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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都剥离了。我不再伪装自己,我找到了真正的我,我将自己所有的精力,投入完成对我最重要的唯一一项工作。
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,那么我也许永远不会有这样的决心,投身于这个我自信真正属于我的领域。
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,因为我最大的恐惧已经成为现实,而我却还依然活着,依然有一个深爱着的女儿,我还有一台旧打字机和一个大大的梦想。我生命中最低的低点,成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
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.
失败使我的内心产生一种安全感,以前通过考试也没有的安全感。失败让我看清自己,以前我从没认识到自己是这样的。我发现,我比自己以为的,有更强的意志和决心。我还发现,我有一些比宝石更珍贵的朋友。
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.
只有到逆境来临的那一天,你才会真正了解你自己,了解你结识的人。这种了解是真正的财富,虽然是用痛苦换来的,但是它比我以前得到的任何证书都有用。
在演说的下半部分,她还谈了毕业后在大*赦*国*际(Amnesty International)伦敦总部的第一份工作。这部分内容也很精彩,不过我就不翻译了,大家可以去看原文。
三、
我要重点谈的,是演说的结尾部分。
一般来说,在演讲结束时,嘉宾将对毕业生提出期望。我们可以看到,在这种场合,几乎所有嘉宾,都没有说“祝愿同学们取得个人成功”,而是说“希望同学们努力去减轻人类的苦难”。
比尔·盖茨去年说:
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?
哈佛是否鼓励她的老师去研究解决世界上最严重的不平等?哈佛的学生是否从全球那些极端的贫穷中学到了什么……世界性的饥荒……清洁的水资源的缺乏……无法上学的女童……死于非恶性疾病的儿童……哈佛的学生有没有从中学到东西?
Should the world's most privileged people learn about the lives of the world's least privileged?
那些世界上过着最优越生活的人们,有没有从那些最困难的人们身上学到东西?
These are not rhetorical questions – you will answer with your policies.
这些问题并非语言上的修辞。你必须用自己的行动来回答它们。
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,我们在这个院子里的这些人,被给予过什么——天赋、特权、机遇——那么可以这样说,全世界的人们几乎有无限的权力,期待我们做出贡献。
J.K.罗琳今年说:
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.
你们是哈佛毕业生的这个事实,说明你们并不很了解失败。你们也许极其渴望成功www.chuangyezg.com,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,所有各位哈佛大学2008届毕业生,你们对其他人的生活了解多少?你们的智慧、你们的能力、你们所受的教育,给了你们独一无二的优势,也给了你们独一无二的责任。……你们的优势就是你们的责任。
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.
你们要用自己的地位和影响,为那些被忽略的人们说话;你们不仅要看到那些有权有势者,也要看到那些无权无势者;你们要学会设想,那些条件不如你们的人们是如何生活的;那样的话,不仅你们的亲人们将为你们感到自豪,而且千千万万的人们将因为你们的帮助而生活得更好。
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.
我们不需要改变世界的魔法,我们自己的体内就有这样的力量:那就是我们一直在梦想,让这个世界变得更美好
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