President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud par福斯特主席，哈佛公司和监察委员会的各位成员，各位老师、家长、全体毕业生们：
The first thing I would like to say is "thank you." Not only has Harvard given me anextraordinary honour, bm at the world’s largestGryffindors' reunion. 首先请允许我说一声谢谢。哈佛不仅给了我无上的荣誉，连日来为这个演讲经受的恐惧和紧张，更令我减肥成功。这真是一 Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast mymind back to myrd she said. This liberatingdiscovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence
发表毕业演说是一个巨大的责任，至少在我回忆自己当年的毕业典礼前是这么认为的。那天做演讲的是英国著名的哲学家B You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come outahead of Barones你们看，如果在若干年后你们还记得“快乐的魔法师”这个笑话，那就证明我已经超越了Baroness Mary Warnock。建立可 Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I haveasked myself what I 实际上，我为今天应该和大家谈些什么绞尽了脑汁。我问自己什么是我希望早在毕业典礼上就该了解的，而从那时起到现在 I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together tocelebrate your acade我想到了两个答案。在这美好的一天，当我们一起庆祝你们取得学业成就的时刻，我希望告诉你们失败有什么样的益处；在
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but bear with me.
这些似乎是不切实际或自相矛盾的选择，但请先容我讲完。
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortableexperience for the 42-回顾21岁刚刚毕业时的自己，对于今天42岁的我来说，是一个稍微不太舒服的经历。可以说，我人生的前一部分，一直挣 I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, myparents, both of 我一直深信，自己唯一想做的事情，就是写小说。不过，我的父母，他们都来自贫穷的背景，没有任何一人上过大学，坚持
I know the irony strikes like with the force of a cartoon anvil now, but„
我现在明白反讽就像用卡通铁砧去打击你，但...
They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. Acompromise was他们希望我去拿个职业学位，而我想去攻读英国文学。最后，达成了一个双方都不甚满意的妥协：我改学现代语言。可是等I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have foundout for the fi我不记得将这事告诉了父母，他们可能是在我毕业典礼那一天才发现的。我想，在全世界的所有专业中，他们也许认为，不 I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point ofview. Thererience poverty. They had been poorthemselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is ut poverty itself is romanticised only by fools. 我想澄清一下：我不会因为父母的观点，而责怪他们。埋怨父母给你指错方向是有一个时间段的。当你成长到可以控制自我力摆脱贫穷，确实可以引以自豪，但贫穷本身只有对傻瓜而言才是浪漫的。
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
我在你们这个年龄，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far toolong in the 我在您们这么大时，明显缺乏在大学学习的动力，我花了太久时间在咖啡吧写故事，而在课堂的时间却很少。我有一个通过 I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, youhave never known h我不想愚蠢地假设，因为你们年轻、有天份，并且受过良好的教育，就从来没有遇到困难或心碎的时刻。拥有才华和智慧， However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with 相反，你们是哈佛毕业生的这个事实，意味着你们并不很了解失败。你们也许极其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失败。说实话， Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quiteeager to giess, a lone parent, and as poor as itis possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my pa最终，我们所有人都必须自己决定什么算作失败，但如果你愿意，世界是相当渴望给你一套标准的。所以我承认命运的公平按照惯常的标准来看，我也是我所知道的最失败的人。
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was adark one, a现在，我不打算站在这里告诉你们，失败是有趣的。那段日子是我生命中的黑暗岁月，我不知道它是否代表童话故事里需要 So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away ofthe inessennation to succeed in the onearena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had alrea那么为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢？因为失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。我因此不再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to livewi你们可能永远没有达到我经历的那种失败程度，但有些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生 Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failuretaught me thing失败使我的内心产生一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。 The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that youare, ever after, secure e than any qualification I ever earned. 从挫折中获得智慧、变得坚强，意味着你比以往任何时候都更有能力生存。只有在逆境来临的时候，你才会真正认识你自己 Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personalhappiness lies in know's total control, and thehumility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
如果给我一部时间机器，我会告诉21岁的自己，人的幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成绩单，你的资历、简历，都不是
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination,because of the part it played ihat which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention andinnovation. In its arguably most transformative and对于第二个主题的选择——想象力的重要性——你们可能会认为是因为它对我重建生活起到了帮助，但事实并非完全如此。 One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though itinformed much of what mnesty International'sheadquarters in London. 其中一个影响最大的经历发生在我写哈利波特之前，为我随后写书提供了很多想法。这些想法成形于我早期的工作经历，在 There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes bymen and wure victims and sawpictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials andex在我的小办公室，我看到了人们匆匆写的信件，它们是从极权主义政权被偷送出来的。那些人冒着被监禁的危险，告知外面 Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from theirhomes, or fled i我有很多的同事是前政治犯，他们已离开家园流离失所，或逃亡流放，因为他们敢于怀疑政府、独立思考。来我们办公室的
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time,who had become of escorting him to the UndergroundStation afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty too我将永远不会忘记一个非洲酷刑的受害者，一名当时还没有我大的年轻男子，他因在故乡的经历而精神错乱。在摄像机前讲 And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing,from behind a c in retaliation for his ownoutspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed. 只要我活着，我还会记得，在一个空荡荡的的走廊，突然从背后的门里，传来我从未听过的痛苦和恐惧的尖叫。门打开了， Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was,to live in a cou在我20多岁的那段日子，每一天的工作，都在提醒我自己是多么幸运。生活在一个民选政府的国家，依法申述与公开审理 Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans,to gain or mai每一天，我都能看到更多有关恶人的证据，他们为了获得或维持权力，对自己的同胞犯下暴行。我开始做噩梦，真正意义上
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had everknown before. 同时在这里我也了解到更多关于人类的善良，比我以前想象的要多很多。
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for theirbeliefs to act onnot know, and will never meet. Mysmall participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring e大赦动员成千上万没有因为个人信仰而受到折磨或监禁的人，去为那些遭受这种不幸的人奔走。人类同理心的力量，引发集 Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without havingexperienced. They 不同于在这个星球上任何其他的动物，人类可以学习和理解未曾经历过的东西。他们可以将心比心、设身处地的理解他人。 Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One mightuse such an当然，这种能力，就像在我虚构的魔法世界里一样，在道德上是中立的。一个人可能会利用这种能力去操纵控制，也有人选 And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortablywithin the bounh them personally; they can refuseto know. 而很多人选择不去使用他们的想象力。他们选择留在自己舒适的世界里，从来不愿花力气去想想如果生在别处会怎样。他们 I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think theyhave any fewer nigh我可能会受到诱惑，去嫉妒那样生活的人。但我不认为他们做的噩梦会比我更少。选择生活在狭窄的空间，可以导致不敢面 What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For withoutever committing an act更甚的是，那些选择不去同情的人，可能会激活真正的怪兽。因为尽管自己没有犯下罪恶，我们却通过冷漠与之勾结。
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured atthe age of 18我18岁开始从古典文学中汲取许多知识，其中之一当时并不完全理解，那就是希腊作家普鲁塔克所说：我们内心获得的， That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. Itexpresses, in pa那是一个惊人的论断，在我们生活的每一天里被无数次证实。它指明我们与外部世界有无法脱离的联系，我们以自身的存在But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives?Your intelligenc The way you vote, the way youlive, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has a
但是，哈佛大学的2008届毕业生们，你们多少人有可能去触及他人的生命？你们的智慧，你们努力工作的能力，以及你们 If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those whohave no voice; if existence, but thousands and millions ofpeople whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not如果你选择利用自己的地位和影响，去为那些没有发言权的人发出声音；如果你选择不仅与强者为伍，还会同情帮扶弱者； I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friendsr Death Eaters. At ourgraduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that cou
我的演讲要接近尾声了。对你们，我有最后一个希望，也是我21岁时就有的。毕业那天坐在我身边的朋友现在是我终身的挚那照片将是极为宝贵的关系证明。
So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope thateven if you reme所以今天我可以给你们的，没有比拥有知己更好的祝福了。明天，我希望即使你们不记得我说的任何一个字，你们还能记得
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
生活就像故事一样：不在乎长短，而在于质量，这才是最重要的。
I wish you all very good lives.
我祝愿你们都有美好的生活。
Thank you very much.
非常感谢大家。
标签: 哈佛大学 becoming remember business politics
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud par福斯特主席，哈佛公司和监察委员会的各位成员，各位老师、家长、全体毕业生们：
The first thing I would like to say is "thank you." Not only has Harvard given me anextraordinary honour, bm at the world’s largestGryffindors' reunion. 首先请允许我说一声谢谢。哈佛不仅给了我无上的荣誉，连日来为这个演讲经受的恐惧和紧张，更令我减肥成功。这真是一 Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast mymind back to myrd she said. This liberatingdiscovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence
发表毕业演说是一个巨大的责任，至少在我回忆自己当年的毕业典礼前是这么认为的。那天做演讲的是英国著名的哲学家B You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've still come outahead of Barones你们看，如果在若干年后你们还记得“快乐的魔法师”这个笑话，那就证明我已经超越了Baroness Mary Warnock。建立可 Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I haveasked myself what I 实际上，我为今天应该和大家谈些什么绞尽了脑汁。我问自己什么是我希望早在毕业典礼上就该了解的，而从那时起到现在 I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together tocelebrate your acade我想到了两个答案。在这美好的一天，当我们一起庆祝你们取得学业成就的时刻，我希望告诉你们失败有什么样的益处；在
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but bear with me.
这些似乎是不切实际或自相矛盾的选择，但请先容我讲完。
Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortableexperience for the 42-回顾21岁刚刚毕业时的自己，对于今天42岁的我来说，是一个稍微不太舒服的经历。可以说，我人生的前一部分，一直挣 I was convinced that the only thing I wanted to do, ever, was to write novels. However, myparents, both of 我一直深信，自己唯一想做的事情，就是写小说。不过，我的父母，他们都来自贫穷的背景，没有任何一人上过大学，坚持
I know the irony strikes like with the force of a cartoon anvil now, but„
我现在明白反讽就像用卡通铁砧去打击你，但...
They had hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. Acompromise was他们希望我去拿个职业学位，而我想去攻读英国文学。最后，达成了一个双方都不甚满意的妥协：我改学现代语言。可是等I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have foundout for the fi我不记得将这事告诉了父母，他们可能是在我毕业典礼那一天才发现的。我想，在全世界的所有专业中，他们也许认为，不 I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point ofview. Thererience poverty. They had been poorthemselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is ut poverty itself is romanticised only by fools. 我想澄清一下：我不会因为父母的观点，而责怪他们。埋怨父母给你指错方向是有一个时间段的。当你成长到可以控制自我力摆脱贫穷，确实可以引以自豪，但贫穷本身只有对傻瓜而言才是浪漫的。
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
我在你们这个年龄，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far toolong in the 我在您们这么大时，明显缺乏在大学学习的动力，我花了太久时间在咖啡吧写故事，而在课堂的时间却很少。我有一个通过 I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, youhave never known h我不想愚蠢地假设，因为你们年轻、有天份，并且受过良好的教育，就从来没有遇到困难或心碎的时刻。拥有才华和智慧， However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with 相反，你们是哈佛毕业生的这个事实，意味着你们并不很了解失败。你们也许极其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失败。说实话， Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quiteeager to giess, a lone parent, and as poor as itis possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my pa最终，我们所有人都必须自己决定什么算作失败，但如果你愿意，世界是相当渴望给你一套标准的。所以我承认命运的公平按照惯常的标准来看，我也是我所知道的最失败的人。
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was adark one, a现在，我不打算站在这里告诉你们，失败是有趣的。那段日子是我生命中的黑暗岁月，我不知道它是否代表童话故事里需要 So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away ofthe inessennation to succeed in the onearena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had alrea那么为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢？因为失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。我因此不再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to livewi你们可能永远没有达到我经历的那种失败程度，但有些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生 Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failuretaught me thing失败使我的内心产生一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。 The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that youare, ever after, secure e than any qualification I ever earned. 从挫折中获得智慧、变得坚强，意味着你比以往任何时候都更有能力生存。只有在逆境来临的时候，你才会真正认识你自己 Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personalhappiness lies in know's total control, and thehumility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.
如果给我一部时间机器，我会告诉21岁的自己，人的幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成绩单，你的资历、简历，都不是
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination,because of the part it played ihat which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention andinnovation. In its arguably most transformative and对于第二个主题的选择——想象力的重要性——你们可能会认为是因为它对我重建生活起到了帮助，但事实并非完全如此。 One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though itinformed much of what mnesty International'sheadquarters in London. 其中一个影响最大的经历发生在我写哈利波特之前，为我随后写书提供了很多想法。这些想法成形于我早期的工作经历，在 There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes bymen and wure victims and sawpictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials andex在我的小办公室，我看到了人们匆匆写的信件，它们是从极权主义政权被偷送出来的。那些人冒着被监禁的危险，告知外面 Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from theirhomes, or fled i我有很多的同事是前政治犯，他们已离开家园流离失所，或逃亡流放，因为他们敢于怀疑政府、独立思考。来我们办公室的
I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time,who had become of escorting him to the UndergroundStation afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty too我将永远不会忘记一个非洲酷刑的受害者，一名当时还没有我大的年轻男子，他因在故乡的经历而精神错乱。在摄像机前讲 And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing,from behind a c in retaliation for his ownoutspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed. 只要我活着，我还会记得，在一个空荡荡的的走廊，突然从背后的门里，传来我从未听过的痛苦和恐惧的尖叫。门打开了， Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was,to live in a cou在我20多岁的那段日子，每一天的工作，都在提醒我自己是多么幸运。生活在一个民选政府的国家，依法申述与公开审理 Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans,to gain or mai每一天，我都能看到更多有关恶人的证据，他们为了获得或维持权力，对自己的同胞犯下暴行。我开始做噩梦，真正意义上
And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had everknown before. 同时在这里我也了解到更多关于人类的善良，比我以前想象的要多很多。
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for theirbeliefs to act onnot know, and will never meet. Mysmall participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring e大赦动员成千上万没有因为个人信仰而受到折磨或监禁的人，去为那些遭受这种不幸的人奔走。人类同理心的力量，引发集 Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without havingexperienced. They 不同于在这个星球上任何其他的动物，人类可以学习和理解未曾经历过的东西。他们可以将心比心、设身处地的理解他人。 Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One mightuse such an当然，这种能力，就像在我虚构的魔法世界里一样，在道德上是中立的。一个人可能会利用这种能力去操纵控制，也有人选 And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortablywithin the bounh them personally; they can refuseto know. 而很多人选择不去使用他们的想象力。他们选择留在自己舒适的世界里，从来不愿花力气去想想如果生在别处会怎样。他们 I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think theyhave any fewer nigh我可能会受到诱惑，去嫉妒那样生活的人。但我不认为他们做的噩梦会比我更少。选择生活在狭窄的空间，可以导致不敢面 What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For withoutever committing an act更甚的是，那些选择不去同情的人，可能会激活真正的怪兽。因为尽管自己没有犯下罪恶，我们却通过冷漠与之勾结。
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured atthe age of 18我18岁开始从古典文学中汲取许多知识，其中之一当时并不完全理解，那就是希腊作家普鲁塔克所说：我们内心获得的， That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. Itexpresses, in pa那是一个惊人的论断，在我们生活的每一天里被无数次证实。它指明我们与外部世界有无法脱离的联系，我们以自身的存在But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people's lives?Your intelligenc The way you vote, the way youlive, the way you protest, the pressure you bring to bear on your government, has a
但是，哈佛大学的2008届毕业生们，你们多少人有可能去触及他人的生命？你们的智慧，你们努力工作的能力，以及你们 If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those whohave no voice; if existence, but thousands and millions ofpeople whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not如果你选择利用自己的地位和影响，去为那些没有发言权的人发出声音；如果你选择不仅与强者为伍，还会同情帮扶弱者； I am nearly finished. I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friendsr Death Eaters. At ourgraduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that cou
我的演讲要接近尾声了。对你们，我有最后一个希望，也是我21岁时就有的。毕业那天坐在我身边的朋友现在是我终身的挚那照片将是极为宝贵的关系证明。
So today, I can wish you nothing better than similar friendships. And tomorrow, I hope thateven if you reme所以今天我可以给你们的，没有比拥有知己更好的祝福了。明天，我希望即使你们不记得我说的任何一个字，你们还能记得
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
生活就像故事一样：不在乎长短，而在于质量，这才是最重要的。
I wish you all very good lives.
我祝愿你们都有美好的生活。
Thank you very much.
非常感谢大家。
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