J.K.羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮上的演講：失敗的額外收益與想象力的重要性
The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
失敗的額外收益與想象力的重要性
Harvard University Commencement Address
J.K. Rowling
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
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：
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 experienced 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 fool myself into believing I am at the world's best-educated Harry Potter convention.
首先我想說的是“謝謝你們”。這不僅因為哈佛給了我非比尋常的榮譽(yù)，而且為了這幾個禮拜以來，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。
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.
做畢業(yè)典禮演說是一個重大的責(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，因為我發(fā)現(xiàn)她說的話我居然一個字都沒有記住。這個發(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。
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 towards personal improvement.
你們看，如果你們在若干年后能記住“gay wizard”這個笑話，我就比Barkoness Mary Warnock有進(jìn)步了。 所以，設(shè)定一個可以實現(xiàn)的目標(biāo)是個人進(jìn)步的第一步。
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。
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.
我想到了兩個答案。在今天這個愉快的日子，我們聚在一起慶祝你們學(xué)習(xí)上的成功時，我決定和你們談?wù)勈〉氖找?。另外，?dāng)你們?nèi)缃裉幱凇艾F(xiàn)實生活”的入口處時，我想向你們頌揚(yáng)想象力的重要性。
These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
我選擇的這兩個答案似乎如同堂吉訶德式幻想一樣不切實際，或者顯得荒謬，但是請容忍我講下去。
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.
對于我這樣一個已經(jīng)42歲的人來說，回頭看自己21歲畢業(yè)時的情景，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>
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?；钴S的想象力只是滑稽的個人怪癖，并不能用來付抵押房產(chǎn)，或者確保得到退休金。
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.
他們曾希望我去拿一個職業(yè)文憑，而我想讀英國文學(xué)。最后,我們達(dá)成了一個回想起來雙方都不甚滿意的妥協(xié)：我改學(xué)現(xiàn)代語言?？墒堑鹊礁改敢蛔唛_，我立刻報名學(xué)習(xí)古典文學(xué)了。
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 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。
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.
我想順帶著說明，我并沒有因為他們的觀點(diǎn)而抱怨他們。現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)不是抱怨父母引導(dǎo)自己走錯方向的時候了，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)我也堅決同意。貧窮會引起恐懼、壓力，有時候甚至是沮喪。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。
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
我在你們這個年齡的時候，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.
在你們這個年齡，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我，以及我同齡人是否成功的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。
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，因為你們還年輕，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)為這里的每個人已經(jīng)享有平靜的恩典和滿足。
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.
然而，你們能從哈佛畢業(yè)這個現(xiàn)實表明，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，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！
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.
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)?；谌魏我环N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。作為一個單身媽媽，而且在這個現(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，從任何一個通常的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來看，這是我知道的最大失敗。
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，我不會站在這里和你們說失敗很好玩。我生命的那段時間非常的灰暗，那時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。那時候的很長一段時間里，任何出現(xiàn)的光芒只是希望而不是現(xiàn)實。
