancestrike a balance: 找到 (某种平衡) between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.2 / 7I was co
9、nvinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished 穷困的 backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk 怪癖; 古怪的性格 that would never pay a mortgag
10、e (抵押贷款), or secure a pension 退休金. I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil 铁砧, now.So they hoped that I would take a vocational 职业教育的 degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise 妥协、折衷 was reached that in retrospect 回想、追忆 satisfied nobody, and I went up to study
11、 Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched 丢弃；逃学 German and scuttled 疾走、快跑 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.
12、 Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology 神话 when it came to securing the keys to an executive 高中级管理人员 bathroom.I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis 括号插入语, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. T
13、here is an expiry (期限、协定等的 )满期，终止 date on blaming your parents for steering 掌舵，操纵 you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel 方向盘, responsibility lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been
14、 poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling 使高贵; 使崇高 experience. Poverty entails 引起、蕴含 fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty 琐碎的 humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is
15、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 明显的 lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stor
16、ies, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack(诀窍) 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 有天赋的；有才华的 and well-educated, you have never known hardship or
17、heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated 给注射预防针 anyone against the caprice 反复无常 of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled(平整的;镇定的)privilege 特权 and contentment.However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggest
18、s that you are not very 3 / 7well-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 persons idea of success, so high have you already flown.Ultimately 最终；最重要地 , we all have
19、 to decide for ourselves what constitutes（构成） failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria (判断的) 标准 if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional 传统的 measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic 史诗般的；宏大的 scale. An exceptional
20、ly 异常地 short-lived marriage had imploded 内爆；崩溃、瓦解, 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 发生；实现, and by every usual standard, I was
21、 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 新闻界 has since represented 描绘；表现 as a kind of fairy tale 童话 resolution(剧本等作品中主要情节的)解开. I had no idea then
22、how far the tunnel 隧道 extended 延伸, 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剥掉，除去of the inessential 非必要的. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than
23、 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 决心;毅然 to succeed in the one arena 舞台；竞技场 I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been
24、 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 最低谷 became the solid foundation 基础 on which I rebuilt my life.You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable 必然的，不可避免的. It is im
25、possible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously 慎重地，谨慎地 that you might as well not have lived at all in which case, you fail by default【体育 】由于弃权而输掉；不参加比赛 .Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about
26、myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline 自律 than I had suspected 怀疑；猜想; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies（ruby:红宝石）.The knowledge that you have emerged 冒出，显露 wiser and stronger from set
27、backs 挫折; 倒退 means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. 4 / 7You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity 逆境. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more tha
28、n any qualification(考试获得的)资格 I ever earned.So given a Time Turner 时间转换器, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list 清单；核对表 of acquisition 获得物 or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV 简历, are not your life, though you will meet many peop
29、le of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated 复杂的, and beyond anyones total control, and the humility 谦逊 to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes(人生的)盛衰，沉浮.Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the
30、 part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so. Though I personally will defend 保卫 the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp（喘息）最后时刻, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision 想象；预想 that which is
31、not, and therefore the fount 源泉 of all invention and innovation. In its arguably 可以说most transformative 有改革能力的；起改造作用的 and revelatory 揭示的; 启示性的 capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise 有同感; 起共鸣 with humans whose experiences we have never shared.One of the greatest formative （有助于）形成的；成长的
32、，塑造的 experiences of my life preceded 先于，在 之前 Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently. 随后；后来 wrote in those books. This revelation 启示；( 惊人的、极好的) 发现 came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off（slope off 口语溜走，溜掉） to write stories during my lunch hours,
33、 I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty 赦免；特赦 Internationals headquarters 总部 in London.There in my little office I read hastily scribbled 潦草的 letters smuggled 走私；偷带 out of totalitarian 极权主义的 regimes 统治；政体 by men and women who were risking imprisonmen
34、t 监禁，关押 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 证词，证据 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witnes
35、s accounts 叙述 of summary 概括的，扼要的 trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced使背井离乡 from their homes, or fled into exile 流亡、放逐他国, because they had the temerity 蛮勇 ; 大胆 to speak against their governments. Visitors to o
36、ur offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.5 / 7I 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.
37、He trembled 颤抖 uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality 残暴、暴行 inflicted 使遭受 (伤害或破坏等) upon him. He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile(脆弱的fragility n.) as a child. I was given the job of escorting 护送、陪同 him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this
38、 man whose life had been shattered 粉碎；破坏 by cruelty took my hand with exquisite 高雅的；精致的 courtesy 礼貌，谦恭, and wished me future happiness.And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor 走廊 and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream 尖叫 of pain and horror 恐惧，恐怖 such
39、as I have never heard since. The door opened, and the researcher poked out 伸出 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 报复；反击 for his own outspokenness 直言不讳 against his countrys regime, his mother ha
40、d been seized and executed.Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly 难以置信地；非常地 fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically 民主地 elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.Every day, I saw more evidence
41、 about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain 保持；维持 power. I began to have nightmares, literal确确实实的 用作强调 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 b
42、efore.Amnesty mobilises 动员，调动 thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of （代表；为了） those who have. The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and securi
43、ty are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation 参与 in that process was one of the most humbling（humble:谦逊的）and inspiring experiences of my life.Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, withou
44、t having experienced. They can think themselves into other peoples places. Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional 虚构的、编造的 magic, that is morally 道上德 neutral 中立的、中性的 . One might use such an ability to manipulate 操纵, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.6 / 7And many
45、 prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 范围 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 凝视，窥视 inside cages; they can close their mi
46、nds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.I might be tempted 引诱; 吸引 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【旷野
47、恐怖症、广场恐怖症：Agoraphobia is the fear of open or public places.】, and that brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully 故意地 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 完全彻
48、底的 evil ourselves, we collude 共谋，勾结 with it, through our own apathy 冷漠、无情 apathetic adj.One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured 冒险 (去某处/做某事) at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plu
49、tarch: What we achieve inwardly内心地；思想上 will change outer 外部的 reality. That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable 逃脱不了的、不可避免的 connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other peoples lives simply by existing.But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other peoples lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities. Even your national
