每天讀一點英文 那些激勵我前行的身影 21 失敗的好處和想象的重要性-JK.羅琳

哈利·波特的締造者J·K·羅琳：失敗的好處和想象的重要性

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.

我那時深信，自己唯一、并且永遠想做的事只有寫小說。但是，我出身貧窮沒有上過大學的父母卻擁有另外的想法。他們當時認為我非凡的想象力僅僅是滑稽的個人怪癖而已，而這并不能用來抵押貸款或確保一份養(yǎng)老金。

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 Classics corridor.

他們希望我能取得一個可獲得穩(wěn)定職業(yè)的學位，而我卻想讀英語文學。妥協(xié)的結(jié)果其實讓我們都不滿意，我將選擇現(xiàn)代語言學。但最后報名的時候，還沒等父母的汽車轉(zhuǎn)過道路盡頭的拐角，我就放棄德語，急速奔入了通往古典文學殿堂的走廊。

I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; 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 less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.

我不曾記得告訴過他們自己正在研習古典，也許在畢業(yè)那天他們才真正發(fā)現(xiàn)。在這個星球上的所有課程中，他們應(yīng)該很難再找到比希臘神學更沒用的課程了，它根本不可能用來取得一把進入一間寬敞舒適衛(wèi)生間的鑰匙。

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.

這里需要澄清的是，我并不責怪我的父母。因為埋怨他們指錯方向的時候已經(jīng)過了，這時的你們已經(jīng)成熟到能夠自己駕馭人生的方向盤，責任需自負。我還想說，我不能因為自己希望永不經(jīng)歷貧窮而現(xiàn)實并非如此就怨恨父母。

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 stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.

他們自身貧窮，我也因此而貧窮，而貧窮并非是可以拿來顯示自己高尚、受人尊崇的經(jīng)歷，對于他們的這種觀點我也堅決支持。貧窮帶來的是恐懼、壓力，有時甚至是沮喪。它意味著數(shù)不盡的瑣碎羞辱和辛酸。當然，依靠自己的力量從中爬出來確實值得自豪和驕傲，盡管如此，只有傻瓜才會認為貧窮本身是浪漫的。

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.

在你們這么大的時候，我最害怕的并不是貧窮，而是失敗。

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 passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.

盡管當時我明顯匱乏在學校念書的勁頭，因為很少去聽課，而大部分時間里我是在咖啡吧寫故事中度過的，但我明白順利通過考試的訣竅。而考試，很多年來一直是衡量我及同齡人人生成敗的標志。

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.

我不會無趣地猜想，你們因為年輕，有才華，并受到了良好的教育，就應(yīng)該一直不知道什么是辛酸、困苦、心碎。才華和智力還從未使任何人免于遭受命運反復(fù)無常的折磨，并且我一刻也不認為這里的每一個人都已經(jīng)擁有不遭受這種困擾的特權(quán)，而生活在由此帶來的滿足之中。

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 success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.

然而，你們能從哈佛畢業(yè)已經(jīng)說明你們對失敗還并不熟悉?？謶质δ銈兊募钭饔每赡懿⒉粊営诳释晒δ銈兊墓奈?。事實上，你們對于失敗的概念可能離普通人認為的成功差不了多遠，你們已經(jīng)在學術(shù)上已經(jīng)站得相當高了。

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 anyconventional 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 jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.

最終，我們都不得不為自己決定，是什么組成了失敗。而如果你愿意，這個世界會相當熱心地提供一組評價準則。所以我想，依照任何傳統(tǒng)的準則，在我畢業(yè)日的僅僅 7年之后，可以說，我經(jīng)歷了一次史詩般的失敗。一段異常短暫的婚姻結(jié)束了，我失業(yè)并成了單身母親，并且在現(xiàn)代英國，除了沒有無家可歸之外，要多窮又多窮。那時，父母對我的擔心，我對自己的恐懼都匯聚于一處。而且，我那時知道，用任何通常的標準來看，我是最大的失敗。

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 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.

現(xiàn)在，我站在這里并非將要告訴你們失敗是有趣的。我生命的那段時期是灰暗的，并且我沒有料到，就像媒體所描述的那樣，會有一種神話故事般的解決方案。我更不知道這段灰暗的隧道究竟還有多長。在很長的一段時間里，任何閃現(xiàn)出的光芒都只是希望而非現(xiàn)實。

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the 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.

那我為什么還要談失敗的收益呢?很簡單，失敗意味著放棄生命中不必要的東西。我停止追求那些虛幻的自我，并開始把所有的精力都放在唯一對我重要的工作上。假如真的在其他任何方面成功過，我也許就永遠不會獲得在真正屬于我的舞臺上去成功的決心。

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.

我又重獲自由，因為生命中最大的憂慮已成現(xiàn)實，而我還活著，依然擁有一個可愛的女兒，一臺舊打字機和一個大創(chuàng)意。底部的巖石倒成了堅固的基礎(chǔ)，我得以在此之上重建人生。

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.

你們可能永遠不會如此失敗，但人生中不可避免會經(jīng)歷失敗?；钪鴱牟皇∈遣豢赡艿模巧畹眠^于謹慎，以至于可能就跟從未真正生活過一樣，這種情況下，你就會因預(yù)設(shè)人生而失敗。

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.

失敗給了我一種內(nèi)在的安全感，這是因順利通過考試從未獲得過的。失敗使我了解自己，這是無法從其他途徑學到的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己擁有堅強的意志，比預(yù)想中更好的自制力，還發(fā)現(xiàn)擁有價值真正遠在紅寶石之上的朋友。

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.

底部的巖石倒成了堅固的基礎(chǔ)，我得以在此之上重建人生。從挫折中得到的知識使你更加聰明和強大，這些是你們生存能力的保證。你們不會真正認識自己，也不會知道你們之間的關(guān)系到底如何，除非你們共同經(jīng)歷逆境的檢驗。這才是實在的禮物，經(jīng)歷痛苦后獲得的寶貴知識。而這比任何我取得的資格證書對我的意義要重大的多。

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.

若有時光機器或時間轉(zhuǎn)換器，我會告訴21歲時的我，個人的幸福在于認識到生活并非是一張羅列著學識和成就的清單。你們的資力，你們的履歷，并非你們的生活，雖然你們會遇見和我同歲或年長的人將二者混淆。生活是艱辛的、復(fù)雜的，并完全超越所有人的控制，謙遜地認識到這些會使你們經(jīng)受住生活的沉浮(榮辱興衰)。

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.

你們也許認為，我選擇想象的重要性作為第二個演講主題，是因為它在重筑我的人生中所起的重要作用，但并不完全如此。

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.

雖然我個人會堅決支持睡前故事的重要價值，但是我已學著從更廣泛的意義來理解想象。想象力不僅是人類設(shè)想不存在事物的獨特能力，從而成為一切發(fā)明和創(chuàng)新的源泉。從想象力是當之無愧最具改革和啟示能力這點來看，它賦予我們認同和理解這樣一些人的力量，他們的經(jīng)歷(的處境、感情和動機)我們從未知曉。

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.

這種啟示源自我最早從事的一些工作。這也是我最重要的一份生活經(jīng)歷，它超越了哈里波特，當然也提供了許多我后來寫進這些書里的元素。雖然我會在午飯時間溜出來寫小說，但我需要在總部設(shè)在倫敦的Amnesty國際非洲研究部工作，以此來支付二十幾歲時的房租。

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.

在狹小的辦公室里，我讀著男人或女人冒囹圄之險從專*政政*權(quán)“走私”出的字跡潦草的書信，他們以此將正在他們身上發(fā)生的慘劇告訴外面的世界。我看到消失得無影無蹤的人的照片被他們絕望的家人送來。我讀著經(jīng)歷酷刑的受害者的證詞，看到記錄那些傷痕的照片。我打開手寫的目擊者對審訊和處決的摘要記錄，以及對綁架和QJ的描述。

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.

我的許多同事以前都是政治Fan，他們因為對自己政府的獨到見解而被驅(qū)趕出家園或流放逃亡。我們辦公室的來訪者包括來遞送信息的，和想要弄清楚在那些被迫落下隊伍者身上究竟發(fā)生了什么的人。

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 happiness.

我應(yīng)該永遠不會忘記那個非洲酷刑受害者。一個當時和我年齡相仿的年輕男子。在經(jīng)歷家鄉(xiāng)對自己靈和肉的所有折磨后，他患上了精神上的疾病。他失控地顫抖著對錄影機講述施加在他身上的殘忍暴行。這個比我還高一英尺的男子脆弱得就像個孩子。后來，當我負責把他護送回地鐵站時，這個生活因暴行而支離破碎的男子優(yōu)雅而謙遜地跟我握手道別，并祝福我擁有幸福的未來。

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.

而只要我還活著，就還記得，經(jīng)過那空蕩走廊時突然聽見后面關(guān)著的門里傳來的痛苦尖叫和恐懼，就像我從未聽過似的。門開了，一個研究人員探出頭來叫我趕快給和她坐在一起的男子弄杯溫熱飲料。她剛剛告訴這個男子，為報復(fù)他對自己國家政*府的直言不諱，她的母親已經(jīng)被逮捕并隨即處決了。

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多歲工作的每一天，都會感到自己是多么的幸運，能夠生活在一個民主選舉產(chǎn)生政府的國度，在這里，合法的演說和公開庭審是每一個人的權(quán)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.

一天天的工作，我看到更多邪惡的人類為了擁有和強化權(quán)力是同為人類的其他人經(jīng)歷痛苦的證據(jù)。我開始因為這些我看到的、聽到的、讀到的而作噩夢，文字的夢魘。

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

同時，我也從Amnesty國際學到了更多以前從不知曉的關(guān)于人類的善良。

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.

Amnesty國際組織了數(shù)千位沒有因信仰問題而被折磨和入獄的人們?nèi)ゴ斫?jīng)歷過這些的人們采取行動。

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.

人類強大的移情能力化做了凝聚的力量去拯救生命，化解冤獄。平凡的人們，在他們個人的幸福和安全無憂的情況下，卻人數(shù)眾多地聚集起來去拯救素昧平生并永遠不會相間的人。我在這個過程中的小小參與是我生命中最謙卑和振奮人心的經(jīng)歷之一。

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.

和這個星球其他生物不同，人類能夠不去經(jīng)歷就學習和理解。他們能夠設(shè)身處地，能夠想他們之所想。

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.

這當然是一種力量，就如同我虛構(gòu)的魔法，在道德上是中立的。一個人可以運用這種能力去操縱或控制，同樣也可以去理解和同情。

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.

而許多人根本不樂意去訓(xùn)練他們的想象力。他們選擇繼續(xù)舒適地呆在自己的經(jīng)歷范圍之內(nèi)，從不愿麻煩地去觸碰這樣的好奇或疑問：如果我出生在另外的世界，如果我并不是現(xiàn)在的自己，那會怎么樣呢?他們可以拒絕聽到尖叫或注視牢籠;他們可以面對任何不觸及自身利益的苦難時緊閉思維和心靈的大門;他們可以拒絕知道。

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.

我可能會被誘惑而去羨慕可以這樣生活的人，但我并不認為他們的噩夢會比我少。選擇生活在一個狹小的空間會導(dǎo)致精神上的空曠癥，并因此帶來恐怖。我認為意志性想象力匱乏者看到的只是更多的怪物。他們常常更容易感到害怕。

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.

更糟的情況，那些不愿嘗試體驗他人經(jīng)歷的人可能會喚醒真正的怪物。雖然從未直接犯下最惡，但卻以冷漠在串謀。

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics 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.

在我18歲古典殿堂的探險中，在尋找一些我無法在當時定義的東西時，我學到了很多，其中之一正是希臘作家普盧塔克所說的：我們對內(nèi)在修養(yǎng)的追求將會改變外在現(xiàn)實。

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we

touch other people's lives simply by existing.

這是一個令人驚訝的論斷，但在我們生命的每一天都會被證明一千次。他是說，在一定程度上，我們與外部世界存在著不可逃避的聯(lián)系，我們僅僅通過簡單的存在就可觸及別人的生命。

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 pressure you bring to bear on your government, has an impact way beyond your borders. That is your privilege, and your burden.

但是你們，作為2008屆的哈佛畢業(yè)生，在多大程度上愿意去感受別人的生命呢?你們應(yīng)對艱難工程的智慧和能力，你們贏得和接受的教育賦予你們獨特的地位和獨一無二的責任。甚至你們的國籍也使你們與眾不同。你們中的絕大多數(shù)屬于這個世界剩下的唯一超級大國。你們的投票方式、生活方式、抗議的方式，你們施加于政府的壓力，這些都會產(chǎn)生超越國界的影響。這是你們的特權(quán)，也是你們的責任。

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 powerless; 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.

如果你們選擇利用你們的地位和影響來為無法發(fā)出聲音的人群吶喊;如果你們選擇不僅平等看待有權(quán)的強勢群體，也平等看待無權(quán)的弱勢群體;如果你們不放棄你們的能力，去想象那些沒有你們這些優(yōu)勢的人群的生活;那么不僅是你們自豪的家庭為你們的存在而歡慶，更是那些你們幫助數(shù)以千萬計的人改變現(xiàn)實而生活得更好。我們不需要魔法來改變世界，我們已經(jīng)在內(nèi)心擁有足夠的力量：我們擁有想象得更好的力量。

【人物簡介】

喬安妮·凱瑟琳·羅琳，生于英國的格溫特郡的Chipping Sodbury普通醫(yī)院。畢業(yè)于英國埃克塞特大學，學習法語和古典文學，獲文理學士學位。2000年，被母校授予榮譽文學博士學位。畢業(yè)后曾在英國曼徹斯特接受教學培訓(xùn)。