英式发音 适合精听 听2说1读3写3词2
这是J.K.罗琳在哈佛大学2008年毕业典礼上的演讲。这位全球最著名的当代魔幻小说家在台上讲述的是其亲身经历的故事，同时也是几经磨难、走出黑暗日子后发自内心的感慨。她曾同时经受感情与经济的双重打击；她说，在座的高材生们大抵不会经历像她那般的巨大失败，但漫漫人生，偶然的失败无可避免。失恋、考试落败、比赛落选……有人因失败一蹶不振，有人奋而再起，罗琳是后者的榜样。
伴读小Tips：
尽管后面讲到的都是严肃的话题，但一个幽默的开场白必不可少，一来缓解演讲者的紧张情绪，二来能迅速抓住听众的注意力并获得好感。罗琳的演讲有着与政客演讲完全不一样的风格，没有慷慨激昂的论调，但却带着作家的平实、儒雅，请仔细品味。
President Faust, members of the Harvard 2)Corporation and the Board of 3)Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.
浮士德主席，哈佛大学校务委员会和监察委员会的各位成员，全体教员，自豪的父母们，最重要的，还有今天的主角——所有的毕业生们。
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 4)nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this 5)commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, 6)squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world’s largest 7)Gryffindor reunion.
首先我想说的是“谢谢”。哈佛不仅给了我非比寻常的荣誉，还赠予了我数周因要作毕业演讲而产生的恐惧和恶心，使得我因此减肥成功。好一个双赢的局面！现在我需要做的就是深呼吸，眯着眼睛看着红色的横幅，然后令自己相信正身处在世界上最大的格兰芬多学院聚会中。
Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.
其实，为了准备今天该讲的话，我已绞尽脑汁、费劲心思。我问自己，希望当年毕业时就该懂得的是什么，和由毕业那一天到此时的过去21年间所学到的重要教训。
On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.
在这美好的日子里，我们相聚一堂，庆祝你们学有所成，而我决定和你们谈谈失败的好处。
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 8)impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal 9)quirk that could never pay a 10)mortgage, or secure a 11)pension. I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.
追溯到半载人生以前，我正在努力寻求自我内心追求与至亲对我的期望这两者间的一个难得的平衡。我当时深信自己唯一想做的事就是写小说。但是，我的父母都出身贫寒，也没有上过大学，他们认为我异常活跃的想象力是一个有趣的个人怪癖，但却绝不可用来支付房屋按揭或保证我得到一份退休金。我已不记得我有否告诉父母自己是在读古典文学专业，他们很可能是在我毕业那天才头一回发现的在此。
I would like to make it clear, in 12)parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an 13)expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to 14)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 15)ennobling experience. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
我想顺带澄清一点，我并不责怪我父母的观点。埋怨父母给你导错航是有期限的；从你成长到能够自己做出决定的那一刻起，责任就要靠你们自己去承担了。再说，我不能因为父母希望我不再经受贫穷而去责怪他们。他们自己曾经历过穷日子，我也曾贫穷过，所以对于他们认为贫穷并不受景仰的观点，我十分认同。通过自己的努力摆脱贫困是值得引以为傲的事，只有傻瓜才会把贫穷本身浪漫化。
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale 16)resolution.
今天，我并不打算站在这里跟你们说失败是一件好玩的事。那段日子是我生命中的黑暗时期，我也不知道会出现后来媒体称为童话般的美满结局。
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the 17)inessential. 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 where 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.
那我为何要谈失败的好处呢？很简单，因为失败意味着剥离一切多余的事物。我不再伪装自己，并开始把所有精力集中于完成唯一一件对我很重要的工作上。要是我在其它事情上曾获成功，我也许就永远不会有这样的决心，在深信真正属于自己的舞台上取得成功。我获得了自由，因为我最害怕的事情已经发生，而我还活着，还有一个可爱的女儿、一部旧打字机和一个宏大的梦想。我的谷底成为了重建生活的坚实基础。
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing 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.
失败给了我一种内心的安全感，是以前通过考试也没有的安全感。失败教我认识自己，舍此别无他法。我发现，自己有坚强的意志，自律性比我想象中更强；我还发现，我拥有一些比宝石更可贵的朋友。从挫折中获得的知识使你更明智更坚强，也就是说，你比以往任何时候更具备生存的能力。
Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its 18)vicissitudes.
生活是困难的、复杂的，并超出任何人的绝对控制；谦恭地明白这事实将助你度过人生的沧海桑田。翻译：Sylvi
Life Bar Three Steps to Get Out from the Failure
三步走出失败的阴霾 （只要懂得拾起希望并付诸行动，没有人能阻止你前进的脚步！）
Step 1 别再怨天尤人 There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction.
Step 2 肯定每一分回报 Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticised only by fools.
Step 3 激起破釜沉舟的信心 Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.