推荐第1篇：罗琳蔚
罗琳蔚
2012年4月1日 星期 天 天气 晴 心情∩_∩
三月，再见；四月，你好
今天是四月一日，也就是说四月已经来临，而三月却匆匆离开了。也许并不是着急离开，而是自然法则，每一个季的掌管者都必须遵守，所以三月的掌管者也不例外。但三月的掌管者去并不生气和后悔，因为“她”是春的象征，是春的开始，是春的生命萌芽。她也从不偷懒，一直勤勤恳恳的努力去把春的气息播散到每一个地方，每一处角落。让冬眠里的万物苏醒过来，好让它们更加可爱，更加活泼。也会去大地爷爷那里报到。让大地爷爷从梦中醒来，她一去可不要紧，惹得大地爷爷呵呵直笑，脸上都挂满了皱纹。渐渐地，时间匆匆过去，她便离开了，离开时，还不忘让四月的掌管者接班，向她问声好。
四月的掌管者怕晚了，匆匆地就赶到了，她赶忙地把！树木之神拉在身边，用树木灵气把树木的身体上涂满，在对它们说：“灵气飞满天，树木快苏醒’’。她又拉着树木之神来到小河边，她是个贪玩的掌管者，在小河边跑来跑去，只顾着跑着玩了。把树木之神晾在一边大声地喊：“莞郁，快回来！”(这是四月掌管者的小名)哎，四月掌管者莞郁只能先把树木之神送回家，再回来把河川之神拉着，让她
用河川神水把千条河，万路川点醒，再把她送回家。这次的她不敢再马虎了，因为她要去找大地爷爷了，大地爷爷却并没生气，轻轻吹一口气，就吹来阵阵和风。她可累坏了，不过为了早些完成任务，她还必须去找天空之神，找到了她还告诉她：“天空之神，赶…赶快，把把蓝花布擦干净，春…春天来了。噢，还，还有你快去让太阳公公把阳光洒下来让树木快快成长。’’天空之神笑了笑，说：“快回去吧，瞧你，都累坏了，我知道了。好好休息，不过，也别顾着玩！”说完，也匆匆离开了。哈，这下，她可轻松了，快快乐乐地自由奔跑着……
坐在桌旁的我，笔尖轻轻划过纸张，幸福地幻想着，对四月说一声，“你好” ……
推荐第2篇：给罗老师的一封信
给罗老师的一封信
敬爱的罗老师：
您好！这一个半月来做为实习班主任我很开心，很荣幸和您一起教133班，在这里我要真诚地道一声：“谢谢您！”
刚开始见到您的时候，觉得您很少话，其实我也是，之前我也是很内向、很安静的，跟陌生人说话害怕讲错话，所以一直很少话，不过现在好多了。但自从和您相处，发现其实您还是很能说的，从听班会到看您指导劳动课及其它活动，可以看出您很有领到能力，而且特别能说，班会课句句触动我的心，在我心中，您是很优秀的教育家，我跟自己说我以后也要成为这样一位老师。
刚开始我主动提出做班主任工作，没想到您爽快地答应了，因为我不熟悉班主任工作，平时还提醒我去参加例会等之类老师的活动，还很尊重我，会问：“你要不要上一次班会课。”之类的话……谢谢您给我这个班主任实习的机会。当您第一次介绍我的时候：“以后卢老师就是我们班的实习班主任，她说的话你们要听。”我非常感动，谢谢您的信任和支持！我听学姐说，你们罗老师说你很负责任，上课上得好，上课思路清晰。谢谢您的肯定和默默关注我的教学动态和
我们班上课的情况。
罗老师，每次活动，您都准时来到现场指挥，而且处理得井然有序，我真的很佩服您！每次劳动您都积极参与，而且是那么卖力，我看着感动不已，现在很少有一个老师能放下自己的身份，真正融入到和学生劳动中，我从您身上学到很多。所以，您很伟大，133班也幸运，我很幸运遇到您这样一位好老师。段考后，曾经有几个同学跟我说：“老师，有机会我也不想进重点班，我们班主任太好了。”确实，对于他们，您既是老师，更如妈妈，姐姐，朋友那样亲切，让人无法割舍。
虽然我就要离开了，很舍不得您和这些可爱的小家伙们。但我并不担心，因为他们都很懂事，很礼貌。 同时在您的出色领导下，我相信133班会越来越好的，我也相信他们不会让您失望的。罗老师，您真的是一位爱岗敬业的好老师。相信您的付出明天定会收获甘甜的果实。
千言万语汇成一句话：罗老师，谢谢您！没什么特别的礼物送给您，请您见谅，这8个苹果送给您，希望您一生平安！（8是吉祥的数字，8“发”嘛，希望您的事业蒸蒸日上。）
祝：
桃李满天下 身体健康 心想事成
卢老师2013年11月22日
推荐第3篇：JK罗琳演讲稿
J·K·罗琳，英国作家。原名乔安娜·罗琳或乔安·罗琳（Joanne Rowling），《哈利·波特》系列作品的作者。作为一个单身母亲，刚开始哈利丛书的创作时。罗琳母女的生活极其艰辛。她的第一本书《哈利·波特与魔法石》前后共写了5年，罗琳因为自家的屋子又小又冷，时常到住家附近的一家咖啡馆里。故事完成后，罗琳多次寄出书稿均遭到拒绝。不过，她的努力终于得到了回报。在一所小印刷商Bloomsbury接下印刷权后，一出版便备受瞩目，好评如潮。她的生活发生天翻地覆地变化。她被称为“哈利·波特之母”，以天才的想象力孕育了风靡全球的小魔法师哈利·波特，她也从一个贫困潦倒、默默无闻的“灰姑娘”，一跃成为尽享尊荣、财产超过英国女王的作家首富。
JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲：不要害怕失败
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：
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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的格兰芬多聚会上。
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 Barone Mary Warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师（gay有快乐和同性恋的意思）。
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Barone Mary Warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。
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，而从那时起到现在的 21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
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；在你们即将迈向\"现实生活\"的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
这些似乎是不切实际或自相矛盾的选择，但请先容我讲完。
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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。
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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。
我现在明白反讽就像用卡通铁砧去打击你，但...
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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。
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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。
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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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。
我在你们这个年龄，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。
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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。
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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。
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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。
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。所以我想很公平的讲，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。按照惯常的标准来看，我也是我所知道的最失败的人。
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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。
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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。
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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。
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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
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，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。
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。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。
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20 多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。
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，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和处决。
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。来我们办公室的访客，包括那些前来提供信息，或想设法知道那些被迫留下的同志发生了什么事的人。
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。在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的时候，他颤抖失控。他比我高一英尺，却看上去像一个脆弱的儿童。我被安排随后护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我未来生活幸福。
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，调查员探出头请求我，为坐在她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。她刚刚给他的消息是，为了报复他对国家政权的批评，他的母亲已经被捕并执行了枪决。
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，是所有人的权利。
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，真正意义上的噩梦，全都和我所见所闻有关。
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。
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，引发集体行动，拯救生命，解放囚犯。个人的福祉和安全有保证的普通百姓，携手合作，大量挽救那些他们素不相识，也许永远不会见面的人。我用自己微薄的力量参与了这一过程，也获得了更大的启发。
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。
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，也有人选择去了解同情。
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。他们可以拒绝去听别人的尖叫，看一眼囚禁的笼子；他们可以封闭自己的内心，只要痛苦不触及个人，他们可以拒绝去了解。
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，可以导致不敢面对开阔的视野，给自己带来恐惧感。我认为不愿展开想像的人会看到更多的怪兽，他们往往更感到更害怕。
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。
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，将改变外在的现实。
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，我们以自身的存在接触着他人的生命。
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，以及你们所受到的教育，给予你们独特的地位和责任。甚至你们的国籍也让你们与众不同，你们绝大部份人属于这个世界上唯一的超级大国。你们表决的方式，你们生活的方式，你们抗议的方式，你们给政府带来的压力，具有超乎寻常的影响力。这是你们的特权，也是你们的责任。
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；如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想，那么你的存在，将不仅是你家人的骄傲，更是无数因为你的帮助而改变命运的成千上万人的骄傲。我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己的内心就有这种力量：那就是我们一直在梦想，让这个世界变得更美好。
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交，他们是我孩子的教父母，是在我遇到麻烦时愿意伸出援手，在我用他们的名字给哈利波特中的 \"食死徒\"起名而不会起诉我的朋友。我们在毕业典礼时坐在了一起，因为我们关系亲密，拥有共同的永远无法再来的经历，当然，也因为假想要是我们中的任何人竞选首相，那照片将是极为宝贵的关系证明。
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，你们还能记得哲学家塞内加的一句至理明言。我当年没有顺着事业的阶梯向上攀爬，转而与他在古典文学的殿堂相遇，他的古老智慧给了我人生的启迪：
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。
我祝愿你们都有美好的生活。
非常感谢大家。
推荐第4篇：见习报告 罗琳
实习报 告
实习名称
系别
年级专业
学生姓名
指导老师
教育见习外语系罗琳（1140501281）
邵阳学院
2014年5月17日
一、实习时间：2014年下学期第十三周
二、实习地点：邵阳学院李子园校区和邵阳二中
三、实习单位：邵阳学院
四、实习过程
本次的教育见习一共有五天，每一天老师都安排不同的任务。第一天，老师组织我们去报告厅观摩、研讨一节中学英语优质课视频，然后老师做出总结，探讨这节课的优缺点，还有我们应该注意的问题。第二天，老师组织我们分班熟悉各种课型的教学方法，尤其是阅读、听力教学。第三天，我们听了优秀老师的学术报告，用他们自身的经验来谈论教学问题，教学方法。第四天，老师组织我们观摩中学英语课堂教学现场，然后进行总结，评判；然后同学进行分班交叉模拟教学试讲，最后老师进行点评。第五天，老师组织我们进行模拟教学，评课；最后老师们纷纷进行教育见习总结。
五、实习内容
1.高中英语优质课视频观摩与研讨
见习第一天，我们在指导老师的组织和带领下，在我们的报告厅观摩了一个优质教学示范课视频。此次课是一节听力课，课堂上老师采用了全英语教学，并且运用了多媒体技术辅助教学，教学方式是先循序渐进地听录音材料，听完分小组配合并模拟语境用英文表达，在课堂上授课老师很注重同学们的情感交流，整个教学过程中，授课老师通过眼神和动作对学生的回答和思考进行鼓励和引导，同时也向学生传递自己的教学思想，让学生充分感受到老师的教学心情和课堂氛围，带动学生积极地投入到思考和回答问题的过程中。这次观摩的目的在于让我们了解优秀教师如何开展、组织课堂教学以及教学策略的运用等知识。通过观看与讨论让我们了解到了上好一堂课的全部流程，以及怎样才能上好一堂课。
2.熟悉各种课型的教学方法
见习的第二天，我们分班熟悉各种课型的教学方法，特别是阅读教学和听力教学，为我们后半期的见习工作做好准备工作。只有熟悉了各种类型的教学方法，才能将其利用到实际课堂，真正的做到理论与实践相结合，才能更好地驾驭课堂才能真正的上好一堂正式的中学英语课。
3.中学英语课堂教学现场观摩
我们此次中学英语课堂教学现场观摩的地点是邵阳市二中，我们在指导老师的组织和带领下， 到市二中实地听了一堂难得的高中英语写作课，主题是How to learn
English well? 让我切身体会了到英语教学方法的多样性。课堂上，老师不再使用传统的满堂灌的教学思路，而是利用丰富的教学经验和课堂驾驭能力，结合听说读写译的教学方法循循诱导，引导学生参与到教学活动中，充分调动学生的积极性，使课堂充满活力。
4．高中英语优秀教师讲座
很有幸的是， 为了我们这次的见习，学校还邀请省级优秀教师老师给我们就有关高中英语教学做一个全面的讲座。老师跟我们分享了他自身的一些人生经历和他从教二十几年来的教学经验。时还给了我们所有同学在教学方面的忠告和建议，告诉我们如果想要从事教育工作，就必须要用心、有作为，必须要打心底里热爱这份职业，热爱所有的学生，用我们所有的热情和激情投入到里面去。还给我们总结了当一个好老师必备的能力，一是要有扎实的基本功，二是灵活处理教材的能力。他强调教学方法应该是教无定法，要灵活的对待各种层次的学生。整个一个讲座听下来，让我们所有的人都受益匪浅。
5.学生分班实施模拟教学
后面两天的见习是老师让我们分班模拟教学， 目的在于检测我们能否将所学的教学法的理论知识以及教育见习中获得的知识运用到自身的教学中。两位同学对new
words做了试讲，每个同学利用30分钟来做一堂简单的试讲，剩余的时间交给同学们以及指导老师点评。 总的来说几位同学的试讲都很不错，基本上都按照教学步骤一步步完成，上课内容也很精彩丰富，同时课堂也很活跃。当然，其中也存在一定的不足之处，同学和指导老师也一一对各位同学的试讲做出了点评，肯定了其中做的好的地方也对不足之处提出建议，让同学们能够更好地提高和完善自我。
六、实习收获与心得体会
经过五天的短暂见习，我觉得自己受益匪浅。让我们学到了很多的教学方法，不光是理论方面的，更有实践方面的。让我们从平时简单的理论教学跳入到真实的课堂，给我们提供了把理论与实践相结合的机会，也给了我们一个展示自我的舞台。在见习过程中，我深深的感受到理论知识与实际教学中还是有一段差距的。这就需要我们不断地去积累经验，用实践这个武器去装备完善自我。另外，我还觉得听课这个环节对于教学经
验的积累起到很大的作用，所以我们应该多去中学课堂听课，感受真实的中学教学课堂。通过教育见习，为我们下学期的教育实习打好了一定的基础。一周的教育见习时间很短促，但作为见习生，我对中学教育有了更加深入明确的认识。从教学实践方面让我体会到应该如何成为一个合格的教师，以后的学习也有了明确的努力方向。
七、存在的不足与缺点
在这次短暂的英语教育见习过程中，我发现了自己很多问题。课本学到的教学方法与技巧，毕竟是死知识，而要把死知识变活，就需要更多的锻炼。在见习过程中，我发现我的现场掌控能力不是很强，对教材如何处理也手足无措，最缺乏的自信。我相信这次的见习会为下个学期的实习打下坚实的基础，为以后的教育生涯做好铺垫，争取在未来做一名优秀的老师。
推荐第5篇：小学作文：给罗爷爷的一封信
给罗爷爷的一封信
敬爱的罗爷爷：
您好!
当您看到这封信时，一定很纳闷：这是谁给我的信呢?告诉您，这是我——您市一位爱鸣不平的小公民、岳阳楼区九华山小学三年级六十班一位普普通通的学生方宸给您的一封信。从电视中、报纸上，我知道您是一市之长，是我们所拥护和信赖的人。当我们学校因为浸水成了“汪洋大海”，我们不能上学时，我情不自禁地提起笔，给您写下这封求助信：
罗爷爷，您知道我们学校吗?我们学校在渔都对面，有
八、九百名学生。我一直在那儿学习，深深地喜欢那儿的老师、同学，唯一让我不满意的是学校经常被水淹。其实我非常喜欢玩水，可是现在的我，生怕下大雨，因为不知道什么原因只要一下雨，我们学校就成了一个脏脏的池塘。罗爷爷，就说今天的这场雨吧。我们正在教室里认真听老师讲课，突然广播里传出：“请老师迅速组织同学放学。”大家都唉声叹气：“又不能上课了。”我急忙背起书包离开教室，因为上次涨水我晚出来一步，水就涨到了好深好深，还是余老师把我背出来的，到现在我还心有余悸。我随着人流来到教学楼口，这里早就挤满了人。老师们、大哥哥大姐姐们照例在当雷锋，一趟趟地把小同学送到学校门口。当我站在学校门口，看着学校被脏兮兮的黑水包围，闻到一股股恶臭，看在眼里急在心里：什么时候退水?什么时候上课?什么时候学校不浸水呢?我问老师，老师无可奈何地直摇头;我百般无奈，想到了您——罗爷爷，我想您一定有办法帮我们的。
罗爷爷，说了这些话您不会讨厌我吧?我知道您日理万机，不想惊动您， 1
可我想我们总是这样耽误学习、影响健康也不行啊，希望您在百忙之中帮帮我们好吗?
祝您
身体健康万事如意!
您的小市民：方宸
2 2003年6月23日
推荐第6篇：给罗莉华姑妈的一封信
给罗莉华姑妈的一封信 敬爱的罗莉华姑妈：
您好！您是我的姑妈，作为南京人，我想请到南京游览。首先，我要向您介绍一下我那绿意盎然的家乡－南京。
我想对于南京，大家应该不陌生吧，没错，它还有一个名字叫“金陵”，它又是闻名的“石头城”，为什么叫它为石头城呢？又为什么称它为金陵呢？原来在古代有个传说：公元３３３年楚威王灭越在南京清凉山（又称石头山）筑城，称为“金陵邑”这也是南京又称“金陵”“石头城”的来历。
到了南京，绝对不能少了夫子庙，不然您就竹篮打水－一场空了。夫子庙真是琳琅满目，什么玩具啊，碟片啊，学习用具啊，珠宝啊„„夫子庙一般下午最火，人流如潮、车水马龙。南京的特色小吃有喷香的桂花鸭、可口的鸭血粉丝汤和板鸭。我推荐您吃桂花鸭，桂花鸭香味浓浓，在远处就能闻到它的香味，走进一看就更想吃了。 玄武湖的湖面波光粼粼 ，穿过隧道来到玄武湖，“哇，好美呀！”也许您会说，您会发现天空是那么蓝，小草是那么柔软，大树是那么挺拔。再往前走几步，您会 看到波光粼粼的湖水可真清啊！ 好了，这就是我的家乡——南京，看着波光粼粼的玄武湖、美丽的中山陵、好吃的桂花鸭和热闹非凡的夫子庙您会不会有点动心了？如果您动心了，我和我的家乡会张开翅膀欢迎您！
此致 敬礼！
您的侄子：张天颜 ２００９年１１月１４日
推荐第7篇：jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
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 an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve endured at the thought of giving this commencement addre 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 convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindors\' 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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的格兰芬多（沪江小编：以防有人没看过《哈利波特》……格兰芬多是小哈利所在的魔法学院的名字）聚会上。
Delivering a commencement addre 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 Barone 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 busine, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
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 Barone Mary Warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师（gay有快乐和同性恋的意思）。
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the \'gay wizard\' joke, I\'ve still come out ahead of Barone Mary Warnock.Achievable goals - the first step to self-improvement. 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Barone Mary Warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。
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 leons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
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，而从那时起到现在的 21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic succe, 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；在你们即将迈向―现实生活‖的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
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 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.
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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。
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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。
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.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 Claics corridor.
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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Claics; 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 le useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。
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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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 too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers.
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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartache.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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。
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 succe.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person\'s idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically.
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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。
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 short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was joble, a lone parent, and as poor as it is poible to be in modern Britain, without being homele.The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pa, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
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。所以我想很公平的讲，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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.
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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.I 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 me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.I was set free, because my greatest fear had 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 idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。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 impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by paing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I 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 the price of rubies.
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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such 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 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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。 So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happine lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone\'s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its viciitudes.
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，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
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。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International\'s headquarters 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20 多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。 There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
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，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和处决。
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government.Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those who they had left behind.
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。来我们办公室的访客，包括那些前来提供信息，或想设法知道那些被迫留下的同志发生了什么事的人。
I 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.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happine.
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。在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的时候，他颤抖失控。他比我高一英尺，却看上去像一个脆弱的儿童。我被安排随后护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我未来生活幸福。
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenne 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，调查员探出头请求我，为坐在她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。她刚刚给他的消息是，为了报复他对国家政权的批评，他的母亲已经被捕并执行了枪决。
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
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，是所有人的权利。
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
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，真正意义上的噩梦，全都和我所见所闻有关。
And yet I also learned more about human goodne at Amnesty International than I had ever known 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 their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
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，引发集体行动，拯救生命，解放囚犯。个人的福祉和安全有保证的普通百姓，携手合作，大量挽救那些他们素不相识，也许永远不会见面的人。我用自己微薄的力量参与了这一过程，也获得了更大的启发。
Unlike any other creature on this planet, human beings can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people\'s places.
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 might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
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，也有人选择去了解同情。
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 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 inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to 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。他们可以拒绝去听别人的尖叫，看一眼囚禁的笼子；他们可以封闭自己的内心，只要痛苦不触及个人，他们可以拒绝去了解。
I might be tempted 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 can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid. 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，可以导致不敢面对开阔的视野，给自己带来恐惧感。我认为不愿展开想像的人会看到更多的怪兽，他们往往更感到更害怕。
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
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 Claics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
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，将改变外在的现实。
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It exprees, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people\'s lives simply by existing.
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，我们以自身的存在接触着他人的生命。
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people\'s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world\'s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the preure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.
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，以及你们所受到的教育，给予你们独特的地位和责任。甚至你们的国籍也让你们与众不同，你们绝大部份人属于这个世界上唯一的超级大国。你们表决的方式，你们生活的方式，你们抗议的方式，你们给政府带来的压力，具有超乎寻常的影响力。这是你们的特权，也是你们的责任。
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 powerle; 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 to change.We do not need magic to transform the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
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；如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想，那么你的存在，将不仅是你家人的骄傲，更是无数因为你的帮助而改变命运的成千上万人的骄傲。我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己的内心就有这种力量：那就是我们一直在梦想，让这个世界变得更美好。
I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children\'s godparents, the people to whom I\'ve been able to turn in times of real trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I\'ve used their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
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交，他们是我孩子的教父母，是在我遇到麻烦时愿意伸出援手，在我用他们的名字给哈利波特中的 ―食死徒‖起名而不会起诉我的朋友。我们在毕业典礼时坐在了一起，因为我们关系亲密，拥有共同的永远无法再来的经历，当然，也因为假想要是我们中的任何人竞选首相，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 that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Claics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
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，你们还能记得哲学家塞内加的一句至理明言。我当年没有顺着事业的阶梯向上攀爬，转而与他在古典文学的殿堂相遇，他的古老智慧给了我人生的启迪：
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。
推荐第8篇：生命的保障 罗琳
生命的保障
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《乐乐熊奇幻追踪》观后感
明溪第二实验小学五年级（1）班 罗琳
2008年的5·12汶川大地震，8.0级，69227人遇难，374643人受伤，17923人失踪。它可曾给过你警示？2006年7月17日的印尼 瓜哇岛西南海域发生的海啸，造成668人死亡，1438人受伤，7.4万人无家可归。它可曾给过你警示？这些年来，频频发生的灾害，那些触目惊心的数字， 可曾给过你警示？
近期发生的众多灾害，使人们越发地重视起来了。《乐乐熊奇幻追踪》就是一部宣传防震减灾的少儿影片。它不只有精彩的剧情，还有遇到灾难时的生存知识。动画片主要讲乐乐熊、米拉和夏娜为了能完成拿到圣宝宝的任务，前往生存训练营，学习防震减灾知识。踏上征途后，遇上各种灾难，他们运用学的知识克服一切困难，最后完成了任务。
看完影片后，我不禁感慨万千.灾难是是十分可怕的，我们只有掌握正确的方法才能生存。不久前，一些在灾难发生时极为重要的逃生知识却鲜为人知。近一段时间，这个问题才得到了人们的重视。灾难面前我们不能抱有侥幸心理，在平时，就应该学会在灾难中生存的本领和技能。
“防震减灾，人人有责”人们天天挂在嘴上。可真正又有多少人做到了呢？朋友们，让我们从现在行动起来吧！为我们的生命多添一份保障。
推荐第9篇：jk罗琳名言（全文）
jk罗琳名言
1、“我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己体内就有这样的力量。我们一直在梦想，让这个世界变得更美好”。
2、从挫折中获得的知识越充满智慧、越有力，你在以后的生存中则越安全。除非遭受磨难，你们不会真正认识自己，也没法知道你们之间关系有多铁。这些知识才是真正的礼物，他们比我曾经获得的任何资格证书更为珍贵，因为这些是我经历过痛苦后才获得的。
3、决定我们一生的，不是我们的能力，而是我们的选择。
4、贫穷会引起恐惧、压力，有时候甚至是沮丧。这意味着小心眼、卑微和很多艰难困苦。通过自己的努力摆脱贫穷确实是件很值得自豪的事情，但只有傻瓜才对贫穷本身夸夸其谈。
5、我们不需要魔法来改变世界，我们已经在我们的内心拥有了足够的力量：那就是把世界想象成更好的力量。(WWW.FWSIR.COM)
6、现在已经不是抱怨父母引导自己走错方向的时候了，如今的你们已经足够大来决定自己前进的路程，责任要靠自己承担。
7、小时侯喜欢马尔福一样坏坏的男生，长大后才知道像哈利一样善良的才值得去爱
8、为什么我说失败是有好处的？因为失败将那些非本质的东西剥离了，我不再伪装自己，我找到了真正的我。我将所有的精力都投入到我最重要的也是唯一的工作中去――写小说。如果我此前在其他方面成功过，那么，我也许永远不会下这样的决心。我自由了，因为我最大的恐惧已成为现实，而我依然活着，有一个可爱的女儿，还有一台旧打字机和一个大大的梦想。我生命中的最低点也是我重建生活的坚实基础。”她告诫年轻人：面临挫折时，永远不要放弃希望。
9、失败给了我内心的安宁，这种安宁是顺利通过测验考试获得不了的。失败让我认识自己，这些是没法从其他地方学到的。
推荐第10篇：JK罗琳哈佛大学演讲
The Benefits of JK Rowling at Harvard 2008年J.K.罗琳在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲：失败的好处和想象
Video of J K Rowling\'s Commencement Addre, 力的重要性
“The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the
Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the
Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Aociation on Importance of Imagination Harvard University Commencement Addre June 5th 2008.In this powerful, moving, yet also
funny speech Jo talks about her time working for J.K.Rowling
Amnesty International, her personal experiences Tercentenary Theatre, June 5, 2008 失败的好处和想象力的重要性 with failure and the power of the imagination to 哈佛大学毕业典礼 allow us to empathize with others.
J.K.罗琳
2008年6月5日
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers,
members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
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 an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve endured at the thought of giving this commencement addre 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 convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindors\' 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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。
Delivering a commencement addre 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 Barone 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 busine, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.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Barone Mary Warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the \'gay wizard\' joke, I\'ve still come out ahead of Barone Mary
Warnock.Achievable goals - the first step to self-improvement.
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Barone Mary Warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。
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 leons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
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，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic succe, 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；在你们即将迈向“现实生活”的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
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 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.
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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。
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
The Benefits of JK Rowling at Harvard 2 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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。
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.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 Claics corridor.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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Claics; 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 le useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。
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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆
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 too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers.
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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。
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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。
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 succe.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person\'s idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically.
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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。
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 short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was joble, a lone parent, and as poor as it is poible to be in modern Britain, without being homele.The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pa, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
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，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当
The Benefits of JK Rowling at Harvard 3 年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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.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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。 So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.I 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 me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.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 idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
第11篇：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 and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement addre 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 convince myself that I am at the world¡¯s largest Gryffindor reunion.
Delivering a commencement addre 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 Barone 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 busine, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ¡®gay wizard¡¯ joke, I¡¯ve come out ahead of Barone Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.
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 leons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired 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 succe, 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.
These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
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. 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 would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.
So they 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 Claics corridor. I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Claics; 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 le useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
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 paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers.
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.
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 succe.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person¡¯s idea of succe, so high have you already flown.
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 joble, a lone parent, and as poor as it is poible to be in modern Britain, without being homele.The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pa, and by every usual standard, I was 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 pre has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, 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 of the ineential.I 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 me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.I was set free, because my greatest fear had 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 idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.It is impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all ¨C in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by paing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I 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 the price of rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I ever earned.
So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happine lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone¡¯s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its viciitudes.
Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International¡¯s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.
I 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.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happine.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out 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 for his own outspokenne against his country¡¯s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read. And yet I also learned more about human goodne at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people¡¯s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 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 inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted 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, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully 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 evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Claics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It exprees, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people¡¯s lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people¡¯s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world¡¯s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the preure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.
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 powerle; 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 change.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 better.
I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children¡¯s godparents, the people to whom I¡¯ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Claics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank you very much.
第12篇：JK罗琳哈佛毕业演讲稿
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 an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve endured at the thought of giving this commencement addre 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 convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindors\' 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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。
Delivering a commencement addre 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 Barone 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 busine, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
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Barone Mary Warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the \'gay wizard\' joke, I\'ve still come out ahead of Barone Mary Warnock.Achievable goals - the first step to self-improvement.
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Barone Mary Warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。
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 leons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
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，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic succe, 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;在你们即将迈向“现实生活”的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
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 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.
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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。
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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。
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.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 Claics corridor.
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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Claics; 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 le useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。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 impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by paing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I discovered that I had a strong will, and more disciplined than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.
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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such 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 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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
Given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happine lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone\'s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its viciitudes.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，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.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。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International\'s headquarters 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20多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
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，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和处决。
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those who they had left behind.
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。来我们办公室的访客，包括那些前来提供信息，或想设法知道那些被迫留下的同志发生了什么事的人。
I 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.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happine.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。在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的时候，他颤抖失控。他比我高一英尺，却看上去像一个脆弱的儿童。我被安排随后护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我未来生活幸福。
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenne 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，调查员探出头请求我，为坐在她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。她刚刚给他的消息是，为了报复他对国家政权的批评，他的母亲已经被捕并执行了枪决。
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
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，是所有人的权利。
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
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，真正意义上的噩梦，全都和我所见所闻有关。
And yet I also learned more about human goodne at Amnesty International than I had ever known 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 their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
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，引发集体行动，拯救生命，解放囚犯。个人的福祉和安全有保证的普通百姓，携手合作，大量挽救那些他们素不相识，也许永远不会见面的人。我用自己微薄的力量参与了这一过程，也获得了更大的启发。
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people\'s places (minds, imagine themselves into other people\'s places.)
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 might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
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，也有人选择去了解同情。
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 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 inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to 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。他们可以拒绝去听别人的尖叫，看一眼囚禁的笼子;他们可以封闭自己的内心，只要痛苦不触及个人，他们可以拒绝去了解。
I might be tempted 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 can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.
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，可以导致不敢面对开阔的视野，给自己带来恐惧感。我认为不愿展开想像的人会看到更多的怪兽，他们往往更感到更害怕。
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
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 Claics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
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，将改变外在的现实。
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It exprees, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people\'s lives simply by existing.
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，我们以自身的存在接触着他人的生命。
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people\'s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world\'s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the preure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.
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，以及你们所受到的教育，给予你们独特的地位和责任。甚至你们的国籍也让你们与众不同，你们绝大部份人属于这个世界上唯一的超级大国。你们表决的方式，你们生活的方式，你们抗议的方式，你们给政府带来的压力，具有超乎寻常的影响力。这是你们的特权，也是你们的责任。
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 powerle; 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 better.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 better.
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;如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想，那么你的存在，将不仅是你家人的骄傲，更是无数因为你的帮助而改变命运的成千上万人的骄傲。我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己的内心就有这种力量：那就是我们一直在梦想，让这个世界变得更美好。
I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children\'s godparents, the people to whom I\'ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I\'ve used their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for prime Minister.
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交，他们是我孩子的教父母，是在我遇到麻烦时愿意伸出援手，在我用他们的名字给哈利波特中的“食死徒”起名而不会起诉我的朋友。我们在毕业典礼时坐在了一起，因为我们关系亲密，拥有共同的永远无法再来的经历，当然，也因为假想要是我们中的任何人竞选首相，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 that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Claics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
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，你们还能记得哲学家塞内加的一句至理明言。我当年没有顺着事业的阶梯向上攀爬，转而与他在古典文学的殿堂相遇，他的古老智慧给了我人生的启迪：
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。
第13篇：jk罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲
JK罗琳JK罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲
译文_Juanz_新浪博客 如果您不仅去帮助强者，而且还会同情并帮扶弱者； 如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想；
那么，您的存在将不仅是你家族的骄傲，也是无数因你帮助而过上幸福生活的人的骄傲。我们不需要魔法来改变世界，我们已经拥有了需要的所有的力量。我们有能力想象会更好。
我的演讲也接近尾声了。对你们，我有最后一个希望，也是我在21岁时就一直在思考的。毕业那天坐在我身边的朋友将是我终身的朋友。他们是我的孩子的教父母，是我在遇到麻烦是可以求助的人，是当我用他们的姓名作为食死徒的名字而不会起诉我的朋友（译者注：食死徒是哈利波特中人物在此指罗琳的朋友不会因为她用他们的名字而遭起诉）。
在我们毕业的时候，我们因无尽的爱而在此相聚。我们有共同的永不再有的经历。当然，如果我们中的任何人竞选首相，那么今天的照片将是极为宝贵的证明。所以，今天我可以给你们的，没有比同伴的友谊更好的祝福了。
明天，我希望你们即使记不得我的名字，你还记得那些塞内加，他是我在罗马文学著作中结识的另一位哲学家。在我退出职业生涯后，寻找古老的生活智慧： 生活就像故事一样，不在乎长度，而在于质量。这才是问题的关键。 我在此祝大家生活愉快！非常感谢Thank you!
来源：(http://blog.sina.com.cn/) - JK罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲
译文_Juanz_新浪博客
第14篇：罗琳达荷大学毕业演讲稿
罗琳2008年达荷大学毕业演讲稿
The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination 失败的额外收益与想象力的重要性
（J.K.Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivers her Commencement Addre, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Aociation.）
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.I 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.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happine.And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out 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 for his own outspokenne against his country’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read.And yet I also learned more about human goodne at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people’s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 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 inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.I might be tempted 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, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully 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 evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Claics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It exprees, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world’s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the preure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.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 powerle; 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 change.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 better.I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Claics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.I wish you all very good lives.Thank you very much.
哈利波特的作者罗琳于6月5日参加了哈佛大学2008年的毕业典礼，被授予荣誉学位，并作为特邀嘉宾做了标题为《The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination》（失败的额外收益与想象力的重要性）的演讲。
在演讲中，罗琳谈到失败和想象力的重要性。失败让她更好的认识自我，坚定了她做最喜欢、最擅长事情的决心。她认为，从失败中学到的教训让自己在未来的人生中处于更安全的位置。而想象力让人具备一种“思他人所思，想他人所想”的同理心。罗琳鼓励哈佛骄子在未来人生中，勇于面对失败，敞开心怀关注他人。
浮士德主席，哈佛公司和监察委员会的各位成员，大学的员工，自豪的父母，以及所有的毕业生们：
首先我想说的是“谢谢你们”。这不仅因为哈佛给了我非比寻常的荣誉，而且为了这几个礼拜以来，由于想到这次毕业典礼演说而产生的恐惧与恶心让我减肥成功。这真是一个双赢的局面！现在我需要做的就是一次深呼吸，眯着眼看着红色的横幅，然后欺骗自己，让自己相信正在参加世界上受到最好教育群体的哈立波特大会。
做毕业典礼演说是一个重大的责任，我的思绪回到了自己的那次毕业典礼。那天的演讲者是一位英国的杰出哲学家 Barone Marry Warnock.对她演讲的回忆对我写这篇演讲稿帮助巨大，因为我发现她说的话我居然一个字都没有记住。这个发现让我释然，使我得以继续写完演讲稿，我不用再担心，那种想成为\"gay wizard\"（harry porter中的魔法大师）的眩晕的愉悦，可能会误导你们放弃在商业、法律、政治领域的大好前途。 你们看，如果你们在若干年后能记住“gay wizard”这个笑话，我就比Barkone Mary Warnock有进步了。 所以，设定一个可以实现的目标是个人进步的第一步。
实际上，我已经绞尽脑汁、费劲心思去想今天我应该讲什么好。我问自己：我希望在自己毕业那天已经知道的是什么，而又有哪些重要的教训是我从那天开始到现在的21年间学会的。
我想到了两个答案。在今天这个愉快的日子，我们聚在一起庆祝你们学习上的成功时，我决定和你们谈谈失败的收益。另外，当你们如今处于“现实生活”的入口处时，我想向你们颂扬想象力的重要性。
我选择的这两个答案似乎如同堂吉诃德式幻想一样不切实际，或者显得荒谬，但是请容忍我讲下去。
对于我这样一个已经42岁的人来说，回头看自己21岁毕业时的情景，并不是一件舒服的事情。我的前半生之前，我一直在自己内心的追求与最亲近的人对我的要求之间进行不自在的抗争。
我曾确信我自己唯一想做的事情是写小说。但是我的父母都来自贫穷的家庭，都没有上过大学，他们认为我的异常活跃的想象力只是滑稽的个人怪癖，并不能用来付抵押房产，或者确保得到退休金。
他们曾希望我去拿一个职业文凭，而我想读英国文学。最后,我们达成了一个回想起来双方都不甚满意的妥协：我改学现代语言。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻报名学习古典文学了。
我忘了自己是怎么把学古典文学的事情告诉父母的了，他们也可能是在我毕业那天才第一次发现。在这个星球上的所有科目中，我想他们很难再发现一门比希腊神学更没用的课程了。
我想顺带着说明，我并没有因为他们的观点而抱怨他们。现在已经不是抱怨父母引导自己走错方向的时候了，如今的你们已经足够大来决定自己前进的路程，责任要靠自己承担。而且，我也不能批评我的父母，他们是希望我能摆脱贫穷。他们以前遭受了贫穷，我也曾经贫穷过，对于他们认为贫穷并不高尚的观点我也坚决同意。贫穷会引起恐惧、压力，有时候甚至是沮丧。这意味着小心眼、卑微和很多艰难困苦。通过自己的努力摆脱贫穷确实是件很值得自豪的事情，但只有傻瓜才对贫穷本身夸夸其谈。
我在你们这个年龄的时候，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。
在你们这个年龄，尽管我明显缺少在大学学习的动力，我花了很多时间在咖啡吧写故事，很少去听课，但是我知道通过考试的技巧，当然，这也是好多年来评价我，以及我同龄人是否成功的标准。 我想说，并不是我太迟钝，我觉得你们还不曾知道什么是艰难困苦，或者什么是心碎的感觉，因为你们还年轻，而且天资聪明，受到良好教育。但是天赋和智商还未能使任何人免于命运无常的折磨，我从来不认为这里的每个人已经享有平静的恩典和满足。
然而，你们能从哈佛毕业这个现实表明，你们对失败还不是很熟悉，对于失败的恐惧与对于成功的渴望可能对你们有相同的驱动力。确实，你们对于失败的概念可能与普通人的成功差不了太多。你们在学习这方面已经站得相当高了！
当然，最终我们所有人不得不为自己决定什么是失败的组成元素，但是如果你愿意的话，世界很愿意给你一堆的标准。基于任何一种传统标准，我可以说，仅仅在我毕业7年后，我经历了一次巨大的失败。我突然间结束了一段短暂的婚姻，失去了工作。作为一个单身妈妈，而且在这个现代化的英国，除了不是无家可归，你可以说我有多穷就有多穷。我父母对于我的担心，以及我对自己的担心都成了现实，从任何一个通常的标准来看，这是我知道的最大失败。
现在，我不会站在这里和你们说失败很好玩。我生命的那段时间非常的灰暗，那时我还不知道我的书会被新闻界认为是神话故事的革命，我也不知道这段灰暗的日子要持续多久。那时候的很长一段时间里，任何出现的光芒只是希望而不是现实。
那么我为什么还要谈论失败的收益呢？仅仅是因为失败意味着和非我的脱离，失败后我找到了自我，不再装成另外的形象，我开始把我所有的精力仅仅放在我关心的工作上。如果我在其他方面成功过，我可能就不会具备要求在自己领域内获得成功的决心。我变得自在，因为我已经经历过最大的恐惧。而且我还活着，我有一个值得我自豪的女儿，我有一个陈旧的打字机和很不错的写作灵感。我在失败堆积而成的硬石般的基础上开始重筑我的人生。
你们可能不会经历像我那么大的失败，但生活中面临失败是不可避免的。永远不失败是不可能，除非你活得过于谨慎，这样倒还不如根本就没有在世上生活过，因为你从一开始就失败了。
失败给了我内心的安宁，这种安宁是顺利通过测验考试获得不了的。失败让我认识自己，这些是没法从其他地方学到的。我发现自己有坚强的意志，而且，自我控制能力比自己猜想的还要强，我也发现自己拥有比红宝石更真的朋友。
从挫折中获得的知识越充满智慧、越有力，你在以后的生存中则越安全。除非遭受磨难，你们不会真正认识自己，也没法知道你们之间关系有多铁。这些知识才是真正的礼物，他们比我曾经获得的任何资格证书更为珍贵，因为这些是我经历过痛苦后才获得的。
如果给我一个时间机器，我会告诉21岁的自己，个人的幸福建立在自己能够认识到：生活不是拥有的物品与成就的清单。虽然你们会碰到很多和你们一样大或年长的人分不清楚生活与清单的区别，但你们的资格证书、简历，都不能等价于你们的生活。生活是困难的，也是复杂的，它完全超出任何人的控制，谦虚的认识到这些能使你们在生命的沉浮中得以顺利生存。
你们可能认为我选择想象力作为第二个演讲主题是因为它在重筑我人生的过程中起了作用，但这不是全部原因。虽然我会不遗余力地为床边故事的价值做辩护，但我已学会从更广泛的意义来评价想象力的价值。想象力不仅是一种能促使人类预想不存在事物的独特能力，从而成为所有发明和创新的源泉；从想象力或许是最具改革性和启示作用的能力这点讲，它更是一种能使我们同没有分享过他们经历的人产生共鸣的力量。
我最伟大的生活经历之一发生在写《哈利波特》前，当然我在后来书中写的很多东西与这个经历有关。这个启示来源于我最早期工作之一。我在伦敦的大 赦 国际总部的研究部门工作，虽然我在中饭的时间逃出来写小说，但我需要这份工作来支付我20多岁时的房租。
在那儿我的狭小的工作室内，我匆忙得读着从各地集权政权内传出来的潦草信件，这些信件是那些冒着进监狱风险而向外传播发生在他们身上惨剧的人偷运出来。我看到了无影无踪就消失的人的相片，这些相片是家里人或朋友送来的。我读着被酷刑折磨的受害者的证据和他们受伤的照片；我打开手写的目击者对审讯和处决的摘要记录，以及对绑架和强奸的叙述。
我的许多同事以前是政治犯人，他们因为勇于不附和政府而独立思考，以致被赶出自己的家，或者被放逐。来拜访我们办公室的人包括那些传递消息的，或者尝试弄清楚那些被迫离开的人身后的真相。
我永远不会忘记那个非洲来的被酷刑折磨的受害者，他是一个和我那时候年龄相仿的年轻男子，但在他家乡经受过的拷打后，他已经有了精神病。当他向录像机讲述强加在他身上的暴行时，他无法控制地发抖。他比我高一英尺，但像一个小孩一样脆弱。后来我的工作是护送他去地下站，这个整个生活被野蛮摧毁的男子礼貌地握着我的手，祝福我一生幸福。
只要我活着，我就能记住我沿着一个空旷的走廊走，突然从后面关闭的一扇门传来我从没听到过的充满痛苦和恐怖的尖叫。门打开了，有个研究人员探出头，让我快点跑去弄点热饮料给坐在她旁边的那个年轻男子。原来，她刚告诉那个男子，为了报复他对他国家的政权做了公开的反对演讲，他的妈妈被抓住、处决了。
在我20多岁时工作的每一天，我提醒我自己我是多么的幸运啊，能生活在一个民主选 举产生的政府的国家，在这里合法的陈述和公共审 判是每一个人的权利。
每一天，我看到更多的证据，证明邪恶的人类为了获得、维持权力而加害与他们同样的人类。我开始为这些我看到的、听到的、读到的东西做恶梦，是文字恶梦。
然而，我也在dase国际学到了比我以前知道的更多的人类善良的一面。
dase国际动员了数千位没有因为信 仰问题而被拷 问或入 狱的人，让他们来代表那些经历过这些的人行动起来。人类的同理心具有能引导集体行动的力量，这种力量能拯救生命，让囚徒获得自由。在这种活动中，那些拥有受到保护的个人福 址和安全的普通人聚在了一起，来拯救他们不认识、也永远不会见面的人。我在这个过程中小小的参与是我生命中最卑微，也是最令人振奋的经历之一。
人类和在这个星球上的其他生物不同，人类能够在没有自我经历的情况下学习和理解。他们可以设身处地的思他人所思，想他人所想。
当然，这是一种力量，如同我虚构的魔法，这种力量是道德中立的。有人可能常运用这种能力去操作和控制，就像用于理解和同情一样。
而且，许多人根本不喜欢训练他们的想象力。他们宁愿在自己的经验范围内维持舒适的状态，也不愿麻烦地去思考这样的问题：如果他们不是现在的自己，那么应该是什么感觉呢？他们拒绝听到尖叫，拒绝关注囚牢，他们可以对任何与他们自身无关的苦难关上思维与心灵的大门，他们可以拒绝知道这些。
我可能会羡慕那些以这种方式生活的人，但我不认为他们的噩梦比我少。选择在狭小的空间生活会导致精神上的恐旷症（对于陌生人、事物的恐惧），而且会带来它自身形成的恐怖。我想那些任性固执的缺乏想象力的人会看到更多的怪物，他们常常更容易感到害怕。
甚至于，那些选择不去想他人所想的人可能激活真正的恶魔。因为，虽然我们没有亲手犯下那些昭然若揭的恶行，我们却以冷漠的方式和邪恶在串谋。
十八岁时，为了寻找那时我无法描述的目的，我踏上了古典文学的探险道路；当走到尽头的时候，我学到了很多东西，其中之一就是希腊作家Plutarch的这句话：我们在内心的所得，将改变外界的现实。
我在古典文学的求学之路上学到的，也是我18岁时在那冒险搜寻但不知道怎么定义的重要事情之一就是，如古希腊作家普卢塔克所写的：“我们对内在修养的追求将会改变外在现实。”
这是一个令人惊讶的说法，然而它在我们生命中每一天会被证明一千多次。这句话部分地说明了我们和外部世界不可分离的联系，我们只能通过生命存在来接触别人生命的事实。
但是你们，2008哈佛大学的毕业生们，到底有多么得愿意来感受他人的生命呢？你们对付困难工作的智慧与能力，你们赢得和接受的教育，给了你们独特的地位和责任。甚至你们的国籍也使你们与众不同。你们中的很大一部分人属于这个世界剩下的唯一超级大国（美国）。你们投票、生活、抗议的方式，你们给政府施加的压力，会产生超越国界的影响。那是你们的特权，更是你们的负担。
如果你们选择用你们的地位和影响力来为没法发出声音的人说话；如果你们选择不仅认同有权的强势群体，也认同无权的弱势群体；如果你们保留你们的能力，用来想象那些没有你们这些优势的人的现实生活，那么不仅是你们的家庭为你们的存在而感到自豪，为你们庆祝，而且那些因为你们的帮助而生活得更好的数以千万计的人，会一起来为你们祝贺。我们不需要魔法来改变世界，我们已经在我们的内心拥有了足够的力量：那就是把世界想象成更好的力量。
在我的演说快要结束的时候，我对大家还有最后一个希望，这是我在自己21岁时就明白的道理。毕业那天和我坐在一起的朋友后来成了我终生的朋友。他们是我孩子的教父母；他们是我碰到麻烦时能求助的人；他们是非常友善的，不会为了我以他们的名字给食死徒(书中反面角色)命名而控告我。在我们毕业的时候，我们沉浸在巨大的情感冲击中；我们沉浸于这段永不能重现的共同时光内；当然，如果我们中的某个人将来成为国家首相，我们也沉浸于能拥有极其有价值的相片作为证据的兴奋中。
所以今天，我最希望你们能拥有同样的友情。到了明天，我希望即使你们不记得我说过的任何一个字，但能记住塞内加，我在逃离那个走廊，回想进步的阶梯，寻找古人智慧时碰到的另一个古罗马哲学家，说过的一句话：“生活如同小说，要紧的不是它有多长，而在于它有多好。”
我祝愿你们都有幸福的生活。
谢谢大家。
第15篇：JK罗琳08哈佛演讲
JK罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲。
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 and nausea I\'ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement addre 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.
Delivering a commencement addre 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 Barone 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 busine, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the \'gay wizard\' joke, I\'ve still come out ahead of Barone Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.
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 leons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired 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 succe, 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.
These might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.
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.
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.
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 Claics corridor.
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Claics; 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 le useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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.
What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
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 paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers.
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.
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 succe.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person\'s idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically.
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 joble, a lone parent, and as poor as it is poible to be in modern Britain, without being homele.The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pa, and by every usual standard, I was 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 pre 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.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.I 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 me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.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 idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable.It is impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by paing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I 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 rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such 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 earned.
so Given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happine lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many p eople of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone\'s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its viciitudes.
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International\'s headquarters in London.
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government.Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had been forced to leave behind.
I 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.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happine.
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenne against his country\'s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone.
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read.
And yet I also learned more about human goodne at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people\'s minds, imagine themselves into other people\'s places.
Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise.
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 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 inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
I might be tempted 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 can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid.
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Claics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It exprees, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people\'s lives simply by existing.
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people\'s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world\'s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the preure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden.
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 powerle; 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 better.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 better.
I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children\'s godparents, the people to whom I\'ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I\'ve used their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.
So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Claics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
I wish you all very good lives.
Thank you very much.
第16篇：JK罗琳的英语演讲三分钟
2008年jk罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲（中英文对照） 默认分类 2009-07-17 20:13 阅读1281 评论0 字号： 大 中 小
“2008年6月5日是哈佛大学的毕业典礼，请来的演讲嘉宾是《哈利波特》的作者j.k.罗琳女士。她的演讲题目是《失败的好处和想象的重要性》（the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imaginatio n）。我读了一遍讲稿，觉得很好，很感染人。
她几乎没有谈到哈里波特，而是说了年轻时的一些经历。虽然j·k·
罗琳现在很有钱，是英国仅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾经有一段非常艰辛的日子，30岁了，还差点流落街头。她主要谈的是，自己从
这段经历中学到的东西。”
以下是英文文稿和中文翻译： text as delivered follows. copyright of jk rowling, june 2008 president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, members of the faculty, proud parent s, and, above all, graduates. the first thing i would like to say is ?thank you.? not only he world?s largest gryffindor reunion. k.achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that have expired between tha t day and this. agination. these may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but plea se bear with me. hose closest to me expected of me. 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 would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.i know that the irony strikes with t he force of a cartoon anvil, now. d off down the claics corridor. i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying claics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an exec utive bathroom. nticised only by fools. what i feared most for myself at your age was not povert y, but failure. 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 paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the me asure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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. 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person?s idea of succe, so high have you already flown. every usual standard, i was 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 pre has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.i had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, 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 of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.i was set free, because my greatest fear had 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 idea.and so rock bottom became t he solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. you might never fail on the scale i did, but some failure in life is inevitable.it is impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.failure gave me an inner security that i had never attained by paing examinations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i discovered tha t 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 the price of rubies. the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification i ever earned. th humans whose experiences we have never shared.one of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded harry potter, though it informed much of what i subsequently wrote in those books.this revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.though i was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, i paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the african research department at amn esty international?s headquarters in london. there in my little office i read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims篇2：jk罗琳2008哈佛毕业演讲稿 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： banners and convince myself that i am at the world’s largest gryffindors 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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。
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barone mary warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
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barone mary warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。 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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this. 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，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
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；在你们即将迈向“现实生活”的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
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 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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。 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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。 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... 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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。 i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying claics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. 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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。 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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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 too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, i had a knack for paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。 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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有免疫（直译）；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average persons idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically. 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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。
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，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and i had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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. 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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。 so why do i talk about the benefits of failure? simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.i was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, 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 became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. 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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。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 impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. 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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。 failure gave me an inner security that i had never attained by paing examinations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i discovered that i had a strong will, and more disciplined than i had suspected; i also found out that i had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies. 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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。 the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such 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 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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛篇3：jk罗琳哈佛大学演讲 中英文对照 j.k罗琳2008年哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲
——《哈利.波特》作者j.k罗琳 president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates, 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：
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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的格兰芬多（沪江小编：以防有人没看过《哈利波特》„„格兰芬多是小哈利所在的魔法学院的名字）聚会上。 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 barone mary warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师（gay有快乐和同性恋的意思）。
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barone mary warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。 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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this. 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，而从那时起到现在的 21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
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；在你们即将迈向―现实生活‖的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。 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。
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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。 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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。 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. 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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。 i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying claics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. 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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。 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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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 romanticized 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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 too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, i had a knack for paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。 i am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartache.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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average persons idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically. 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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。
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。所以我想很公平的讲，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and i had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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. 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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。 so why do i talk about the benefits of failure? simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.i was set free, because my greatest fear had 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 idea.and so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. 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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。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 impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. 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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。 failure gave me an inner security that i had never attained by paing examinations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i 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 the price of rubies. 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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。 the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such 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 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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
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，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。 you might think that i chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.though i will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, i have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.in its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. 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。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。 one of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded harry potter, though it informed much of what i subsequently wrote in those books.this revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.though i was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, i paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the african research department at amnesty internationals headquarters 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20 多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。 there in my little office i read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.i opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. 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，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和处决。 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。来我们办公室的访客，包括那些前来提供信息，或想设法知道那些被迫留下的同志发生了什么事的人。
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。在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的时候，他颤抖失控。他比我高一英尺，却看上去像一个脆弱的儿童。我被安排随后护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我未来生活幸福。 and as long as i live i shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as i have never heard since.the door篇4：2008年jk罗琳的演讲中英文 2008年jk罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲（中英文对照）
“2008年6月5日是哈佛大学的毕业典礼，请来的演讲嘉宾是《哈利波特》的作者j.k.罗琳女士。她的演讲题目是《失败的好处和想象的重要性》（the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination）。我读了一遍讲稿，觉得很好，很感染人。
她几乎没有谈到哈里波特，而是说了年轻时的一些经历。虽然j·k·罗琳现在很有钱，是英国仅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾经有一段非常艰辛的日子，30岁了，还差点流落街头。她主要谈的是，自己从这段经历中学到的东西。
第17篇：总结的JK罗琳一生
J·K·罗琳 （乔安妮·凯瑟琳·罗琳），1965年7月31日生于英国的格温特郡。原名乔安娜·罗琳或乔安·罗琳（Joanne Rowling），《哈利·波特》系列作品的作者。2010年10月19日罗琳在丹麦欧登塞市举行的仪式上获颁首届安徒生文学奖。
J·K·罗琳的父亲是罗伊斯罗尔飞机制造厂一名退休的管理人员，母亲是一位实验室技术人员。罗琳小时候是个戴眼镜的相貌平平的女孩，非常爱学习，有点害羞，流着鼻涕，还比较野。她从小喜欢写作和讲故事，6岁就写了一篇跟兔子有关的故事。妹妹是她讲故事的对象。创作的动力和欲望，从此没有离开过她。她曾当过短时间的教师和秘书。
罗琳热爱英国文学，大学主修的是法语。毕业后，她只身前往葡萄牙发展，随即和当地的一位记者坠入情网。无奈的是，这段婚姻来得快也去得快。不久，她便带着3个月大的女儿洁西卡回到了英国，栖身于爱丁堡一间没有暖气的小公寓里。找不到工作的她，只好靠着微薄的失业救挤金养活自己和女儿。
作为一个单身母亲，罗琳母女的生活极其艰辛。在开始写作《哈利·波特》系列童话的第一部《哈利·波特与魔法石》时，罗琳因为自家的屋子又小又冷，时常到住家附近的一家咖啡馆里把哈利·波特的故事写在小纸片上。不过，她的努力很快得到了回报。童话一出版便备受瞩目，好评如潮，其中包括英国国家图书奖儿童小说奖，以及斯马蒂图书金奖章奖。随后罗琳又分别于1998年与1999年创作了《哈利·波特与密室》和《哈利·波特与阿兹卡班的囚徒》，进一步轰动世界
第18篇：j.k 罗琳 全翻译版本
J.K罗琳在哈佛的演讲
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,
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 an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve endured at the thought of giving this commencement addre 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 convince myself that I am at the world’s largest Gryffindors\' 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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。
Delivering a commencement addre 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 Barone 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 busine, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard. 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Barone Mary Warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the \'gay wizard\' joke, I\'ve still come out ahead of Barone Mary Warnock.Achievable goals - the first step to self-improvement.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Barone Mary Warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。
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 leons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this. 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，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic succe, 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；在你们即将迈向―现实生活‖的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
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 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. 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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。
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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。
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.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 Claics corridor. 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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。 I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Claics; 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 le useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. 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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。
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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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 too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。
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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。
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 succe.Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person\'s idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically. 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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。 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 short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was joble, a lone parent,
and as poor as it is poible to be in modern Britain, without being homele.The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pa, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew. 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，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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. 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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.I 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 me.Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.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 idea.And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. 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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。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 impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. 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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by paing examinations.Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.I 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 rubies. 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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.Such 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 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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happine lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone\'s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its viciitudes. 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，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。
You might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.Though I will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. 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。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。
One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International\'s headquarters 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20多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。
There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.I opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. 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，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和处决。
Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government.Visitors to our office included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those who they had left behind. 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。来我们办公室的访客，包括那些前来提供信息，或想设法知道那些被迫留下的同志发生了什么事的人。
I 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.He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.I was given the job of escorting him to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happine. 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。在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的时候，他颤抖失控。他比我高一英尺，却看上去像一个脆弱的儿童。我被安排随后护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我未来生活幸福。
And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.She had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenne 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，调查员探出头请求我，为坐在她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。她刚刚给他的消息是，为了报复他对国家政权的批评，他的母亲已经被捕并执行了枪决。
Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded how incredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal
representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone. 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，是所有人的权利。
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.I began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard and read. 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，真正意义上的噩梦，全都和我所见所闻有关。
And yet I also learned more about human goodne at Amnesty International than I had ever known 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 their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.The power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.Ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.My small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life. 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，引发集体行动，拯救生命，解放囚犯。个人的福祉和安全有保证的普通百姓，携手合作，大量挽救那些他们素不相识，也许永远不会见面的人。我用自己微薄的力量参与了这一过程，也获得了更大的启发。
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people\'s minds, imagine themselves into other people\'s places. 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 might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise. 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，也有人选择去了解同情。
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds 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 inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to 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。他们可以拒绝去听别人的尖叫，看一眼囚禁的笼子；他们可以封闭自己的内心，只要痛苦不触及个人，他们可以拒绝去了解。
I might be tempted 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 can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.I think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.They are often more afraid. 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，可以导致不敢面对开阔的视野，给自己带来恐惧感。我认为不愿展开想像的人会看到更多的怪兽，他们往往更感到更害怕。
What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy. 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 Claics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.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，将改变外在的现实。
That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.It exprees, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people\'s lives simply by existing. 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，我们以自身的存在接触着他人的生命。
But how much more are you, Harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other people\'s lives? Your intelligence, your capacity for hard work, the education you have earned and received, give you unique status, and unique responsibilities.Even your nationality sets you apart.The great majority of you belong to the world\'s only remaining superpower.The way you vote, the way you live, the way you protest, the preure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders.That is your privilege, and your burden. 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，以及你们所受到的教育，给予你们独特的地位和责任。甚至你们的国籍也让你们与众不同，你们绝大部份人属于这个世界上唯一的超级大国。你们表决的方式，你们生活的方式，你们抗议的方式，你们给政府带来的压力，具有超乎寻常的影响力。这是你们的特权，也是你们的责任。
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 powerle;
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 better.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 better. 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；如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想，那么你的存在，将不仅是你家人的骄傲，更是无数因为你的帮助而改变命运的成千上万人的骄傲。我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己的内心就有这种力量：那就是我们一直在梦想，让这个世界变得更美好。
I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children\'s godparents, the people to whom I\'ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I\'ve used their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister. 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交，他们是我孩子的教父母，是在我遇到麻烦时愿意伸出援手，在我用他们的名字给哈利波特中的―食死徒‖起名而不会起诉我的朋友。我们在毕业典礼时坐在了一起，因为我们关系亲密，拥有共同的永远无法再来的经历，当然，也因为假想要是我们中的任何人竞选首相，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 that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Claics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom: 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，你们还能记得哲学家塞内加的一句至理明言。我当年没有顺着事业的阶梯向上攀爬，转而与他在古典文学的殿堂相遇，他的古老智慧给了我人生的启迪： 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
第19篇：JK罗琳《偶发空缺》读后感
昨天中午，一个星期的阅读历程终于结束的时候，耳机里传来蕾哈娜的umbrella，醇厚的女声有力的打着节拍：When the sun shines, we’ll shine together.Told you I\'ll be here forever.Said I\'ll always be a friend.Took an oath I’ll stick it out till the end.看着最后一页，在教堂里大家又开始合唱这首歌，眼泪终于不受控制的滑落，我没有嚎啕大哭，只是格外的心酸，在我合上封底的时候，我又迫不及待地翻开了第一页，这本书，读一遍显然不够。
建议要阅读本书的读者，最少要做两个工作：
1、一定要听一下蕾哈娜的umbrella，这首歌的歌词会有助于你更快的了解人物；
2、最好自己画一下人物谱系，搞清楚谁家里都有谁，否则在阅读前100页的时候，你会迷失到人名的汪洋大海里茫然无措，以至于不能尽快的融入到故事的氛围中去。
对HP的书迷来说，阅读《偶发空缺》就像是一场华丽的冒险，因为罗琳的这次转型十分的彻底，就像是周杰伦新专辑开吼《大河向东流》或是斯蒂芬金写了《简爱》一般的令人震撼。如果这本书假托别的作者名出版，那么，没有人会把它和罗琳扯上任何关系，想要在本书里找到哈利波特系列的蛛丝马迹，都是徒劳。这是一本一点儿都没掺水的严肃的纯文学作品，继承了传统英国文学的现实和尖刻，忘了波特吧，这是本成人小说，当然，如果心智成熟的未成年人也可以乱入。
就现实意义和对人性的深度挖掘上来看，这本书的价值要远远高于HP系列。一个类型文学作家能够直面现实，并且扛上那些社会责任，总是令人敬佩的，作为一个身家10亿美元的作家来说，罗琳完全可以沿着她开拓的路线一直走下去，或是就此封笔，可是她居然还能有这样从零开始的勇气，而且做得完全不逊色于那些以“正统”自居，曾对罗琳作品的文学价值不屑一顾的作家和评论家。
由于罗琳自身经历等原因，她一直对于英国的医疗和社会保障体系保持着异乎寻常的关注，她建立了数个慈善基金，捐出1亿美元用于多发性硬化病的研究，并且参与了伦敦奥运会开幕式的演出，很多人只注意到她朗读的是童话故事《彼得•潘》，而没有注意到她参与表演的那个环节要表现的主题是在世界率先实现全民免费医疗的英国医疗系统。显然，罗琳意识到，作为一个作家，她除了捐赠她的财富之外，更有力的武器是她的笔，文字的力量可以扭转一个人乃至一个时代的思维惯性。她的书带我们走进了贫民家庭，把他们的遭际剖白给我们看，相信看了此书，即使没有潸然泪下，也会因此受到震动，开始去思考善恶之间的模糊边线。 这个故事从来不是像umbrella那首歌开始唱的那样，是个“好女孩变坏啦”的故事，而是一个在生活徒然失去重心之后，重新寻找那把可以遮风避雨的大伞，重新找寻生活意义的故事。对主人公之一，问题少女克里斯塔尔来说，她本来以为可以永远站在巴里•菲尔布拉泽的大伞下得到庇护，可是，随着故事开篇，巴里的猝死，结束了这一切。
巴里的死，掀开了原本安静平和的帕格镇不为人知的种种内幕。在复杂的人性面前，巴里像是硕果仅存的圣人像，可是，这也难保是居民们的又一次道德美化，参考罗比死后他们的反应就知道了。巴里是维系富人区帕格镇和贫民区丛地之间的脆弱的连接线，随着他的死，结束了这微妙的平衡，无数双眼睛在盯着这个偶发空缺，想要占据这个举足轻重的教区议会席位，很多竞选人和他们的支持者认为，这关系到帕格镇的未来，这个人的当选将决定丛地未来的划归，以及一些社会保障机构——例如说戒毒所能否正常运行。随着竞选的到来，各种不堪的秘密也将一一浮上水面，这一刻，人性的弱点暴露无遗。
有人把罗琳在这本书里的写作方式和狄更斯相提并论，窃以为，罗琳更近了一步。书中林林总总塑造了接近二十个主要人物，罕见脸谱化的平面人物（有几个配角因为篇幅和角色所限性格比较单一）。故事里更没有真善美和假丑恶的对立，道貌岸然的人物也有真情流露的一面，柔弱无助的人物也有性格缺陷的一面，罗琳着力要展现的，是真正的人性，人性复杂变幻，内心纠葛的一面，故事里，每个人的灵魂都不是纯白或纯黑的，都有白中之黑和黑中之白，真实的人生便是如此，鲜有纯粹的颜色，不过是一片迷糊的灰色地带，随着外界的触发条件展现出不同的颜色。
每一个看似美满的家庭中都存在着各式各样的问题，健康、心理、家暴、叛逆、出轨„„五花八门，只不过都被拉下的窗帘掩盖在幸福的表象之下。从这个角度来看，洋洋自得的帕格镇居民和他们所鄙视的丛地“那些人”之间并无太多的区别，只不过丛地的人们的悲剧是被活生生的扒开了给人看，他们失去了生活的平衡。而那帮以体面人自居的绅士们还要一点点的摧毁他们重回生活正轨的希望，把他们视为有害的“垃圾”。 没有人关注过“垃圾们”的生活，就像特莉回忆的，有几个对她很好的社工，可是六点之后，她们都按时下班回家，再次离开她的生活。因此她和克里斯塔尔早就习惯了被人抛下，习惯了自己想办法解决问题。 当结尾的悲剧大爆发的一刻，相信读者会和书中人一起思考，悲剧是如何产生的？谁应该为此负责？是越来越削减开支的医疗保障制度？还是流于形式的社工制度？或是那几个亲眼目睹罗比一个人在河岸边哭喊着寻找姐姐却漠然置之的人？可是，我们发现，我们没法站在道德的制高点上轻易地指责任何人。因为我们一直对他人的苦难无动于衷，不作为也是一种罪行。他人有罪，我也有罪，冷漠、嘲笑、无动于衷„„这些都是我们所犯的罪行。 这就是罗琳对于灵魂，尤其是对于自我的拷问，她没有将悲剧的产生仅仅归结为制度或是政体，伟大的文学一定是超越政治的，肯定不是把控诉制度对人的压迫作为最大的目标，人性的软弱是超乎政治和国界存在的一种广泛的共通性，作家没有站的远远地居高临下的描写这些故事，而是始终在自我反思，反省自己是不是也做了帮凶。 正如莫言在谈创作中提到的，“要直面自己的灵魂，就是‘把自己当罪人写’这个阶段，对自己心理和灵魂的解剖，这是一个突破口，我们在许多冠冕堂皇的借口之下，掩藏着很多个人的自私、怯懦、卑微，许多都是逃避。” 看了这本书，我无法原谅的，就是我日渐冷漠的内心，和对于弱势群体的无动于衷，我们每个人，或许都是悲剧的制造者而不自知。结尾的一缕曙光，仿佛给了我们一点希望，也许会有一个更好的帕格镇出现，但是更重要的是，我们如何改变我们的无动于衷，去避免类似的悲剧发生？
第20篇：JK罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲经典语录
2008年jk罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲（中英文对照） 默认分类 2009-07-17 20:13 阅读1281 评论0 字号： 大 中 小
“2008年6月5日是哈佛大学的毕业典礼，请来的演讲嘉宾是《哈利波特》的作者j.k.罗琳女士。她的演讲题目是《失败的好处和想象的重要性》（the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imaginatio n）。我读了一遍讲稿，觉得很好，很感染人。
她几乎没有谈到哈里波特，而是说了年轻时的一些经历。虽然j·k·
罗琳现在很有钱，是英国仅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾经有一段非常艰辛的日子，30岁了，还差点流落街头。她主要谈的是，自己从
这段经历中学到的东西。”
以下是英文文稿和中文翻译： text as delivered follows. copyright of jk rowling, june 2008 president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, members of the faculty, proud parent s, and, above all, graduates. the first thing i would like to say is ?thank you.? not only he world?s largest gryffindor reunion. k.achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that have expired between tha t day and this. agination. these may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but plea se bear with me. hose closest to me expected of me. 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 would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.i know that the irony strikes with t he force of a cartoon anvil, now. d off down the claics corridor. i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying claics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an exec utive bathroom. 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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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 roma nticised only by fools. what i feared most for myself at your age was not povert y, but failure. 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 paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the me asure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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. 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person?s idea of succe, so high have you already flown. every usual standard, i was 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 pre has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.i had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, 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 of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.i was set free, because my greatest fear had 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 idea.and so rock bottom became t he solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. you might never fail on the scale i did, but some failure in life is inevitable.it is impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.failure gave me an inner security that i had never attained by paing examinations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i discovered tha t 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 the price of rubies. the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification i ever earned. th humans whose experiences we have never shared.one of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded harry potter, though it informed much of what i subsequently wrote in those books.this revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.though i was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, i paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the african research department at amn esty international?s headquarters in london. there in my little office i read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims篇2：jk罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲（视频+中英对照文稿） the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination j.k.rowling copyright june 2008 as prepared for delivery president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates, 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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this. these might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me. 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. i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying claics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. 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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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. what i feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure. 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 paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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. 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average persons idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically. 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 pre 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. so why do i talk about the benefits of failure? simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.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 idea.and so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. you might never fail on the scale i did, but some failure in life is inevitable.it is impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. failure gave me an inner security that i had never attained by paing examinations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i 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 rubies. the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such 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 earned. you might think that i chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.though i will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, i have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.in its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. one of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded harry potter, though it informed much of what i subsequently wrote in those books.this revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.though i was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, i paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at amnesty internationals headquarters in london. there in my little office i read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment 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 of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.i opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. and as long as i live i shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as i have never heard since.the door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.she had just given him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenne against his countrys regime, his mother had been seized and executed. every day of my working week in my early 20s i was reminded how incredibly fortunate i was, to live in a country with a democratically elected government, where legal representation and a public trial were the rights of everyone. every day, i saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power.i began to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things i saw, heard and read. and yet i also learned more about human goodne at amnesty international than i had ever known before. amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.the power of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, and frees prisoners.ordinary people, whose personal well-being and security are aured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet.my small participation in that proce was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life. unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.they can think themselves into other peoples minds, imagine themselves into other peoples places. of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral.one might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathise. i might be tempted 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 can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors.i think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters.they are often more afraid. one of the many things i learned at the end of that claics corridor down which i ventured at the age of 18, in search of something i could not then define, was this, written by the greek author plutarch: what we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. that is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives.it exprees, in part, our inescapable 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 nationality sets you apart.the great majority of you belong to the worlds only remaining superpower.the way you vote, the way you篇3：jk罗琳 2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲
the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination j.k.rowling tercentenarytheatre, june 5, 2008 失败的好处和想象力的重要性
哈佛大学毕业典礼 j.k.罗琳
2008年6月5日 presidentfaust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, membersofthefaculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates, 福斯特主席，哈佛公司和监察委员会的各位成员，
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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。 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barone mary warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我
不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
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barone mary warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。 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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this. 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，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
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；在你们即将迈向―现实生活‖的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
thesemayseemquixoticorparadoxicalchoices, 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。
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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。 iwasconvincedthattheonlythingiwantedtodo, 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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。 iknowtheironystrikeslikewiththeforceofacartoonanvilnow, but„ 我现在明白反讽就像用卡通铁砧去打击你，但... 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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。 icannotremembertellingmyparentsthatiwatudyingclaics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. 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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。 iwouldliketomakeitclear, 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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其 是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压 力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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。 atyourage, 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 paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers.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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。 iamnotdullenoughtosupposethatbecauseyouareyoung, 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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average persons idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically. 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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。 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 short-lived marriage had imploded, and i was joble, a lone parent, and as poor as it is poible to be in modern britain, without being homele.the fears my parents had had for me, 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，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年 后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一 无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and i had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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. 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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。 sowhydoitalkaboutthebenefitsoffailure? simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.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 idea.and so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. 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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如 果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着， 我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。 youmightneverfailonthescaleidid, but some failure in life is inevitable.it is impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. 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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。 failuregavemeaninnersecuritythatihadneverattainedbypaingexaminations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i 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 rubies. 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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。 theknowledgethatyouhaveemergedwiserandstrongerfromsetbacksmeansthatyouare, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such 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 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，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。
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，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更 老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。 you might think that i chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.though i will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, i have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense.imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.in its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared. 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。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价 值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现 实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。 oneofthegreatestformativeexperiencesofmylifeprecededharrypotter, though it informed much of what i subsequently wrote in those books.this revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.though i was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, i paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at amnesty internationals headquarters 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20多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。
thereinmylittleofficeireadhastilyscribbledlettermuggledoutoftotalitarianregimesbymenandwomenwhowereriskingimprisonmenttoinformtheoutsideworldofwhatwashappeningtothem.i saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to amnesty by their desperate families and friends.i read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries.i opened handwritten, eye-witne accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. 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，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了 那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和 处决。
因为他们的观点而责怪我的父母。埋怨父母给你指错方向 是有时间段的。 当你长到自己可以掌握方向时， 你就要自己承担责任了。 尤其是， 我不会因为自己希望不要经历贫穷而责怪我的父母。他们是贫穷的，我也一直很 贫穷。贫困带来的恐惧，压力有时是绝望，这意味着屈辱和苦难。用您自己的努 力摆脱贫困这确实是一件对自己而言骄傲的事情。 但贫穷本身只有对傻瓜而言才 是浪漫的。 我在你们这个年龄时，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。像你们这样大时，我明显 缺乏在大学学习的动力。 我花了太久在咖啡吧写故事， 而在课堂的时间就很少了。 我有一个通过考试的诀窍， 并且数年间一直认为我的生活在我的同龄人中是成功 的现在。我不愚蠢假设因为你们的年轻，天才和受过良好教育就从来没有困难或 心碎的时刻。才华和智商从来不会对命运的反复无常有所准备。我也不会假设大 家都坐这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。但从哈佛毕业的事实表明，你们对失败不熟悉。害怕失败像渴望成功一样强烈。事实上，您对失败的理解可能和普通人 对成功的看法不会太远。因为你们已经站在如此之高的位置。最终，我们所有人 都必须自己决定什么构成失败， 但如果你愿意， 世界是相当渴望给你一套标准的。 因而我可以公平地讲，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我 的失败就达到了空前的规模： 一个异常短暂的破裂的婚姻、失业、一个单亲家长， 像在现代英国的穷人一样，只是还没有到无家可归的地步罢了。眼前时刻浮现着 父母和自己对未来的担心。 按照惯常的标准来看， 我是我所见过的最大的失败者。 现在， 我不打算站在这里告诉你失败是好玩的， 我的那段生活经历是困窘不堪的； 我更不知道新闻媒体所说的童话故事般的革命；我也不知道那种困苦要持续多 久；在相当长的一段时间里，任何尽头的光明都只是一个希望而不是现实。 那么，为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢？只是因为失败意味着剥离你不必需的东 西。我不是在伪装自己，我只是直接把所有精力放在最重要的工作上。如果我不 是没有在其他领域成功过， 我可能绝不会有在真正属于自己的舞台上取得成功的 决心。我获得了自由，因为我最害怕的已经发生了，但是我还活着，我还有一个 我深爱着的女儿，还有一个旧打字机和一个大创意（指写哈利波特）。所以困境 的谷底成为我重建生活的坚实基础。你可能永远不会有我这种失败的经历，但有 些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。毫无挫折的生活是不存在，除非你生活的万般 小心，可有些失 败还是会发生。失败让我内心安全，是我从通过考试中没有得到 过的。失败教会我一些不能用其他方法获得的东西，我发现自己有坚强的意志， 比想象中还多的原则，我也发现我拥有朋友----他们的价值远在红宝石之上。从 挫折中得到知识将使你更加明智和坚强， 也就是说您比以往任何时候更有能力生 存。你从来没有真正认识自己，或通过逆境的检验认识到您的朋友的力量，直到两者经受逆境的考验。对所有人而言，这种认知是一个真正的礼物。这是痛苦的 胜利比我取得的任何资格有着更高的价值。 给我一部时间机器，我会告诉 21 岁的自己：个人的幸福在于知道生命是不是一 个获得或取得的核对清单。你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活，虽然你会遇到很 多人和我同龄或者更老一点的人依然混淆两者。生活是困难的，复杂的，超出任 何人的控制。谦恭地认识到这一点将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。 你可能会认为我选择了我的第二个主题： 想象力的重要性因为这是重建我生活的 一部分。但事实并非完全如此，虽然我永远捍卫睡前故事的价值，我已经学会了 想象拥有的更广泛的意义。想象力不仅是人类独具能力：设想还不存在的事物是 所有发明和创新的源泉。这种改造和揭露的能力，使我们能够对自己未经历的苦 难者产生同理心。其中一个影响最大的经历在我写哈利波特的生活之前，但大部 分是在我随后写的那些书里。这个想法成形于我早期的工作经历。在 20 多岁时， 尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦 总部的 ** 国际研究部门。在我的小办公室，我看到了人们在匆忙中写的信，这 些信是从极权主义政权那里偷运出来的。那些人冒着被监禁的危险，告知外面的 世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到那些无迹可寻的人的照片-----由他们的 家人和朋友铤而走险地送到 ** 国际来的。 我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照 片，我也读过笔迹、目击证人的供词以及即决审判和处决的绑架和*犯的档案。 我有很多的合作者是前政治犯，他们已离开家园流离失所，或逃亡流放，因为他 们大胆地怀疑政府的民主问题。 来我们办公室的访客有告密者以及想了解迫害真 相的人。 我将永远不会忘记： 一个非洲 ** 的受害者-----一名当时比我还小的年轻男子，他因在故乡的悲惨经历导致精神错乱。当他在摄像机前讲述被残暴的摧残的时 候，他颤抖失控。他比我稍高一点，但当时看来却像个脆弱的孩童。后来，我被 安排护送他到地铁站， 这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子， 小心翼翼地握着我的手, 祝我未来生活幸福! 并且只要我还活着，我就会记得走过一个空荡荡的的走廊。突然从背后的门里传 来我从未听过的尖叫的痛苦和恐惧，门打开了，研究员探出她的头告诉我为坐在 她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。他刚被告知消息：为了报复他对国家政权的 批评，他母亲已被捕并执行了枪决。在我 20 多岁的时候，我工作的每一天，都 在提醒我是多么的幸运。生活在一个民选政府的国家，律师和公开审理，是每个 人的权利。每天我都能看到很多有关恶人的证据，他们为了获得或维持权力而对 自己的同胞所犯下的暴行。我开始做噩梦，都和我的所见所闻有关，并且我也了 解到更多关于人类的善良。在国际 ** 组织学到的比以前多得多。 ** 动员成千 上万有自由信仰的人，去为那些因信仰而遭遇不幸的人奔走抗争。人类同理心的 力量，引发的集体拯救生命的行动，释放囚犯。众多幸福安康的普通百姓，携手 合作挽救那些素不相识或再也不能相逢的人。这在道德上是中立的，是我生命中 一段最谦恭和发人深省的生活经历。 不同于这个星球上的任何其他生物，人类可以学习理解未经历过的东西。他们可 以设身处地为别人着想当然，这是一种能力就像我虚构的魔法世界一样。这在道 德上也是中立的。一个人可能会利用这种能力去操纵、或控制，但也有很多人选 择去了解或同情。很多人一点也不喜欢锻炼自己的想象力，他们选择待在舒适的 生活范围内，从来不麻烦地去想想如果自己出生在别处一切会怎么样。他们拒绝 听到尖叫声或向笼子里窥视，他们可以封闭自己的内心。只要痛苦不触及他们个人，他们可以拒绝去了解。我可能会因诱惑而嫉妒那样生活的人，除了我不认为 他们会比我少做噩梦。选择住在狭窄的空间可导致某种形式的精神广场恐惧症， 并给自己带来恐惧感。我认为不想看到更多怪物的人，他们常常更害怕。更甚的 是，那些选择不同情的人可能激活真正的怪兽，因为我们自己没有严惩邪恶，冷 漠与无视却让我们犯下了邪恶的共谋罪。 在 21 岁时，我从古典文学中学到很多知识。其中之一我所不明白的是，希腊作 家普鲁塔克所说的： 我们内心的实现将改变外在现实。 那是一个多么惊人的论断， 并在我们生活的每天被无数次论证。这在某种程度上表明，我们与外部世界有逃 不掉的瓜葛。事实上，我们以自己的存在来接触其他人的生命。但哈佛大学的级 的毕业生们，你们中的多少人会去触及他人的生命呢？ 你们的智慧、努力工作的能力以及所受的教育将给予你们独特的地位和责任。即 使您的国籍把你与别人分开了，
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： banners and convince myself that i am at the world’s largest gryffindors 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。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。
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barone mary warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
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barone mary warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。 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 leons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this. 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，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。
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；在你们即将迈向“现实生活”的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。
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 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，一直挣扎在自己的雄心和身边的人对我的期望之间。 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，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。 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... 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。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。 i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying claics; 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 le useful than greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom. 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，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。 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 stre, and sometimes depreion; 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方向的时候，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为父母希望我不要过穷日子，而责怪他们。他们一直很贫穷，我后来也一度很穷，所以我很理解他们。贫穷并不是一种高贵的经历，它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有绝望，它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，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 too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, i had a knack for paing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of succe in my life and that of my peers. 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。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。 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，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有免疫（直译）；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。 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 succe.indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average persons idea of succe, so high have you already flown academically. 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，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经达到很高的高度了。
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，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。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 a dark one, and i had no idea that there was going to be what the pre 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. 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历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。 so why do i talk about the benefits of failure? simply because failure meant a stripping away of the ineential.i 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 me.had i really succeeded at anything else, i might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena i believed i truly belonged.i was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realized, 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 became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life. 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，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。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 impoible to live without failing at something, unle you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. 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，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。 failure gave me an inner security that i had never attained by paing examinations.failure taught me things about myself that i could have learned no other way.i discovered that i had a strong will, and more disciplined than i had suspected; i also found out that i had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies. 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。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。 the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive.you will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.such 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 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，了解身边的人。
