J.K. Rowling J.K. 羅琳
二〇〇八年六月五日，J.K. 羅琳接受哈佛大學頒發榮譽文學博士學位(Honorary Doctor of Letters degree)，並於當天畢業典禮上發表此篇演說。
面對全球首府哈佛畢業生，這群世界上學業最成功的人，J.K. 羅琳要送給他們的禮物就是「失敗」，因為「你們對成功的渴望，應該跟你們對失敗的恐懼一樣大⋯⋯你們失敗的經驗，可能跟平常人成功的經驗一樣少。」
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. 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 cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day.
回顧二十一歲大學畢業時期的我，對於現在四十二歲的我來說是有點尷尬的體驗。我當時堅信自己唯一想做的事、也一直想做的事就是寫小說。不過，我的父母皆出身貧困，都沒上過大學，他們認為我那過於豐富的想像力只是令人莞爾的個人怪癖，對於繳房貸或取得退休金是無濟於事的。我不記得是否告訴過父母我主修的是古典文學，他們甚至可能在我畢業典禮那天才發現。
The Benefits of Failure 失敗的好處
I cannot criticize 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. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools. What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
關於父母希望我永遠都不要經歷窮苦的生活這點，我無可厚非。他們體驗過貧困的日子，我自己後來也經歷過，所以我同意他們，這不是什麼使人昇華的經歷。靠自己努力擺脫貧困，確實足以令人感到自豪，但只有傻瓜才將貧困視為浪漫的事。在你們這個年紀的時候，我最害怕的不是貧困，而是失敗。
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 is 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.
我們最終都要自己摸索出失敗的定義是什麼，但只要你願意，這個世界總是迫不及待給你一套標準。所以，我可以這麼說，以任何傳統的標準來看，我在畢業後七年就經歷了慘敗。格外短命的婚姻已宣告破裂，而且我當時沒有工作，成了單親媽媽，可以說達到了現代英國最貧窮的標準，只差沒有流離失所。
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. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, 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.
那我為什麼要談失敗的好處？只不過因為失敗可以幫你擺脫不必要的東西。我不再需要偽裝自己，並開始將我的所有精力都放在完成唯一對我重要的事。既然我最恐懼的事已成為現實，我就自由了，更何況我還活著，還有我最寶貝的女兒，又有一台老舊的打字機和滿腦子創意。於是谷底成了我重建人生的堅厚基石。
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 ofyour relationships, until both have been tested byadversity. 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.
挫敗會讓你變得更有智慧、更茁壯，代表從此以後你的生存能力便是安全可靠的。在歷經逆境的考驗之前，你永遠不會認識到真正的自己，也不會知道自己人際關係的力量。這樣的知識才是真正的禮物，雖然得來的過程是痛苦的，但比起我曾獲得的其他資歷都還要值得。
【VOCABULARY】
1) impoverished (a.) 窮困的
2) quirk (n.) 怪癖
3) mortgage (n.) 房屋抵押貸款
4) secure (v.) 獲得，取得
5) pension (n.) 退休金，養老金
6) inessential (a.) 不重要的，非必要的
7) adore (v.) 熱愛，愛慕
8) rock bottom (n.) 最低點，谷底
9) setback (n.) 挫折，失敗，阻礙
10)adversity (n.) 逆境，厄運
留言列表
