【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 140 141 我畢業(yè)后只過(guò)了7年，就失敗得一塌糊涂。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 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 ，我還失業(yè)了，成了一個(gè)艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當(dāng)代英國(guó)最窮的人之一，真的一無(wú)所有。我父母對(duì)我的擔(dān)憂，我對(duì)自己的擔(dān)憂，都變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。用平常人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，我是我所知道的最失敗的人。That period of my life was a dark 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 。我不知道還要在黑暗中走多久，很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間中，我有的只是希望，而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。但是，沒(méi)有那段日子的失敗，就不會(huì)有后來(lái)的她。So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the 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 ？因?yàn)槭⒛切┓潜举|(zhì)的東西都剝離了。我不再偽裝自己，我找到了真正的我，我將自己所有的精力，投入完成對(duì)我最重要的唯一一項(xiàng)工作。Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly ，那么我也許永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)有這樣的決心，投身于這個(gè)我自信真正屬于我的領(lǐng)域。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 so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my ，因?yàn)槲易畲蟮目謶忠呀?jīng)成為現(xiàn)實(shí)，而我卻還依然活著，依然有一個(gè)深愛(ài)著的女兒，我還有一臺(tái)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)大大的夢(mèng)想。我生命中最低的低點(diǎn)，成為我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other 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 ，以前通過(guò)考試也沒(méi)有的安全感。失敗讓我看清自己，以前我從沒(méi)認(rèn)識(shí)到自己是這樣的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我比自己以為的，有更強(qiáng)的意志和決心。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，我有一些比寶石更珍貴的朋友。You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by 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 ，你才會(huì)真正了解你自己，了解你結(jié)識(shí)的人。這種了解是真正的財(cái)富，雖然是用痛苦換來(lái)的，但是它比我以前得到的任何證書都有用。在演說(shuō)的下半部分，她還談了畢業(yè)后在大*赦*國(guó)*際（Amnesty International）倫敦總部的第一份工作。這部分內(nèi)容也很精彩，不過(guò)我就不翻譯了，大家可以去看原文。三、我要重點(diǎn)談的，是演說(shuō)的結(jié)尾部分。一般來(lái)說(shuō)，在演講結(jié)束時(shí)，嘉賓將對(duì)畢業(yè)生提出期望。我們可以看到，在這種場(chǎng)合，幾乎所有嘉賓，都沒(méi)有說(shuō)“祝愿同學(xué)們?nèi)〉脗€(gè)人成功”，而是說(shuō)“希望同學(xué)們努力去減輕人類的苦難”。比爾蓋茨去年說(shuō)：Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world39。s worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty...the prevalence of world hunger...the scarcity of clean water...the girls kept out of school...the children who die from diseases we can cure? 哈佛是否鼓勵(lì)她的老師去研究解決世界上最嚴(yán)重的不平等？哈佛的學(xué)生是否從全球那些極端的貧窮中學(xué)到了什么......世界性的饑荒......清潔的水資源的缺乏......無(wú)法上學(xué)的女童......死于非惡性疾病的兒童......哈佛的學(xué)生有沒(méi)有從中學(xué)到東西？Should the world39。s most privileged people learn about the lives of the world39。s least privileged? 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 那些世界上過(guò)著最優(yōu)越生活的人們，有沒(méi)有從那些最困難的人們身上學(xué)到東西？ These are not rhetorical questionsin talent, privilege, and opportunitythere is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from ，我們?cè)谶@個(gè)院子里的這些人，被給予過(guò)什么天賦、特權(quán)、機(jī)遇那么可以這樣說(shuō)，全世界的人們幾乎有無(wú)限的權(quán)力，期待我們做出貢獻(xiàn)。：the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very wellacquainted with might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for , your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person39。s idea of success, so high have you already flown ，說(shuō)明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(shuō)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?cè)趯W(xué)業(yè)上已經(jīng)很成功了。But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people39。s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.......That is your privilege, and your ，所有各位哈佛大學(xué)2008屆畢業(yè)生，你們對(duì)其他人的生活了解多少？你們的智慧、你們的能力、你們所受的教育，給了你們獨(dú)一無(wú)二的優(yōu)勢(shì)，也給了你們獨(dú)一無(wú)二的責(zé)任。......你們的優(yōu)勢(shì)就是你們的責(zé)任。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 transform for the ，為那些被忽略的人們說(shuō)話；你們不僅要看到那些有權(quán)有勢(shì)者，也要看到那些無(wú)權(quán)無(wú)勢(shì)者；你們要學(xué)會(huì)設(shè)想，那些條件不如你們的人209 210 211 212 213 214 215 們是如何生活的；那樣的話，不僅你們的親人們將為你們感到自豪，而且千千萬(wàn)萬(wàn)的人們將因?yàn)槟銈兊膸椭畹酶?。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 ，我們自己的體內(nèi)就有這樣的力量：那就是我們一直在夢(mèng)想，讓這個(gè)世界變得更美好。第三篇：雙語(yǔ)JK羅琳在哈佛大學(xué)08年畢業(yè)典禮上的演講她的演講題目是《失敗的好處和想象的重要性》（The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination）。她幾乎沒(méi)有談到哈里波特，而是說(shuō)了年輕時(shí)的一些經(jīng)歷。雖然JK羅琳現(xiàn)在很有錢，是英國(guó)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。我只找到了一部分中文翻譯，有興趣的朋友可以看下面的原文和視頻。二、她首先回憶了自己大學(xué)畢業(yè)的情景：I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write , 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 ，我只想去寫小說(shuō)。但是，我的父母出身貧寒，沒(méi)有受過(guò)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(lái)還房貸，或者掙來(lái)養(yǎng)老金。They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree。I wanted to study English promise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics ，而我想去攻讀英國(guó)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)外語(yǔ)?？墒堑鹊礁改敢蛔唛_(kāi)，我立刻報(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 all subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard pu