jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿

jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿（精选5篇）

篇1：jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿

JK罗琳JK罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

译文_Juanz_新浪博客 如果您不仅去帮助强者，而且还会同情并帮扶弱者； 如果你会设身处地为不如你的人着想；

那么，您的存在将不仅是你家族的骄傲，也是无数因你帮助而过上幸福生活的人的骄傲。我们不需要魔法来改变世界，我们已经拥有了需要的所有的力量。我们有能力想象会更好。

我的演讲也接近尾声了。对你们，我有最后一个希望，也是我在21岁时就一直在思考的。毕业那天坐在我身边的朋友将是我终身的朋友。他们是我的孩子的教父母，是我在遇到麻烦是可以求助的人，是当我用他们的姓名作为食死徒的名字而不会起诉我的朋友（译者注：食死徒是哈利波特中人物在此指罗琳的朋友不会因为她用他们的名字而遭起诉）。

在我们毕业的时候，我们因无尽的爱而在此相聚。我们有共同的永不再有的经历。当然，如果我们中的任何人竞选首相，那么今天的照片将是极为宝贵的证明。所以，今天我可以给你们的，没有比同伴的友谊更好的祝福了。

明天，我希望你们即使记不得我的名字，你还记得那些塞内加，他是我在罗马文学著作中结识的另一位哲学家。在我退出职业生涯后，寻找古老的生活智慧： 生活就像故事一样，不在乎长度，而在于质量。这才是问题的关键。我在此祝大家生活愉快！非常感谢Thank you!

来源：(http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_62b1cafa0100g5gn.html)-JK罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

译文_Juanz_新浪博客

篇2：jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates.The first thing I would like to say is ¡®thank you.¡¯ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight.A win-win situation!Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world¡¯s largest Gryffindor reunion.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 Baroness Mary Warnock.Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can¡¯t remember a single word she said.This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ¡®gay wizard¡¯ joke, I¡¯ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock.Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today.I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and this.I have come up with two answers.On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ¡®real life¡¯, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.These may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.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 striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.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 would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.So they 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.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 the 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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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 any conventional 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 that 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.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 then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.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.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 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.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 ¨C 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 the price of 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 than any qualification I ever earned.So given 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.Now 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 personally 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.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 at the African 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.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 speak against their governments.Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.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 back 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.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 had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country¡¯s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.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.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.And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.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.Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.They can think themselves into other people¡¯s places.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.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.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 leads 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.What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters.For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.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.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.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.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 change.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.I am nearly finished.I have one last hope for you, which is something that I already had at 21.The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life.They are my children¡¯s godparents, the people to whom I¡¯ve been able to turn in times of trouble, people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters.At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister.So today, I wish you nothing better than similar friendships.And tomorrow, I hope that even if you remember not a single word of mine, you remember those of Seneca, another of those old Romans I met when I fled down the Classics corridor, in retreat from career ladders, in search of ancient wisdom:

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.I wish you all very good lives.Thank you very much.

篇3：jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿

评价理论是系统功能语言学在对人际意义的研究中发展起来的新词汇语法框架。马丁指出,运用评价理论可以分析作者和说话者的态度和立场。马丁等人在前人的研究基础之上,提出的语言评价系统(the appraisal system)指的就是用来协商情感,判断,鉴赏和介入程度的,是以词汇为主的语义系统。

1 评价理论介绍

1.1 评价理论的特点

批评话语分析与积极话语分析在语料选择上有较大差别。积极话语分析主要通过对语篇中人或者作者的立场、观点的分析,积极引导人们建立更加和谐友善的环境,进而向着积极的方向发展。积极话语分析注重通过话语分析构建一个和谐的社会。

到目前为止,积极话语分析还处于初创阶段,并没有批评话语分析那样坚实的理论根基,评价理论是其主要的理论基础。评价理论是功能语言学在对人际意义的研究中发展起来的新词汇语法框架。

1.2 评价理论的产生

在功能语言学中,韩礼徳的系统功能语言学流派,总结了语言的三大功能:概念功能、语篇功能、人际功能。其中的人际功能是指语言可以用来建立和维持社会关系,它关注的是说话人用语言表达自己的态度,并影响听者的态度和行为。人际功能可以通过语气、情态等语法系统来体现。

2 评价理论的框架

态度、介入和级差构成了评价系统。这三个子系统又可以被进一步划分。态度系统包含三个子系统:情感、判断和鉴赏。介入系统有两个子系统:自言和借言。级差系统由两个子系统组成:语势和聚焦。语势可以分为强势和弱势。聚焦可以分为明显和模糊。

3 J.K罗琳演讲态度系统分析

态度系统是评价理论的核心部分,王振华(2001)指出,“态度是指心理受到影响后对人类行为,文本/过程以及现象所做出的判断和鉴赏。”其所表达的是说话者对人或事物的感情。态度系统可以进一步分为情感、判断和鉴赏系统。

3.1 情感系统

情感是整个态度系统的中心,是用来解释语言现象,主要是指语言使用者对行为、语篇和现象做出的感情反应,可以直接体现说话人的态度。评价理论将情感划分为快乐感、安全感、满意感三个评价维度,每个维度包括积极和消极两个方面。对J.K罗琳演讲的态度系统分析如下:

第一,快乐感包括的是欢乐和忧伤,存在一些典型的表达性词汇:“兴奋、开心、高兴、压抑、难过等等”,都是可以直接表达评价者的感情反应的。

(1)On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success,I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure.

(2)However,my parents,both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college.

在例1中,用“wonderful”这样的词语,J.K罗琳表达的是非常开心和同学们在哈佛大学毕业典礼上分享成功的一刻,表明了自己的快乐感。这种积极的情绪的表达拉近了和听众之间的距离。在例2中,用“impoverished”形容父母穷困的生活,所表达的是消极的难过的情绪,但是向听众传达的是一种激励与鼓舞,无论面临什么都要坚持自己的梦想。

第二,安全感包括自信、信任与不安、意外。例如“自信、忧虑、紧张等”。

(1)Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations.

(2)Half my lifetime ago,I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself,and what those closest to me expected of me.

例1中,用到“security”这一词汇直接表达积极的安全感,进而向听众传达的是失败的力量与意义,告诉学生们不要惧怕失败,失败带来的不是惶恐而是安全感。例2中用到“uneasy”表示不安的词汇来反应情感,虽是消极的缺乏安全感的词汇,表达的却是坚持到底必定成功的坚定信念。

第三,满意感是一种得到满足后在心理上所反应出的特征,包括厌倦和兴趣,如“满意、不满意、骄傲和失望等”。

(1)Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honor,but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight.

(2)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.

例1中,对“extraordinary”的使用表达了罗琳对于作为一个哈佛的学生而产生的满意感和骄傲感,这种情感对于即将毕业的学生而言,在无形中感染了听众,让其为自己骄傲、自信。例2中,使用了“uncomfortable”来形容自己的经历,用消极的词汇传达的却是积极的一面,告诉学生们生活中消极的一面是不可避免的,要正确对待不好的经历。

3.2 判断系统

判断系统是说话人根据一定的社会标准和道德标准对一个人的行为、能力所做的积极或消极的评价。这种评价可以是赞美或批评,表扬或责备。该系统又可分为社会评判和社会约束。其中,社会评判包括三个方面:规范,才干,坚韧。社会约束包括真实性和正当性。对J.K罗琳演讲的态度系统分析如下:

(1)I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young,gifted and well-educated.

(2)Life is difficult,and complicated,and beyond anyone’s total control,and humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

(3)Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours,I paid the rent in my early 20s.

例1中,使用“young,gifted,well-educated”来称赞即将从哈佛毕业的学生,表达的是对学生们的能力的肯定,进而带给学生的是自信,同时与听众构建了和谐的关系。例2中使用了“humility”评价一个人的行为是规范的,告诉听众要谦恭地了解生活,试图通过行为规范的评价引导大学生树立正确的人生观。例3中虽然没有明显的表达坚韧的词汇,但罗琳所讲述的是为了写作不惜牺牲吃午餐的时间,表达了自己的韧性,同时也告诉听众坚持自己的梦想,为理想而奋斗。

3.3 鉴赏系统

鉴赏系统主要是对文本、行为和自然现象进行评价,从美学的角度,用审美价值观念和社会价值评价事物、人的行为等。该系统由三个方面构成,人们对事物的反应,事物本身的构成和对事物价值的评价。

(1)And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called’real life’,I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

(2)So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?

例1中用“extol”表示赞美的词汇来表达想象力至关重要的意义,借此鼓励听众要有丰富的想象力,并且要大胆地用想象力去完成自己想做的事情。例2中使用了“benefits”直接表达了失败的价值,目的是向听众传达不要惧怕失败,正视失败,认识其助力的价值。

4 数据分析及意义

本文的目的是分析J.K罗琳演讲在态度系统中的情感、判断和鉴赏中更倾向于运用哪种资源实现人际意义,表1表明了三种资源在演讲中的分布情况。

数据分析表明,在J.K罗琳演讲中更多地运用情感资源,使用了大量表达情感的词汇来表明自己的态度立场,使演讲充满了力量,也借此保持与听众情感上的和谐,激励鼓舞听众建立积极向上的人生态度。

5 结语

通过对J.K罗琳在哈佛毕业典礼上演讲的分析,发现演讲者运用了不同的态度资源来表达自己的立场和观点,实现了以态度资源感染、激励鼓舞听众的目的。本文从评价理论态度系统的角度对罗琳的演讲进行积极话语分析,主要运用以词汇层面为主的评价性手段,其演讲采用了丰富的情感性词汇来表达演讲者的态度,进而影响听众的态度和行为,从而实现了人际意义。

参考文献

[1]Martin,J.R&White,P.R.R.The Language of Evaluation:Appraisal in English.Hampshire:Palgrave Mac Millan,2005.

[2]丁晓明.大学毕业典礼演讲的评价分析--以哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲为例[D].长春理工大学硕士学位论文,2013.

[3]冯娜娜,王娜.系统功能语言学的评价系统理论及其应用[M].西安外国语大学,研究生部,2010.

篇4：jk 罗琳哈佛大学演讲稿

“2008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 imaginatio n）。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。她主要谈的是，自己从

这段经历中学到的东西。”

以下是英文文稿和中文翻译： text as delivered follows.copyright of jk rowling, june 2008 president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, members of the faculty, proud parent s, and, above all, graduates.the first thing i would like to say is ?thank you.? not only he world?s largest gryffindor reunion.k.achievable goals: the first step to self improvement.actually, i have wracked my mind and heart for what i ought to say to you today.i have asked myself what i wish i had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons i have learned in the 21 years that have expired between tha t day and this.agination.these may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but plea se bear with me.hose closest to me expected of me.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 would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.i know that the irony strikes with t he force of a cartoon anvil, now.d off down the classics corridor.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 the 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 exec utive bathroom.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.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.climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is roma nticised only by fools.what i feared most for myself at your age was not povert y, 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 me asure of success in my life and that of my peers.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.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.every usual standard, i was the biggest failure i knew.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 then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.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.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 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 t he solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life.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 tha t 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 the price of 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 than any qualification i ever earned.th 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 at the african research department at amn esty 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篇二：jk罗琳2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲（视频+中英对照文稿）the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination j.k.rowling copyright june 2008 as prepared for delivery president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates, actually, i have wracked my mind and heart for what i ought to say to you today.i have asked myself what i wish i had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.these might seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but please bear with me.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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 persons idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.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.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.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.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.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 empathise 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 internationals 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.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 countrys regime, his mother had been seized and executed.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.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.and yet i also learned more about human goodness at amnesty international than i had ever known before.amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been tortured or imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have.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.unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced.they can think themselves into other peoples minds, imagine themselves into other peoples places.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.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.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.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 peoples lives simply by existing.but how much more are you, harvard graduates of 2008, likely to touch other peoples 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 worlds only remaining superpower.the way you vote, the way you篇三：jk罗琳 2008哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination j.k.rowling tercentenarytheatre, june 5, 2008 失败的好处和想象力的重要性

哈佛大学毕业典礼 j.k.罗琳

2008年6月5日 presidentfaust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers, membersofthefaculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates, 福斯特主席，哈佛公司和监察委员会的各位成员，首先请允许我说一声谢谢。哈佛不仅给了我无上的荣誉，连日来为这个演讲经受的恐惧和紧张，更令我减肥成功。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。发表毕业演说是一个巨大的责任，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著名的哲学家baroness mary warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。

你们看，如果在若干年后你们还记得―快乐的魔法师‖这个笑话，那就证明我已经超越了baroness mary warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。actually, i have wracked my mind and heart for what i ought to say to you today.i have asked myself what i wish i had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.实际上，我为今天应该和大家谈些什么绞尽了脑汁。我问自己什么是我希望早在毕业典礼上就该了解的，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。

我想到了两个答案。在这美好的一天，当我们一起庆祝你们取得学业成就的时刻，我希望告诉你们失败有什么样的益处；在你们即将迈向―现实生活‖的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。

thesemayseemquixoticorparadoxicalchoices, but bear with me.这些似乎是不切实际或自相矛盾的选择，但请先容我讲完。

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。iwasconvincedthattheonlythingiwantedtodo, 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.我一直深信，自己唯一想做的事情，就是写小说。不过，我的父母，他们都来自贫穷的背景，没有任何一人上过大学，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。iknowtheironystrikeslikewiththeforceofacartoonanvilnow, but„ 我现在明白反讽就像用卡通铁砧去打击你，但...他们希望我去拿个职业学位，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：我改学现代语言。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。icannotremembertellingmyparentsthatiwasstudyingclassics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.of all the 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，他们可能是在我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，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。iwouldliketomakeitclear, 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.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.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.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。

what i feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.我在你们这个年龄，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。atyourage, 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.我在您们这么大时，明显缺乏在大学学习的动力，我花了太久时间在咖啡吧写故事，而在课堂的时间却很少。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。iamnotdullenoughtosupposethatbecauseyouareyoung, 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.我不想愚蠢地假设，因为你们年轻、有天份，并且受过良好的教育，就从来没有遇到困难或心碎的时刻。拥有才华和智慧，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有所准备；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。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 persons idea of success, so high have you already flown 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 eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.so i think it fair to say that by any conventional 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, 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。所以我承认命运的公平，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年 后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我又失业成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一 无所有。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都变成了现实。按照惯常的标准来看，我也是我所知道的最失败的人。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.现在，我不打算站在这里告诉你们，失败是有趣的。那段日子是我生命中的黑暗岁月，我不知道它是否代表童话故事里需要历经的磨难，更不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久。很长一段时间里，前面留给我的只是希望，而不是现实。sowhydoitalkaboutthebenefitsoffailure? 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.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.那 么为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢？因为失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。我因此不再伪装自己、远离自我，而重新开始把所有精力放在对我最重要的事情上。如 果不是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能就不会找到，在一个我确信真正属于的舞台上取得成功的决心。我获得了自由，因为最害怕的虽然已经发生了，但我还活着，我仍然有一个我深爱的女儿，我还有一个旧打字机和一个很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。youmightneverfailonthescaleidid, 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.你们可能永远没有达到我经历的那种失败程度，但有些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。生活不可能没有一点失败，除非你生活的万般小心，而那也意味着你没有真正在生活了。无论怎样，有些失败还是注定地要发生。failuregavemeaninnersecuritythatihadneverattainedbypassingexaminations.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.失败使我的内心产生一种安全感，这是我从考试中没有得到过的。失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。我发现，我比自己认为的，要有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我拥有比宝石更加珍贵的朋友。theknowledgethatyouhaveemergedwiserandstrongerfromsetbacksmeansthatyouare, 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.从挫折中获得智慧、变得坚强，意味着你比以往任何时候都更有能力生存。只有在逆境来临的时候，你才会真正认识你自己，了解身边的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但比我以前得到的任何资格证书都有用。

如 果给我一部时间机器，我会告诉21岁的自己，人的幸福在于知道生活不是一份漂亮的成绩单，你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活，虽然你会碰到很多与我同龄或更 老一点的人今天依然还在混淆两者。生活是艰辛的，复杂的，超出任何人的控制能力，而谦恭地了解这一点，将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。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 empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared.对 于第二个主题的选择——想象力的重要性——你们可能会认为是因为它对我重建生活起到了帮助，但事实并非完全如此。虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价 值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现 实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。oneofthegreatestformativeexperiencesofmylifeprecededharrypotter, 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 internationals headquarters in london.其中一个影响最大的经历发生在我写哈利波特之前，为我随后写书提供了很多想法。这些想法成形于我早期的工作经历，在20多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部门。

thereinmylittleofficeireadhastilyscribbledletterssmuggledoutoftotalitarianregimesbymenandwomenwhowereriskingimprisonmenttoinformtheoutsideworldofwhatwashappeningtothem.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 我的小办公室，我看到了人们匆匆写的信件，它们是从极权主义政权被偷送出来的。那些人冒着被监禁的危险，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了 那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和 处决。

因为他们的观点而责怪我的父母。埋怨父母给你指错方向 是有时间段的。当你长到自己可以掌握方向时，你就要自己承担责任了。尤其是，我不会因为自己希望不要经历贫穷而责怪我的父母。他们是贫穷的，我也一直很 贫穷。贫困带来的恐惧，压力有时是绝望，这意味着屈辱和苦难。用您自己的努 力摆脱贫困这确实是一件对自己而言骄傲的事情。但贫穷本身只有对傻瓜而言才 是浪漫的。我在你们这个年龄时，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。像你们这样大时，我明显 缺乏在大学学习的动力。我花了太久在咖啡吧写故事，而在课堂的时间就很少了。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直认为我的生活在我的同龄人中是成功 的现在。我不愚蠢假设因为你们的年轻，天才和受过良好教育就从来没有困难或 心碎的时刻。才华和智商从来不会对命运的反复无常有所准备。我也不会假设大 家都坐这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。但从哈佛毕业的事实表明，你们对失败不熟悉。害怕失败像渴望成功一样强烈。事实上，您对失败的理解可能和普通人 对成功的看法不会太远。因为你们已经站在如此之高的位置。最终，我们所有人 都必须自己决定什么构成失败，但如果你愿意，世界是相当渴望给你一套标准的。因而我可以公平地讲，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅七年后的日子里，我 的失败就达到了空前的规模： 一个异常短暂的破裂的婚姻、失业、一个单亲家长，像在现代英国的穷人一样，只是还没有到无家可归的地步罢了。眼前时刻浮现着 父母和自己对未来的担心。按照惯常的标准来看，我是我所见过的最大的失败者。现在，我不打算站在这里告诉你失败是好玩的，我的那段生活经历是困窘不堪的； 我更不知道新闻媒体所说的童话故事般的革命；我也不知道那种困苦要持续多 久；在相当长的一段时间里，任何尽头的光明都只是一个希望而不是现实。那么，为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢？只是因为失败意味着剥离你不必需的东 西。我不是在伪装自己，我只是直接把所有精力放在最重要的工作上。如果我不 是没有在其他领域成功过，我可能绝不会有在真正属于自己的舞台上取得成功的 决心。我获得了自由，因为我最害怕的已经发生了，但是我还活着，我还有一个 我深爱着的女儿，还有一个旧打字机和一个大创意（指写哈利波特）。所以困境 的谷底成为我重建生活的坚实基础。你可能永远不会有我这种失败的经历，但有 些失败，在生活中是不可避免的。毫无挫折的生活是不存在，除非你生活的万般 小心，可有些失 败还是会发生。失败让我内心安全，是我从通过考试中没有得到 过的。失败教会我一些不能用其他方法获得的东西，我发现自己有坚强的意志，比想象中还多的原则，我也发现我拥有朋友----他们的价值远在红宝石之上。从 挫折中得到知识将使你更加明智和坚强，也就是说您比以往任何时候更有能力生 存。你从来没有真正认识自己，或通过逆境的检验认识到您的朋友的力量，直到两者经受逆境的考验。对所有人而言，这种认知是一个真正的礼物。这是痛苦的 胜利比我取得的任何资格有着更高的价值。给我一部时间机器，我会告诉 21 岁的自己：个人的幸福在于知道生命是不是一 个获得或取得的核对清单。你的资历、简历，都不是你的生活，虽然你会遇到很 多人和我同龄或者更老一点的人依然混淆两者。生活是困难的，复杂的，超出任 何人的控制。谦恭地认识到这一点将使你历经沧桑后能够更好的生存。你可能会认为我选择了我的第二个主题： 想象力的重要性因为这是重建我生活的 一部分。但事实并非完全如此，虽然我永远捍卫睡前故事的价值，我已经学会了 想象拥有的更广泛的意义。想象力不仅是人类独具能力：设想还不存在的事物是 所有发明和创新的源泉。这种改造和揭露的能力，使我们能够对自己未经历的苦 难者产生同理心。其中一个影响最大的经历在我写哈利波特的生活之前，但大部 分是在我随后写的那些书里。这个想法成形于我早期的工作经历。在 20 多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦 总部的 ** 国际研究部门。在我的小办公室，我看到了人们在匆忙中写的信，这 些信是从极权主义政权那里偷运出来的。那些人冒着被监禁的危险，告知外面的 世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到那些无迹可寻的人的照片-----由他们的 家人和朋友铤而走险地送到 ** 国际来的。我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照 片，我也读过笔迹、目击证人的供词以及即决审判和处决的绑架和*犯的档案。我有很多的合作者是前政治犯，他们已离开家园流离失所，或逃亡流放，因为他 们大胆地怀疑政府的民主问题。来我们办公室的访客有告密者以及想了解迫害真 相的人。我将永远不会忘记： 一个非洲 ** 的受害者-----一名当时比我还小的年轻男子，他因在故乡的悲惨经历导致精神错乱。当他在摄像机前讲述被残暴的摧残的时 候，他颤抖失控。他比我稍高一点，但当时看来却像个脆弱的孩童。后来，我被 安排护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手, 祝我未来生活幸福!并且只要我还活着，我就会记得走过一个空荡荡的的走廊。突然从背后的门里传 来我从未听过的尖叫的痛苦和恐惧，门打开了，研究员探出她的头告诉我为坐在 她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。他刚被告知消息：为了报复他对国家政权的 批评，他母亲已被捕并执行了枪决。在我 20 多岁的时候，我工作的每一天，都 在提醒我是多么的幸运。生活在一个民选政府的国家，律师和公开审理，是每个 人的权利。每天我都能看到很多有关恶人的证据，他们为了获得或维持权力而对 自己的同胞所犯下的暴行。我开始做噩梦，都和我的所见所闻有关，并且我也了 解到更多关于人类的善良。在国际 ** 组织学到的比以前多得多。** 动员成千 上万有自由信仰的人，去为那些因信仰而遭遇不幸的人奔走抗争。人类同理心的 力量，引发的集体拯救生命的行动，释放囚犯。众多幸福安康的普通百姓，携手 合作挽救那些素不相识或再也不能相逢的人。这在道德上是中立的，是我生命中 一段最谦恭和发人深省的生活经历。不同于这个星球上的任何其他生物，人类可以学习理解未经历过的东西。他们可 以设身处地为别人着想当然，这是一种能力就像我虚构的魔法世界一样。这在道 德上也是中立的。一个人可能会利用这种能力去操纵、或控制，但也有很多人选 择去了解或同情。很多人一点也不喜欢锻炼自己的想象力，他们选择待在舒适的 生活范围内，从来不麻烦地去想想如果自己出生在别处一切会怎么样。他们拒绝 听到尖叫声或向笼子里窥视，他们可以封闭自己的内心。只要痛苦不触及他们个人，他们可以拒绝去了解。我可能会因诱惑而嫉妒那样生活的人，除了我不认为 他们会比我少做噩梦。选择住在狭窄的空间可导致某种形式的精神广场恐惧症，并给自己带来恐惧感。我认为不想看到更多怪物的人，他们常常更害怕。更甚的 是，那些选择不同情的人可能激活真正的怪兽，因为我们自己没有严惩邪恶，冷 漠与无视却让我们犯下了邪恶的共谋罪。在 21 岁时，我从古典文学中学到很多知识。其中之一我所不明白的是，希腊作 家普鲁塔克所说的： 我们内心的实现将改变外在现实。那是一个多么惊人的论断，并在我们生活的每天被无数次论证。这在某种程度上表明，我们与外部世界有逃 不掉的瓜葛。事实上，我们以自己的存在来接触其他人的生命。但哈佛大学的级 的毕业生们，你们中的多少人会去触及他人的生命呢？ 你们的智慧、努力工作的能力以及所受的教育将给予你们独特的地位和责任。即 使您的国籍把你与别人分开了，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： banners and convince myself that i am at the world’s largest gryffindors reunion.首先请允许我说一声谢谢。哈佛不仅给了我无上的荣誉，连日来为这个演讲经受的恐惧和紧张，更令我减肥成功。这真是一个双赢的局面。现在我要做的就是深呼吸几下，眯着眼睛看看前面的大红横幅，安慰自己正在世界上最大的魔法学院聚会上。

发表毕业演说是一个巨大的责任，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著名的哲学家baroness mary warnock，对她演讲的回忆，对我写今天的演讲稿，产生了极大的帮助，因为我不记得她说过的任何一句话了。这个发现让我释然，让我不再担心我可能会无意中影响你放弃在商业，法律或政治上的大好前途，转而醉心于成为一个快乐的魔法师。

你们看，如果在若干年后你们还记得“快乐的魔法师”这个笑话，那就证明我已经超越了baroness mary warnock。建立可实现的目标——这是提高自我的第一步。actually, i have wracked my mind and heart for what i ought to say to you today.i have asked myself what i wish i had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons i have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.实际上，我为今天应该和大家谈些什么绞尽了脑汁。我问自己什么是我希望早在毕业典礼上就该了解的，而从那时起到现在的21年间，我又得到了什么重要的启示。

我想到了两个答案。在这美好的一天，当我们一起庆祝你们取得学业成就的时刻，我希望告诉你们失败有什么样的益处；在你们即将迈向“现实生活”的道路之际，我还要褒扬想象力的重要性。

these may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but bear with me.这些似乎是不切实际或自相矛盾的选择，但请先容我讲完。looking back at the 21-year-old that i was at graduation, is a slightly 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 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.我一直深信，自己唯一想做的事情，就是写小说。不过，我的父母，他们都来自贫穷的背景，没有任何一人上过大学，坚持认为我过度的想象力是一个令人惊讶的个人怪癖，根本不足以让我支付按揭，或者取得足够的养老金。i know the irony strikes like with the force of a cartoon anvil now, but„

我现在明白反讽就像用卡通铁砧去打击你，但...他们希望我去拿个职业学位，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：我改学现代语言。可是等到父母一走开，我立刻放弃了德语而报名学习古典文学。i cannot remember telling my parents that i was studying classics;they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.of all the 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，他们可能是在我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，根本无法换来一间独立宽敞的卫生间。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.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.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.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。

what i feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.我在你们这个年龄，最害怕的不是贫穷，而是失败。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.我在您们这么大时，明显缺乏在大学学习的动力，我花了太久时间在咖啡吧写故事，而在课堂的时间却很少。我有一个通过考试的诀窍，并且数年间一直让我在大学生活和同龄人中不落人后。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.我不想愚蠢地假设，因为你们年轻、有天份，并且受过良好的教育，就从来没有遇到困难或心碎的时刻。拥有才华和智慧，从来不会使人对命运的反复无常有免疫（直译）；我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。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 persons idea of success, so high have you already flown 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。

篇5：jk罗琳名言

1、“我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己体内就有这样的力量。我们一直在梦想，让这个世界变得更美好”。

2、从挫折中获得的知识越充满智慧、越有力，你在以后的生存中则越安全。除非遭受磨难，你们不会真正认识自己，也没法知道你们之间关系有多铁。这些知识才是真正的礼物，他们比我曾经获得的任何资格证书更为珍贵，因为这些是我经历过痛苦后才获得的。

3、决定我们一生的，不是我们的能力，而是我们的选择。

4、贫穷会引起恐惧、压力，有时候甚至是沮丧。这意味着小心眼、卑微和很多艰难困苦。通过自己的努力摆脱贫穷确实是件很值得自豪的事情，但只有傻瓜才对贫穷本身夸夸其谈。

5、我们不需要魔法来改变世界，我们已经在我们的内心拥有了足够的力量：那就是把世界想象成更好的力量。()

6、现在已经不是抱怨父母引导自己走错方向的时候了，如今的你们已经足够大来决定自己前进的路程，责任要靠自己承担。

7、小时侯喜欢马尔福一样坏坏的男生，长大后才知道像哈利一样善良的才值得去爱

8、为什么我说失败是有好处的？因为失败将那些非本质的东西剥离了，我不再伪装自己，我找到了真正的我。我将所有的精力都投入到我最重要的也是唯一的工作中去――写小说。如果我此前在其他方面成功过，那么，我也许永远不会下这样的决心。我自由了，因为我最大的恐惧已成为现实，而我依然活着，有一个可爱的女儿，还有一台旧打字机和一个大大的梦想。我生命中的最低点也是我重建生活的坚实基础。”她告诫年轻人：面临挫折时，永远不要放弃希望。