The Fringe Ben efits of Failure, and the Importa nee of Imag in ati on Harvard Uni versity Comme nceme nt Address .Rowli ng Tercentenary Theatre, June 5, 2008 失败的好处和想象力的重要性哈佛大学毕业典礼 .罗琳2008年6月5日 Preside nt Faust, members of the Harvard Corporati on and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud pare nts, 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 extraordinaryhonour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I ' ve endured at the thought of giving this commencementaddress have made me lose weight. A win-win situati on! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world 首先请允许我说一声谢谢。
哈佛不仅给了我无上的荣誉， 这真是一个双赢的局面。
现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下， 大的魔法学院聚会上。
Delivering a commencement address 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 Baron ess Mary Warno ck. Reflect ing on her speech has helped me eno rmously in writi ng this one, because it tur ns out that I can't remember a sin gle word she said. This liberat ing discovery en ables me to proceed without any fear that I might in adverte ntly bus in ess, law or politics for the 发表毕业演说是一个巨大的责任， 的哲学家 Baroness Mary Warnock 's largest Gryffindors' reun 连日来为这个演讲经受的恐惧和紧张, 眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅， ion. 更令我减肥成功。
安慰自己正在世界上最 in flue nee you to aba ndon promis ing careers in of beco ming a gay wizard. 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着名 ，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 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 giddy delights 她说过的任何一句话了。
这个发现让我释然， 大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。
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 strik ing an un easy bala nce the ambiti on 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 thi ng I wan ted to do, ever, was to write no vels. However, my pare nts, both of whomcame from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whomhad 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， 人上过大学， K 卄A 金。
I would like 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 坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖， betwee n （赤贫）的背景，没有任何一 根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的 to make it clear, in parenthesis , that I do not blame my parents for their point of view.There is an expiry date on blami ng your pare nts for you are old eno ugh to take the wheel, respon sibility my parents for hoping that I would never experienee since bee n poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not steeri ng you in the wrong directio n; the mome nt lies with you. What is more, I cannot criticise poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have an enno bli ng experie nc e. Poverty en tailsfear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.Climb ing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is in deed someth ing on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is roma nticised 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。
However, the fact that you are graduat ing from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acqua in ted with failure. You might be drive n by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. In deed, your con cepti on of failure might not be too far from the average pers on's idea of success, so high have you already flow n 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 eagerto give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure,a mere seve n years after my graduatio n day, I had failed on an epic scale. An excepti on ally short-lived marriage had imploded , and I was jobless, a lone pare nt, and as poor as it is possible to be in moder nBrita in, without being homeless. The fears my pare nts had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual sta ndard, I was the biggest failure I kn ew.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。