MATTLAUER哈佛毕业典礼演讲人物

jk罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲

人物简介

j.k.罗琳(j.k. rowling)，1965年7月31日出生于英国格温特郡，毕业于英国埃克塞

特大学，英国作家。

1989年，24岁的罗琳有了创作哈利·波特的念头。1997年6月，推出哈利·波特系列

第一本《哈利·波特与魔法石》。随后，罗琳又分别于1998年与1999年创作了《哈利·波特

与密室》和《哈利·波特与阿兹卡班的囚徒》。2001年，美国华纳兄弟电影公司决定将小说

的第一部《哈利·波特与魔法石》搬上银幕。2003年6月，她再创作出第五部作品《哈利·波

特与凤凰社》。2004年，罗琳荣登《福布斯》富人排行榜，她的身价达到10亿美元。2005

年7月推出了第六部《哈利·波特与混血王子》，2007年7月推出终结篇《哈利·波特与死

亡圣器》。截至2008年，《哈利·波特》系列7本小说被翻译成67种文字在全球发行4亿册。

2010年，哈利·波特电影系列的完结篇《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》拍摄完成。

2014年12月上旬，罗琳在邮件中公布，2014年圣诞期间从2014月12日起，她在格林

威治时间每天下午13时，通过pottermore发布1个新的“哈利·波特”系列故事的小故事，

共有12个。

jk罗琳2008哈佛毕业演讲稿

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：

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 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。

myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.

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。

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。

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 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。

you might never fail on the scale i did, but some failure in life is inevitable.

篇二：2008 罗琳哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲

2008年 j.k.罗琳哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲

the fringe benefits of failure, and the importance of imagination

j.k. rowling

tercentenary theatre, june 5, 2008 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 may seem quixotic or paradoxical choices, but 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 know the irony strikes like with the force of a cartoon anvil now, but…

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.

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.篇三：比尔·盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲(中英文对照) 比尔·盖茨在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

尊敬的bok校长，rudenstine前校长，即将上任的faust校长，哈佛集团的各位成员，

监管理事会的各位理事，各位老师，各位家长，各位同学：

有一句话我等了三十年，现在终于可以说了：“老爸，我总是跟你说，我会回来拿到我的

学位的！”

i want to thank harvard for this timely honor. ill be changing my job next year …

and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume.

我要感谢哈佛大学在这个时候给我这个荣誉。明年，我就要换工作了（注：指从微软公

司退休）??我终于可以在简历上写我有一个本科学位，这真是不错啊。

i applaud the graduates today for taking a much more direct route to your degrees.

for my part, im just happy that the crimson has called me harvards most successful

dropout. i guess that makes me valedictorian of my own special class … i did the

best of everyone who failed.

我为今天在座的各位同学感到高兴，你们拿到学位可比我简单多了。哈佛的校报称我是

“哈佛大学历史上最成功的辍学生”。我想这大概使我有资格代表我这一类学生发言??在所有

的失败者里，我做得最好。

but i also want to be recognized as the guy who got steve ballmer to drop out

of business school. im a bad influence. thats why i was invited to speak at your

graduation. if i had spoken at your orientation, fewer of you might be here today.

但是，我还要提醒大家，我使得steve ballmer（注：微软总经理）也从哈佛商学院退

学了。因此，我是个有着恶劣影响力的人。这就是为什么我被邀请来在你们的毕业典礼上演

讲。如果我在你们入学欢迎仪式上演讲，那么能够坚持到今天在这里毕业的人也许会少得多

吧。

harvard was just a phenomenal experience for me. academic life was fascinating.

i used to sit in on lots of classes i hadnt even signed up for. and dorm life was

terrific. i lived up at radcliffe, in currier house. there were always lots of people

in my dorm room late at night discussing things, because everyone knew i didnt worry

about getting up in the morning. thats how i came to be the leader of the anti-social

group. we clung to each other as a way of validating our rejection of all those social

people.

对我来说，哈佛的求学经历是一段非凡的经历。校园生活很有趣，我常去旁听我没选修

的课。哈佛的课外生活也很棒，我在radcliffe过着逍遥自在的日子。每天我的寝室里总有

很多人

一直待到半夜，讨论着各种事情。因为每个人都知道我从不考虑第二天早起。这使得我

变成了校园里那些不安分学生的头头，我们互相粘在一起，做出一种拒绝所有正常学生的姿

态。

radcliffe是个过日子的好地方。那里的女生比男生多，而且大多数男生都是理工科的。

这种状况为我创造了最好的机会，如果你们明白我的意思。可惜的是，我正是在这里学到了

人生中悲伤的一课：机会大，并不等于你就会成功。

我在哈佛最难忘的回忆之一，发生在1975年1月。那时，我从宿舍楼里给位于

albuquerque的一家公司打了一个电话，那家公司已经在着手制造世界上第一台个人电脑。

我提出想向他们出售软件。

我很担心，他们会发觉我是一个住在宿舍的学生，从而挂断电话。但是他们却说：“我们

还没准备好，一个月后你再来找我们吧。”这是个好消息，因为那时软件还根本没有写出来呢。

就是从那个时候起，我日以继夜地在这个小小的课外项目上工作，这导致了我学生生活的结

束，以及通往微软公司的不平凡的旅程的开始。

what i remember above all about harvard was being in the midst of so much energy

and intelligence. it could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even

discouraging, but always challenging. it was an amazing privilege – and though i

left early, i was transformed by my years at harvard, the friendships i made, and

the ideas i worked on.

不管怎样，我对哈佛的回忆主要都与充沛的精力和智力活动有关。哈佛的生活令人愉快，

也令人感到有压力，有时甚至会感到泄气，但永远充满了挑战性。生活在哈佛是一种吸引人

的特殊待遇??虽然我离开得比较早，但是我在这里的经历、在这里结识的朋友、在这里发展

起来的一些想法，永远地改变了我。

but taking a serious look back … i do have one big regret.

但是，如果现在严肃地回忆起来，我确实有一个真正的遗憾。

i left harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world –

the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.

我离开哈佛的时候，根本没有意识到这个世界是多么的不平等。人类在健康、财富和机

遇上的不平等大得可怕，它们使得无数的人们被迫生活在绝望之中。

i learned a lot here at harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. i got

great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.

我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想。我也了解了很多科学上的新进展。

but humanitys greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those

discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. whether through democracy, strong public

education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity

is the highest human achievement.

但是，人类最大的进步并不来自于这些发现，而是来自于那些有助于减少人类不平等的

发现。不管通过何种手段——民主制度、健全的公共教育体系、高质量的医疗保健、还是广

泛的经济机会——减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就。

i left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of

educational opportunities here in this country. and i knew nothing about the millions

of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.

我离开校园的时候，根本不知道在这个国家里，有几百万的年轻人无法获得接受教育的

机会。我也不知道，发展中国家里有无数的人们生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病之中。

it took me decades to find out.

我花了几十年才明白了这些事情。

you graduates came to harvard at a different time. you know more about the worlds

inequities than the classes that came before. in your years here, i hope youve had

a chance to think about how – in this age of accelerating technology – we can

finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.

在座的各位同学，你们是在与我不同的时代来到哈佛的。你们比以前的学生，更多地了

解世界是怎样的不平等。在你们的哈佛求学过程中，我希望你们已经思考过一个问题，那就

是在这个新技术加速发展的时代，我们怎样最终应对这种不平等，以及我们怎样来解决这个

问题。

imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and

a few dollars a month to donate to a cause – and you wanted to spend that time and

money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. where

would you spend it?

为了讨论的方便，请想象一下，假如你每个星期可以捐献一些时间、每个月可以捐献一

些钱——你希望这些时间和金钱，可以用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活有最大作用的地方。

你会选择什么地方？

for melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good

for the greatest number with the resources we have.

对melinda（注：盖茨的妻子）和我来说，这也是我们面临的问题：我们如何能将我们

拥有的资源发挥出最大的作用。

during our discussions on this question, melinda and i read an article about the

millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that

we had long ago made harmless in this country. measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis

b, yellow fever. one disease i had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half

a million kids each year – none of them in the united states.

在讨论过程中，melinda和我读到了一篇文章，里面说在那些贫穷的国家，每年有数百

万的儿童死于那些在美国早已不成问题的疾病。麻疹、疟疾、肺炎、乙型肝炎、黄热病、还

有一种以前我从未听说过的轮状病毒，这些疾病每年导致50万儿童死亡，但是在美国一例死

亡病例也没有。

we were shocked. we had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and

they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the

medicines to save them. but it did not. for under a dollar, there were interventions

that could save lives that just werent being delivered.

我们被震惊了。我们想，如果几百万儿童正在死亡线上挣扎，而且他们是可以被挽救的，

那么世界理应将用药物拯救他们作为头等大事。但是事实并非如此。那些价格还不到一美元

的救命的药剂，并没有送到他们的手中。

if you believe that every life has equal value, its revolting to learn that some

lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. we said to ourselves: this cant

be true. but if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving.

如果你相信每个生命都是平等的，那么当你发现某些生命被挽救了，而另一些生命被放

弃了，你会感到无法接受。我们对自己说：“事情不可能如此。如果这是真的，那么它理应是

我们努力的头等大事。”

so we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. we asked: how

could the world let these children die?

所以，我们用任何人都会想到的方式开始工作。我们问：“这个世界怎么可以眼睁睁看着

这些孩子死去？”

the answer is simple, and harsh. the market did not reward saving the lives of

these children, and governments did not subsidize it. so the children died because

their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.

答案很简单，也很令人难堪。在市场经济中，拯救儿童是一项没有利润的工作，政府也

不会提供补助。这些儿童之所以会死亡，是因为他们的父母在经济上没有实力，在政治上没

有能力发出声音。

but you and i have both.

但是，你们和我在经济上有实力，在政治上能够发出声音。

we can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative

capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can

make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the

worst inequities. we also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer

money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.

我们可以让市场更好地为穷人服务，如果我们能够设计出一种更有创新性的资本主义制

度——如果我们可以改变市场，让更多的人可以获得利润，或者至少可以维持生活——那么，

这就可以帮到那些正在极端不平等的状况中受苦的人们。我们还可以向全世界的政府施压，

要求他们将纳税人的钱，花到更符合纳税人价值观的地方。

if we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate

profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way

to reduce inequity in the world. this task is open-ended. it can never be finished.

but a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world. 如果我们能

够找到这样一种方法，既可以帮到穷人，又可以为商人带来利润，为政治家带来选票，那么

我们就找到了一种减少世界性不平等的可持续的发展道路。这个任务是无限的。它不可能被

完全完成，但是任何自觉地解决这个问题的尝试，都将会改变这个世界。

i believe we have more caring than we know what to do with.

我相信，问题不是我们不在乎，而是我们不知道怎么做。

all of us here in this yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies

that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing – not because we didnt care, but because

we didnt know what to do. if we had known how to help, we would have acted.

此刻在这个院子里的所有人，生命中总有这样或那样的时刻，目睹人类的悲剧，感到万

分伤心。但是我们什么也没做，并非我们无动于衷，而是因为我们不知道做什么和怎么做。

如果我们知道如何做是有效的，那么我们就会采取行动。

为了将关心转变为行动，我们需要找到问题，发现解决办法的方法，评估后果。但是世

界的篇四：j·k·罗琳在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲(双语) j·k·罗琳在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲(双语) 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）。

president faust, members of the harvard corporation and the board of overseers,

members of the faculty, 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，

各位老师、家长、全体毕业生们：

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格兰芬多（沪江小编：以防有人没看过

《哈利波特》……格兰芬多是小哈利所在的魔法学院的名字）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（gay有快乐和同性恋的意思）。

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。

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... they had hoped that i would take a vocational degree; i wanted to study english

literature.

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 heartache. 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。

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。所以我想很公平的讲，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。

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.

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。

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.

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。

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.

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。

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.

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，篇五：哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

人生的意义

哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲

根据这所古老学府的传统，我该慷慨激昂地传授你们一些终身受用的智慧。而现在我站

在讲坛上，这身打扮也许已经吓坏了那些声名显赫的祖先们，说不定某些先人还会因此得出

巫婆灭绝的根源。可我既然来了，你们也都在，那么我们还是来聊聊真理吧。

其实，早在2007年冬我刚上任那时，我就已经开始准备这次讲话了。当时我在

克兰学舍吃午饭、在莱弗里特吃晚饭时，当我在办公时间接见同学时，甚至当我在国外偶遇

刚毕业不久的学生时，同学们都会问我一个问题：为什么我们哈佛的学生中，有那么多人会

投身到金融、咨询和电子银行领域中去？我今天就引用威利顿的话来回答你们。当他

被问到为什么抢银行时，他说：“银行里有很多钱。”

高薪，无可抗拒的盲从应聘心理，到纽约和众多朋友一起工作、生活，享受人生的那种

踏实感，使大家奋不顾身地投入到那些领域。

比起回答你们的问题，我更有兴趣知道你们为什么会这么问，为什么这个问题会困扰这

么多人？

我想，你们之所以会忧心忡忡，是因为你们不想仅仅取得传统意义上的成功，还想让人

生过得有意义，可你们不知道怎么把这两个目标结合起来。你们不确定，是不是在一家大名

鼎鼎的名牌企业中拥有一份起薪丰厚、前途光明的工作，就能得到精神上的满足。

其实你们一直在问的都是一些最基本的问题：关于价值、关于怎样去调和有可能存在竞

争的事物之间的关系、关于鱼和熊掌不可兼得的领悟。你们现在正处于一个需要作出选择的

过渡阶段。选择了其中任何一项———比如工作、事业或者读研究生———就意味着要舍弃

其他的选择。每一个决定都意味着取舍———拥抱一种可能性的同时也得放弃一种可能性。

你们的问题就是你们对于未来选择的路的失落感。

你们之所以焦虑，是因为你们想获取成功。你们很清楚，受教育不仅仅是为了改变自己

的现状，让自己过得舒坦、满足，而是为了改变你们周围的现状。现在，到了你们去设法实

现这个可能的时候了。

我想，你们焦虑的第二个原因是你们想过得幸福。你们扎堆选修《乐观心理学》和《幸

福学》，就是想从中找到一点秘诀。可怎样才能找到幸福呢？我给

你们一个鼓舞人心的答案：成长。调查表明，年纪越大的人———比如说我这个岁数的人———就比年轻人的幸福感更强烈。

每当听到你们谈论自己面临的选择时，我听得出来，你们非常担忧处理不好成功与幸福的关系，确切地说，怎么样去定义成功才能让它带来或者包含真正的幸福，而不只是金钱与名望。你们担心报酬高的工作不一定最有意义、最令人满足。

朱棣文哈佛演讲：生命太短暂，不能空手过

尊敬的faust校长，哈佛集团的各位成员，监管理事会的各位理事，各位老师，各位家长，各位朋友，以及最重要的各位毕业生同学，

感谢你们，让我有机会同你们一起分享这个美妙的日子。

我不太肯定，自己够得上哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲人这样的殊荣。去年登上这个讲台的是，英国亿万身家的小说家j.k. rowling女士，她最早是一个古典文学的学生。前年站在这里的是比尔·盖茨先生，他是一个超级富翁、一个慈善家和电脑天才。今年很遗憾，你们的演讲人是我，虽然我不是很有钱，但是至少我是一个书呆子。

在哈佛大学毕业典礼上发表演说，还有一个难处，那就是你们中有些人可能有意见，不喜欢我重复前人演讲中说过的话。我要求你们谅解我，因为两个理由。

首先，为了产生影响力，很重要的方法就是重复传递同样的信息。在科学中，第一个发现者是重要的，但是在得到公认前，最后一个做出这个发现的人也许更重要。

其次，一个借鉴他人的作者，正走在一条前人开辟的最佳道路上。哈佛大学毕业生、诗人爱默生曾经写下：“我最好的一些思想，都是从古人那里偷来的。”画家毕加索宣称“优秀的艺术家借鉴，伟大的艺术家偷窃。”那么为什么毕业典礼的演说者，就不适用同样的标准呢？

我还要指出一点，向哈佛毕业生发表演说，对我来说是有讽刺意味的，因为如果当年我斗胆向哈佛大学递交入学申请，一定会被拒绝。我的妻子jean当过斯坦福大学的招生主任，她向我保证，如果当年我申请斯坦福大学，她会拒绝我。我把这篇演讲的草稿给她过目，她强烈反对我使用“拒绝”这个词，她从来不拒绝任何申请者。在拒绝信中，她总是写：“我们无法提供你入学机会。”我分不清两者到底有何差别。不过，那些大热门学校的招生主任总是很现实的，堪称“拒绝他人的主任”。很显然，我需要好好学学怎么来推销自己。

毕业典礼演讲都遵循古典奏鸣曲的结构，我的演讲也不例外。刚才是第一乐章——轻快的闲谈。接下来的第二乐章是送上门的忠告。这样的忠告很少有价值，几乎注定被忘记，永远不会被实践。但是，就像王尔德说的：“对于忠告，你所能做的，就是把它送给别人，因为它对你没有任何用处。”所以，下面就是我的忠告。第一，取得成就的时候，不要忘记前人。要感谢你的父母和支持你的朋友，要感谢那些启发过你的教授，尤其要感谢那些上不好课的教授，因为他们迫使你自学。从整体看，自学能力是优秀的文科教育中必不可少的，将成为你成功的关键。你还要去拥抱你的同学，感谢他们同你进行过的许多次彻夜长谈，这为你的教育带来了无法衡量的价值。当然，你还要感谢哈佛大学。不过即使你忘了这一点，校友会也会来提醒你。第二，在你们未来的人生中，做一个慷慨大方的人。在任何谈判中，都把最后一点点利益留给对方。不要把桌上的钱都拿走。在合作中，不要把荣誉留给自己。成功合作的任何一方，都应获得全部荣誉的90%。

电影《harvey》中，jimmy stewart扮演的角色elwood p. dowd，就完全理解这一点。他说：“多年前，母亲曾经对我说，‘elwood，活在这个世界上，你要么做一个聪明人，要么做一个好人。’”我做聪明人，已经做了好多年了。??但是，我推荐你们做好人。你们可以引用我这句话。

我还有最后一个忠告，就是说兴趣爱好固然重要，但是你不应该只考虑兴趣爱好。当你白发苍苍、垂垂老矣、回首人生时，你需要为自己做过的事感到自豪。物质生活和你实现的占有欲，都不会产生自豪。只有那些受你影响、被你改变过的人和事，才会让你产生自豪。

在贝尔实验室待了9年后，我决定离开这个温暖舒适的象牙塔，走进我眼中的“真实世界”——大学。我对贝尔实验室的看法，可以引用mary poppins的话，“实际上十全十美”。但是，我想离开那种仅仅是科学论文的生活。我要去教书，培育我自己在科学上的后代。

我在斯坦福大学有一个好友兼杰出同事ted geballe。他也是从伯克利分校去了贝尔实验室，几年前又离开贝尔实验室去了斯坦福大学。他对我们的动机做出了最佳描述：“在大学工作，最大的优点就是学生。他们生机勃勃，充满热情，思想自由，还没被生活的重压改变。虽然他们自己没有意识到，但是他们是这个社会中你能找到的最佳受众。如果生命中只有一段时间是思想自由和充满创造力，那么那段时间就是你在读大学。进校时，学生们对课本上的一字一句毫不怀疑，渐渐地，他们发现课本和教授并不是无所不知的，于是他们开始独立思考。从那时起，就是我开始向他们学习了。”

我怀着回报社会的想法，开始了教学生涯。我的一生中，得到的多于我付出的，所以我要回报社会。这就引出了这次演讲的最后一个乐章。首先我要讲一个了不起的科学发现，以及由此带来的新挑战。它是一个战斗的号令，到了做出改变的时候了。

过去几十年中，我们的气候一直在发生变化。气候变化并不是现在才有的，过去60万年中就发生了6次冰河期。但是，现在的测量表明气候变化加速了。北极冰盖在9月份的大小，只相当于50年前的一半。1870年起，人们开始测量海平面上升的速度，现在的速度是那时的5倍。一个重大的科学发现就这样产生了。科学第一次在人类历史上，预测出我们的行为对50~100年后的世界有何影响。这些变化的原因是，从工业革命开始，人类排放到大气中的二氧化碳增加了。这使得地球的平均气温上升了0.8摄氏度。即使我们立刻停止所有温室气体的排

放，气温仍然将比过去上升大约1度。因为在气温达到均衡前，海水温度的上升将持续几十年。

如果全世界保持现在的经济模式不变，联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（ipcc）预测，本世纪末将有50%的可能，气温至少上升5度。这听起来好像不多，但是让我来提醒你，上一次的冰河期，地球的气温也仅仅只下降了6度。那时，俄亥俄州和费城以下的大部分美国和加拿大的土地，都终年被冰川覆盖。气温上升5度的地球，将是一个非常不同的地球。由于变化来得太快，包括人类在内的许多生物，都将很难适应。比如，有人告诉我，在更温暖的环境中，昆虫的个头将变大。我不知道现在身旁嗡嗡叫的这只大苍蝇，是不是就是前兆。

气候问题是我们的经济发展在无意中带来的后果。我们太依赖化石能源，冬天取暖，夏天制冷，夜间照明，长途旅行，环球观光。能源是经济繁荣的基础，我们不可能放弃经济繁荣。美国人口占全世界的3%，但是我们消耗全世界25%的能源。与此形成对照，全世界还有16亿人没有电，数亿人依靠燃烧树枝和动物粪便来煮饭。发展中国家的人民享受不到我们的生活，但是他们都看在眼里，他们渴望拥有我们拥有的东西。

这就是新的挑战。全世界作为一个整体，我们到底愿意付出多少，来缓和气候变化？这种变化在100年前，根本没人想到过。代际责任深深植根于所有文化中。家长努力工作，为了让他们的孩子有更好的生活。气候变化将影响整个世界，但是我们的天性使得我们只关心个人家庭的福利。我们能不能把全世界看作一个整体？能不能为未来的人们承担起责任？

虽然我忧心忡忡，但是还是对未来抱乐观态度，这个问题将会得到解决。我同意出任劳伦斯·伯克利国家实验室主任，部分原因是我想招募一些世界上最好的科学家，来研究气候变化的对策。我在那里干了4年半，是这个实验室78年的历史中，任期最短的主任，但是当我离任时，在伯克利实验室和伯克利分校，一些非常激动人心的能源研究机构已经建立起来了。

能够成为奥巴马施政团队的一员，我感到极其荣幸。如果有一个时机，可以引导美国和全世界走上可持续能源的道路，那么这个时机就是现在。总统已经发出信息，未来并非在劫

难逃，而是乐观的，我们依然有机会。我也抱有这种乐观主义。我们面前的任务令人生畏，但是我们能够并且将会成功。