名人演讲:J.K. Rowling2008年在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲part5
The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
2008 Harvard University Commencement, June 5, 2008.
by J.K. Rowling
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 happiness.
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 outspokenness 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 goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.
Amnesty mobilizes 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 assured, join together in huge numbers to save people they do not know, and will never meet. My small participation in that process was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of my life.
我有许多合作对象以前是政治犯，这些人因为和政府持有不同政见，就被驱逐出祖国，流亡在外。有些访客来大赦国际，是为提供资料，有些则是想知道他们不得已抛弃在祖国的亲人和同志如今过得怎么样。
我永远忘不了那名非洲受害者，那个当时还没有我年纪大的年轻人。他在自己的国家受尽了折磨，精神已经失常了。当他在摄像机前讲述自己如何被摧残时，一直止不住地颤抖。他高我一英尺，却像一个脆弱的孩子。我被派护送他到地铁站，在路上，自己的生活已碎成一片片的他，还小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我幸福。
只要我还活着，我就忘不了，那天我在大赦国际走过一道空荡的走廊，突然听到背后紧闭的门里传出的痛苦恐惧的尖叫，凄厉之极，我闻所未闻。门打开，一名研究员探出头，让我快跑去为她旁边的青年男子调一杯热饮。她刚告诉他：他对国家政权的直言不讳触犯了当权者，他们为了报复，处决了他母亲。
在我20几岁的时候，我每天上班时都提醒自己是何等幸运：生活在一个民选政府的国家，每一个人都有法律申诉和公审的权利。
每天我都能看到，人们为了夺权或者巩固已有权利，施害于自己的同胞。我开始做恶梦，那些我所见到、所听到、所读到的，逐一在我梦里上演。
但在大赦国际，我也看到了之前从没见过的，人性中善的一面。
在大赦国际的组织下，有数千人为那些因为信仰深受折磨、或已成为阶下囚的人奔走呼吁，有权者为无权者呐喊，就是这样。在那里，一些平平常常的人，他们自己衣食无忧，却聚集起来，去拯救一些素未谋面，将来也不会见到的人。我在大赦国际的这段日子，做的事虽说微不足道，却足以激励我一生。
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