名校勵志英語演講 第20期:失敗的額外收益和想象力的重要性

[00:01.04]One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, 想象力使我隨后寫書有了很多的想法， [00:05.18]though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. 但對我印象最深遠的經(jīng)歷發(fā)生在寫《哈利·波特》之前。 [00:09.24]This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. 這種影響源于我早期的工作經(jīng)歷。 [00:14.08]Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, 在剛二十幾歲的時候，為了付房租，我在倫敦大赦國際總部的調(diào)查部門工作， [00:17.37]I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London. 但我可以在午餐時間偷偷溜出去寫小說。 [00:27.56]There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men, 在那兒，我在狹小的辦公室里看著從集權主義政體偷運出來的信件。寫這些信件的人， [00:35.25]and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them. 為了讓外界知道他們那里所發(fā)生的事情，冒著被監(jiān)禁的危險，用潦草的字跡匆匆寫下他們的遭遇，然后再將信件寄給我們。 [00:40.57]I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends. 我看過那些由絕望的家人和朋友寄來的無跡可尋的人的照片。 [00:48.36]I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. 我讀過被嚴刑拷打的受害者的證詞并看了他們遍體鱗傷的圖片。 [00:54.05]I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes. 我打開過目擊者的手記，上面描述了對于綁架案和強奸案的審判和處決。 [01:03.48]Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, 我的很多同事以前都是政治犯，因為他們敢于批判政府， [01:09.36]or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to think independently of their government. 有自己的想法，所以被趕出家門，或被放逐海外。 [01:15.34]Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, 來我們辦公室的的訪客，包括那些前來提供信息的， [01:19.58]or to try and find out what had happened to those who they had left behind. 或想方設法知道那些留下的同志發(fā)生了什么事的人。 [01:25.17]I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, 我永遠不會忘記那個非籍酷刑受害者， [01:32.05]who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland. 一個當時還沒我大的年輕男子，他因在故鄉(xiāng)的經(jīng)歷而精神錯亂。 [01:37.21]He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him. 在攝像機前講述被殘暴地摧殘的經(jīng)歷時，他的身體止不住地顫抖。

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