她的演講題目是《失敗的好處和想象的重要性》（The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination）。
她幾乎沒有談到哈里波特，而是說了年輕時(shí)的一些經(jīng)歷。雖然J·K·羅琳現(xiàn)在很有錢，是英國僅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾經(jīng)有一段非常艱辛的日子，30歲了，還差點(diǎn)流落街頭。她主要談的是，自己從這段經(jīng)歷中學(xué)到的東西。
我只找到了一部分中文翻譯，有興趣的朋友可以看下面的原文和視頻。
二、
她首先回憶了自己大學(xué)畢業(yè)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 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.
當(dāng)時(shí)，我只想去寫小說。但是，我的父母出身貧寒，沒有受過大學(xué)教育。他們認(rèn)為，我那些不安分的想象力只是一種怪癖，根本不能用來還房貸，或者掙來養(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.
他們希望我再去讀個(gè)專業(yè)學(xué)位，而我想去攻讀英國文學(xué)。最后，達(dá)成了一個(gè)雙方都不甚滿意的妥協(xié)：我改學(xué)外語?？墒堑鹊礁改敢蛔唛_，我立刻報(bào)名學(xué)習(xí)古典文學(xué)。
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.
我不記得將這事告訴了父母。他們可能是在畢業(yè)典禮那一天才發(fā)現(xiàn)的。我想，在全世界的所有專業(yè)中，他們也許認(rèn)為，不會(huì)有比研究希臘神話更沒用的專業(yè)了，根本無法換來一間獨(dú)立的寬敞衛(wèi)生間。
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 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.
我要申明，我并不責(zé)怪父母?！麄冎皇窍Ｍ也灰^窮日子，我不能批評(píng)他們。他們自己很窮，我后來一度也很窮，所以我很理解他們，貧窮是一種悲慘的經(jīng)歷。它帶來恐懼、壓力、有時(shí)還有抑郁。它意味著許許多多的羞辱和艱辛?？孔约旱呐[脫貧窮，確實(shí)讓人自豪，但是只有傻瓜才會(huì)將貧窮本身浪漫化。
接著，她談到了自己那些最悲慘的日子：
A mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.
我畢業(yè)后只過了7年，就失敗得一塌糊涂。
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.
*的婚姻閃電般地破裂，我還失業(yè)了，成了一個(gè)艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當(dāng)代英國最窮的人之一，真的一無所有。我父母對(duì)我的擔(dān)憂，我對(duì)自己的擔(dān)憂，都變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。用平常人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，我是我所知道的最失敗的人。
That period of my life was a dark one. 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.
那段日子是我生命中的黑暗歲月。我不知道還要在黑暗中走多久，很長一段時(shí)間中，我有的只是希望，而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。
但是，J.K. 羅琳認(rèn)為，沒有那段日子的失敗，就不會(huì)有后來的她。
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.
為什么我說失敗是有好處的？因?yàn)槭⒛切┓潜举|(zhì)的東西都剝離了。我不再偽裝自己，我找到了真正的我，我將自己所有的精力，投入完成對(duì)我最重要的一項(xiàng)工作。
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.
要是我以前在其他地方成功了，那么我也許永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)有這樣的決心，投身于這個(gè)我自信真正屬于我的領(lǐng)域。
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.
我自由了，因?yàn)槲业目謶忠呀?jīng)成為現(xiàn)實(shí)，而我卻還依然活著，依然有一個(gè)深愛著的女兒，我還有一臺(tái)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)大大的夢想。我生命中最低的低點(diǎn)，成為我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。
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.
失敗使我的內(nèi)心產(chǎn)生一種安全感，以前通過考試也沒有的安全感。失敗讓我看清自己，以前我從沒認(rèn)識(shí)到自己是這樣的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我比自己以為的，有更強(qiáng)的意志和決心。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，我有一些比寶石更珍貴的朋友。
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.
只有到逆境來臨的那一天，你才會(huì)真正了解你自己，了解你結(jié)識(shí)的人。這種了解是真正的財(cái)富，雖然是用痛苦換來的，但是它比我以前得到的任何證書都有用。
三、我要重點(diǎn)談的，是演說的結(jié)尾部分。
一般來說，在演講結(jié)束時(shí)，嘉賓將對(duì)畢業(yè)生提出期望。我們可以看到，在這種場合，幾乎所有嘉賓，都沒有說“祝愿同學(xué)們?nèi)〉脗€(gè)人成功”，而是說“希望同學(xué)們努力去減輕人類的苦難”。
比爾·蓋茨去年說：
Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world's worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school … the children who die from diseases we can cure?
哈佛是否鼓勵(lì)她的老師去研究解決世界上最嚴(yán)重的不平等？哈佛的學(xué)生是否從全球那些極端的貧窮中學(xué)到了什么……世界性的饑荒……清潔的水資源的缺乏……無法上學(xué)的女童……死于非惡性疾病的兒童……哈佛的學(xué)生有沒有從中學(xué)到東西？
Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?
那些世界上過著越生活的人們，有沒有從那些最困難的人們身上學(xué)到東西？
These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.
這些問題并非語言上的修辭。你必須用自己的行動(dòng)來回答它們。
When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.
想一想吧，我們?cè)谶@個(gè)院子里的這些人，被給予過什么——天賦、特權(quán)、機(jī)遇——那么可以這樣說，全世界的人們幾乎有無限的權(quán)力，期待我們做出貢獻(xiàn)。
J.K.羅琳今年說：
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.
你們是哈佛畢業(yè)生的這個(gè)事實(shí)，說明你們并不很了解失敗。你們也許極其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失敗。說實(shí)話，你們眼中的失敗，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，畢竟你們?cè)趯W(xué)業(yè)上已經(jīng)很成功了。
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.…… That is your privilege, and your burden.
但是，所有各位哈佛大學(xué)2008屆畢業(yè)生，你們對(duì)其他人的生活了解多少？你們的智慧、你們的能力、你們所受的教育，給了你們獨(dú)一無二的優(yōu)勢，也給了你們獨(dú)一無二的責(zé)任?！銈兊膬?yōu)勢就是你們的責(zé)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.
你們要用自己的地位和影響，為那些被忽略的人們說話；你們不僅要看到那些有權(quán)有勢者，也要看到那些無權(quán)無勢者；你們要學(xué)會(huì)設(shè)想，那些條件不如你們的人們是如何生活的；那樣的話，不僅你們的親人們將為你們感到自豪，而且千千萬萬的人們將因?yàn)槟銈兊膸椭畹酶谩?BR> 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.
我們不需要改變世界的魔法，我們自己的體內(nèi)就有這樣的力量：那就是我們一直在夢想，讓這個(gè)世界變得更美好。
她幾乎沒有談到哈里波特，而是說了年輕時(shí)的一些經(jīng)歷。雖然J·K·羅琳現(xiàn)在很有錢，是英國僅次于女皇的最富有的女人，但是她曾經(jīng)有一段非常艱辛的日子，30歲了，還差點(diǎn)流落街頭。她主要談的是，自己從這段經(jīng)歷中學(xué)到的東西。
我只找到了一部分中文翻譯，有興趣的朋友可以看下面的原文和視頻。
二、
她首先回憶了自己大學(xué)畢業(yè)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 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.
當(dāng)時(shí)，我只想去寫小說。但是，我的父母出身貧寒，沒有受過大學(xué)教育。他們認(rèn)為，我那些不安分的想象力只是一種怪癖，根本不能用來還房貸，或者掙來養(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.
他們希望我再去讀個(gè)專業(yè)學(xué)位，而我想去攻讀英國文學(xué)。最后，達(dá)成了一個(gè)雙方都不甚滿意的妥協(xié)：我改學(xué)外語?？墒堑鹊礁改敢蛔唛_，我立刻報(bào)名學(xué)習(xí)古典文學(xué)。
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.
我不記得將這事告訴了父母。他們可能是在畢業(yè)典禮那一天才發(fā)現(xiàn)的。我想，在全世界的所有專業(yè)中，他們也許認(rèn)為，不會(huì)有比研究希臘神話更沒用的專業(yè)了，根本無法換來一間獨(dú)立的寬敞衛(wèi)生間。
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 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.
我要申明，我并不責(zé)怪父母?！麄冎皇窍Ｍ也灰^窮日子，我不能批評(píng)他們。他們自己很窮，我后來一度也很窮，所以我很理解他們，貧窮是一種悲慘的經(jīng)歷。它帶來恐懼、壓力、有時(shí)還有抑郁。它意味著許許多多的羞辱和艱辛?？孔约旱呐[脫貧窮，確實(shí)讓人自豪，但是只有傻瓜才會(huì)將貧窮本身浪漫化。
接著，她談到了自己那些最悲慘的日子：
A mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.
我畢業(yè)后只過了7年，就失敗得一塌糊涂。
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.
*的婚姻閃電般地破裂，我還失業(yè)了，成了一個(gè)艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當(dāng)代英國最窮的人之一，真的一無所有。我父母對(duì)我的擔(dān)憂，我對(duì)自己的擔(dān)憂，都變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。用平常人的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，我是我所知道的最失敗的人。
That period of my life was a dark one. 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.
那段日子是我生命中的黑暗歲月。我不知道還要在黑暗中走多久，很長一段時(shí)間中，我有的只是希望，而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。
但是，J.K. 羅琳認(rèn)為，沒有那段日子的失敗，就不會(huì)有后來的她。
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.
為什么我說失敗是有好處的？因?yàn)槭⒛切┓潜举|(zhì)的東西都剝離了。我不再偽裝自己，我找到了真正的我，我將自己所有的精力，投入完成對(duì)我最重要的一項(xiàng)工作。
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.
要是我以前在其他地方成功了，那么我也許永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)有這樣的決心，投身于這個(gè)我自信真正屬于我的領(lǐng)域。
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.
我自由了，因?yàn)槲业目謶忠呀?jīng)成為現(xiàn)實(shí)，而我卻還依然活著，依然有一個(gè)深愛著的女兒，我還有一臺(tái)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)大大的夢想。我生命中最低的低點(diǎn)，成為我重建生活的堅(jiān)實(shí)基礎(chǔ)。
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.
失敗使我的內(nèi)心產(chǎn)生一種安全感，以前通過考試也沒有的安全感。失敗讓我看清自己，以前我從沒認(rèn)識(shí)到自己是這樣的。我發(fā)現(xiàn)，我比自己以為的，有更強(qiáng)的意志和決心。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)，我有一些比寶石更珍貴的朋友。
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.
只有到逆境來臨的那一天，你才會(huì)真正了解你自己，了解你結(jié)識(shí)的人。這種了解是真正的財(cái)富，雖然是用痛苦換來的，但是它比我以前得到的任何證書都有用。
三、我要重點(diǎn)談的，是演說的結(jié)尾部分。
一般來說，在演講結(jié)束時(shí)，嘉賓將對(duì)畢業(yè)生提出期望。我們可以看到，在這種場合，幾乎所有嘉賓，都沒有說“祝愿同學(xué)們?nèi)〉脗€(gè)人成功”，而是說“希望同學(xué)們努力去減輕人類的苦難”。
比爾·蓋茨去年說：
Should Harvard encourage its faculty to take on the world's worst inequities? Should Harvard students learn about the depth of global poverty … the prevalence of world hunger … the scarcity of clean water …the girls kept out of school … the children who die from diseases we can cure?
哈佛是否鼓勵(lì)她的老師去研究解決世界上最嚴(yán)重的不平等？哈佛的學(xué)生是否從全球那些極端的貧窮中學(xué)到了什么……世界性的饑荒……清潔的水資源的缺乏……無法上學(xué)的女童……死于非惡性疾病的兒童……哈佛的學(xué)生有沒有從中學(xué)到東西？
Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?
那些世界上過著越生活的人們，有沒有從那些最困難的人們身上學(xué)到東西？
These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.
這些問題并非語言上的修辭。你必須用自己的行動(dòng)來回答它們。
When you consider what those of us here in this Yard have been given – in talent, privilege, and opportunity – there is almost no limit to what the world has a right to expect from us.
想一想吧，我們?cè)谶@個(gè)院子里的這些人，被給予過什么——天賦、特權(quán)、機(jī)遇——那么可以這樣說，全世界的人們幾乎有無限的權(quán)力，期待我們做出貢獻(xiàn)。
J.K.羅琳今年說：
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.
你們是哈佛畢業(yè)生的這個(gè)事實(shí)，說明你們并不很了解失敗。你們也許極其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失敗。說實(shí)話，你們眼中的失敗，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，畢竟你們?cè)趯W(xué)業(yè)上已經(jīng)很成功了。
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.…… That is your privilege, and your burden.
但是，所有各位哈佛大學(xué)2008屆畢業(yè)生，你們對(duì)其他人的生活了解多少？你們的智慧、你們的能力、你們所受的教育，給了你們獨(dú)一無二的優(yōu)勢，也給了你們獨(dú)一無二的責(zé)任?！銈兊膬?yōu)勢就是你們的責(zé)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.
你們要用自己的地位和影響，為那些被忽略的人們說話；你們不僅要看到那些有權(quán)有勢者，也要看到那些無權(quán)無勢者；你們要學(xué)會(huì)設(shè)想，那些條件不如你們的人們是如何生活的；那樣的話，不僅你們的親人們將為你們感到自豪，而且千千萬萬的人們將因?yàn)槟銈兊膸椭畹酶谩?BR> 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.
我們不需要改變世界的魔法，我們自己的體內(nèi)就有這樣的力量：那就是我們一直在夢想，讓這個(gè)世界變得更美好。