【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 n, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
實際上，我為今天應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，而從那時起到現(xiàn)在的21年間，我又得到了什么重要的啟示。
I have e 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。在這美好的一天，當我們一起慶祝你們?nèi)〉脤W業(yè)成就的時刻，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)實生活”的道路之際，我還要褒揚想象力的重要性。
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but bear with me.
這些似乎是不切實際或自相矛盾的選擇，但請先容我講完。 Looking back at the 21yearold that I was at graduation, is a slightly unfortable experience for the 42yearold that she has bee. 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)時的自己，對于今天42歲的我來說，是一個稍微不太舒服的經(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
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，堅持認為我過度的想象力是一個令人驚訝的個人怪癖，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 promise 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.
他們希望我去拿個職業(yè)學位，而我想去攻讀英國文學。最后，達成了一個雙方都不甚滿意的妥協(xié)：我改學現(xiàn)代語言。可是等到父母一走開，我立刻放棄了德語而報名學習古典文學。
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：我不會因為父母的觀點，而責怪他們。埋怨父母給你指錯方向是有一個時間段的。當你成長到可以控制自我方向的時候，你就要自己承擔責任了。尤其是，我不會因為父母希望我不要過窮日子，而責怪他們。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、有時還有絕望，它意味著許許多多的羞辱和艱辛?？孔约旱呐[
脫貧窮，確實可以引以自豪，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，明顯缺乏在大學學習的動力，我花了太久時間在咖啡吧寫故事，而在課堂的時間卻很少。我有一個通過考試的訣竅，并且數(shù)年間一直讓我在大學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 welleducated, 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 uuffled privilege and contentment.
我不想愚蠢地假設，因為你們年輕、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刻。擁有才華和智慧，從來不會使人對命運的反復無常有所準備；我也不會假設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 wellacquainted 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)生的這個事實，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，畢竟你們在學業(yè)上已經(jīng)達到很高的高度了。
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 shortlived 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 e 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，世界是相當渴望給你一套標準的。所以我承認命運的公平，從任何傳統(tǒng)的標準看，在我畢業(yè)僅僅七年后的日子里，我的失敗達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)成了一個艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當代英國最窮的人之一，真的一無所有。當
年父母和我自己對未來的擔憂，現(xiàn)在都