1、J·K·罗琳哈佛毕业演讲重现今年6月5日是哈佛大学的毕业典礼，请来的演讲嘉宾是《哈利波特》的作者J.K.罗琳女士。 她的演讲题目是《失败的好处和想象的重要性》（The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination）。我读了一遍讲稿，觉得很好，很感染人。 她几乎没有谈到哈里波特，而是说了年轻时的一些经历。虽然J·K·罗琳现在很有钱，是英国仅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾经有一段非常艰辛的日子，30岁了，还差点流落街头。她主要谈的
2、是，自己从这段经历中学到的东西。 去年的演讲嘉宾是比尔·盖茨，我翻译了他的演讲，影响挺大。今年，我只翻译了一部分，有兴趣的朋友可以在网上找到全部原文和视频。 她首先回忆了自己大学毕业的情景： 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
3、 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. 当时，我只想去写小说。但是，我的父母出身贫寒，没有受过大学教育。他们认为，我那些不安分的想象力只是一种怪癖，根本不能用来还房贷，或者挣来养老金。 They had hoped that I w
4、ould 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
5、 German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor. 他们希望我再去读个专业学位，而我想去攻读英国文学。最后，达成了一个双方都不甚满意的妥协：我改学外语。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻报名学习古典文学。 I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduatio
6、n 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. 我不记得将这事告诉了父母。他们可能是在毕业典礼那一天才发现的。我想，在全世界的所有专业中，他们也许认为，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，根本无
7、法换来一间独立的宽敞卫生间。 I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. ... I cannot criticise my parents for hoping that I would never experience poverty. They had been poor themselves, and I have since been
8、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. Climbing out of poverty by
