名人演讲:J.K. Rowling2008年在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲part4
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless 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 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 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.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness 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 vicissitudes.
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 empathize 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-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.
你们也许永远不会像我一样输得这么惨，但生活中失败总是难免的。人不可能处处成功，除非你万分小心不去深入接触任何事情——就像从来没在这世上待过——没有对手，也无所谓失败。
失败给了我一种内心的安全感，以前通过考试也没有的安全感。失败叫我看清了自己，以前我不知道自己是这样的。我发现，自己比以前想象的更坚强，更懂得自律；我还发现，我有一些比宝石还可贵的朋友。
你经历了挫折，发现自己的智慧增长了，内心变得更坚强。你就会更加自信: 靠自己的能力，可以谋出一条生路来。这才是真正的礼物。这种认知虽说来之不易，但比我以往获得的任何资格证书都更有价值。
如果我有时光机器或者哈利•波特的时间转换器，我会告诉21岁的自己，不是一张写满财产和成就的清单就代表幸福。你的资质、你的简历都不是你的生活，虽然仍有很多和我同龄或者更老的人至今分不清两者的区别。生活艰难又复杂，谁也控制不了它。存有谦恭之心，将帮助你顺利穿越人生风雨。
你可能以为这就是我要说的第二个话题——想象的重要性。想象对我重建生活确很有帮助，但我要说的不完全是这个。虽然我是幻想故事的忠实拥护者，但我也明白应该拓宽角度考察想象的意义。想象能给人强烈的感应，极具启发性，这毋庸置疑。正是这种力量使我们能和经历不同的人交换感受。
影响我人生的一段重要经历发生在我写《哈利•波特》之前，这段经历也为我之后写出的一套书提供了素材。我的灵感来自我早期的一份工作。我20岁出头时，为了付房租在大赦国际纽约总部的研究部门谋了一份工作，但午休时间我还偷偷地写小说。
在我小小的办公室里，我读到了人们从极权主义国家写来的信。信上的字迹潦草，因为这些人都是冒着被囚禁的危险，偷偷写信来告诉我们自己国家发生的事情。有一些人在国内失踪了，其实是被家人铤而走险送到大赦国际来，我看过他们的照片。我还读过被迫害者的证词，看过记录下他们累累伤痕的照片。我还打开过目击者为绑架架和强奸案初审手写的证词。
attain: 达到;获得
They are not likely to attain this aim.
他们未必能够达到这一目标。
setback: 挫折;失败;倒退
He met with many a setback in his lifetime.
他一生中遭到过许多挫折。
lie in （问题、事情等）在于
vicissitude: 盛衰;兴败[P]
His life is marked by vicissitudes.
他的一生几经沉浮。
envision: 想像，设想；预想；展望:
to envision a bright future
展望一个光明的未来
scribble
vt.
1. 潦草地书写；胡写，乱画：
He wrote me a scribbled letter before leaving.
他临行前给我写了一封字迹潦草的短信。
2. 粗制滥造(文学作品等)：
to scribble a short novel
胡乱地写成一篇短篇小说
vi.
1. 潦草地书写；胡写；乱画：
to scribble with a chalk on the wall
在墙上用粉笔乱涂乱画
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