JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文)

JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文)（精选2篇）

1.JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文) 篇一

2008年jk罗琳哈佛毕业典礼演讲（中英文对照）默认分类 2009-07-17 20:13 阅读1281 评论0 字号： 大 中 小

“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。

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.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 disciplined 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。

2.JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲稿(英文) 篇二

美国脱口秀天后，国际知名慈善家奥普拉·温弗瑞(Oprah Winfrey)，5月30日应邀至哈佛大学获颁荣誉法学博士学位，并在毕业典礼发表演说。她敦促毕业生乐于接受挫折，视之为成长的契机，并在生活与事业中追求为他人服务的机会。她告诉毕业生：“人生没有失败这档事，所谓失败只是让人生转个弯。有时难免会陷入挣扎卡在困境中，不过你想创造的人生故事会带着你走出去。” Oprah（奥普拉）哈佛大学2013毕业典礼演讲实录

Oh my goodness!I‟m at Harvard!Wow!To President Faust, my fellow honorans, Carl [Muller] that was so beautiful, thank you so much, and James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson, Harvard faculty, with a special bow to my friend Dr.Henry Lewis Gates.All of you alumni, with a special bow to the Class of ‟88, your hundred fifteen million dollars.And to you, members of the Harvard class of 2013!Hello!我的天啊！我在哈...佛！真的！尊敬的Faust校长、和我一起获得荣誉学位的各位，Carl（注：Carl Muller哈佛校友会主席），真是太棒了，谢谢你们！还有James Rothenberg, Stephanie Wilson和哈佛的教职工们，特别感谢我的朋友Henry Lewis Gates博士（注：美国知名黑人教授）！感谢所有的哈佛校友，特别要感谢88届的毕业生，你们为哈佛捐出一亿一千五百万美元（注：哈佛历史上最多的一次同一班次校友捐款）。所有2013届的各位毕业生们！大家好！

I thank you for allowing me to be a part of the conclusion of this chapter of your lives and the commencement of your next chapter.To say that I‟m honored doesn‟t even begin to quantify the depth of gratitude that really accompanies an honorary doctorate from Harvard.Not too many little girls from rural Mississippi have made it all the way here to Cambridge.And I can tell you that I consider today as I sat on the stage this morning getting teary for you all and then teary for myself, I consider today a defining milestone in a very long and a blessed journey.My one hope today is that I can be a source of some inspiration.I‟m going to address my remarks to anybody who has ever felt inferior or felt disadvantaged, felt screwed by life, this is a speech for the Quad.感谢你们让我成为你们人生这一篇章的结束与下一篇章开始的纽带。对我而言，荣幸根本无法表达我内心深处对哈佛授予我荣誉学位的感激之情。不是每个来自密西西比州的农村小姑娘都能来到剑桥城的（注：哈佛位于波士顿郊剑桥城）。我可以告诉你们，当我今天早上坐在这个台上，为你们和我自己流下眼泪的时候，我觉得今天是我漫长并被祝福的人生旅途中的一个里程碑。我希望今天我能为你们带来一些启发。我的演讲是为那些曾在人生中感到自卑或觉得自己没有优势，甚至觉得生活一团糟的人，这就是我给哈佛带来的演讲。

Actually I was so honored I wanted to do something really special for you.I wanted to be able to have you look under your seats and there would be free master and doctor degrees but I see you got that covered already.I will be honest with you.I felt a lot of pressure over the past few weeks to come up with something that I could share with you that you hadn‟t heard before because after all you all went to Harvard, I did not.But then I realized that you don‟t have to necessarily go to Harvard to have a driven obsessive Type A personality.But it helps.And while I may not have graduated from here I admit that my personality is about as Harvard as they come.You know my television career began unexpectedly.As you heard this morning I was in the Miss Fire Prevention contest.That was when I was 16 years old in Nashville, Tennessee, and you had the requirement of having to have red hair in order to win up until the year that I entered.So they were doing the question and answer period because I knew I wasn‟t going to win under the swimsuit competition.So during the question and answer period the question came “Why, young lady, what would you like to be when you grow up?” And by the time they got to me all the good answers were gone.So I had seen Barbara Walters on the “Today Show” that morning so I answered, “I would like to be a journalist.I would like to tell other people‟s stories in a way that makes a difference in their lives and the world.” And as those words were coming out of my mouth I went whoa!This is pretty good!I would like to be a journalist.I want to make a difference.Well I was on television by the time I was 19 years old.And in 1986 I launched my own television show with a relentless determination to succeed at first.I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising the bar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew.Sound familiar to anybody here? Eventually we did make it to the top and we stayed there for 25 years.其实我真的很荣幸，因此我想为你们做些特别的事。我想要跟你们说，请看你们座位下面有免费硕士或博士学位证书，但是我发现你们已经有了。说实话，在过去的几个星期我感到很大的压力，因为我想要跟你们分享一些你们从没听到过的东西，毕竟你们都上了哈佛，而我没有。但后来我意识到其实并不是一定要上哈佛才能有一个驱动性强迫型的A型人格，当然上了哈佛还是有帮助的。虽然我没有从哈佛毕业，但我认为我的性格和哈佛的毕业生是一样。大家都知道，我的电视事业生涯开始的出乎意料。正如你们早上听到的，我当时在参加“防火小姐”比赛。那年我16岁（注：奥普拉出生于1954年，今年59岁），在田纳西州的纳什维尔。在我参加比赛那年之前，想赢的话你必须得是红头发女孩。在进行问答环节时，因为我知道我在泳装比赛中不会赢，所以当问答环节问道：“年轻的女士，你长大后想做什么？为什么？”等轮到我回答的时候，好答案都被之前的参赛者说完了。因为那天早上我正好在“今日秀”中看到了芭芭拉·怀特女士，所以我说：“我想成为一名新闻工作者，我想成为为人民带来一些在某种程度上能改变人民生活和改变世界的故事。”当我说出这些话时，我觉得：“哇！还挺不错的！我想做个记者，我要做出一番事业。”后来，19岁时我上了电视。在1986年，我推出了我自己的电视节目，一开始就下定决心要成功。我以前对比赛很紧张，后来我和自己竞争，每年设立一个更高的目标，一步一步地推到极限。对大家来说听着挺熟悉吧？最终，我们成功达到巅峰，并在那里待了25年。The “Oprah Winfrey Show” was number one in our time slot for 21 years and I have to tell you I became pretty comfortable with that level of success.But a few years ago I decided, as you will at some point, that it was time to recalculate, find new territory, break new ground.So I ended the show and launched OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.The initials just worked out for me.So one year later after launching OWN, nearly every media outlet had proclaimed that my new venture was a flop.Not just a flop, but a big bold flop they call it.I can still remember the day I opened up USA Todayand read the headline “Oprah, not quite standing on her OWN.” I mean really, USA Today? Now that‟s the nice newspaper!It really was this time last year the worst period in my professional life.I was stressed and I was frustrated and quite frankly I was actually I was embarrassed.It was right around that time that President Faust called and asked me to speak here and I thought you want me to speak to Harvard graduates? What could I possibly say to Harvard graduates, some of the most successful graduates in the world in the very moment when I had stopped succeeding? So I got off the phone with President Faust and I went to the shower.It was either that or a bag of Oreos.So I chose the shower.And I was in the shower a long time and as I was in the shower the words of an old hymn came to me.You may not know it.It‟s “By and by, when the morning comes.” And I started thinking about when the morning might come because at the time I thought I was stuck in a hole.And the words came to me “Trouble don‟t last always” from that hymn, “this too shall pass.” And I thought as I got out of the shower I am going to turn this thing around and I will be better for it.And when I do, I‟m going to go to Harvard and I‟m going to speak the truth of it!So I‟m here today to tell you I have turned that network around!

“奥普拉秀”在同一时间段的电视节目中连续21年排名第一，我必须说我对于这个成功非常的满足。但是几年前，我觉得，在人生的某一时刻，你必须重新来过，找到新的领域，实现新的突破。所以我离开了“奥普拉秀”，以我的名字命名推出了我自己的电视网络“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”，缩写正好是“OWN（自己的）”。在奥普拉·温福瑞电视网推出一年后，几乎所有的媒体都认为我的新项目是失败的。不仅仅是失败，他们称之为一个大写的失败。我还记得有一天我打开《今日美国报》时看到头条新闻说“ 奥普拉搞不定„自己的‟电视网”。不是吧，今日美国报啊？真是份好报纸....这正是去年我职业生涯最低谷的时刻。我压力超大近乎崩溃，老实说，我感到羞愧。就在那个时候，Faust校长打电话邀请我到哈佛做毕业演讲。我心想：“你让我给哈佛的毕业生演讲?我能跟这些世界上最成功的毕业生说什么？而我已经不再成功。”我挂了Faust校长的电话后去洗了个澡。要么去吃奥利奥要么去洗澡，我选择了洗澡。那个澡我洗了很长时间，在洗澡的时候我突然想到某首古老赞美诗中的一句话，你可能没听过“终于，清晨来临...”，之后我就想，我的黎明也许要来了。因为那时我觉得我被困在一个洞里了。我又想到那首古老赞美诗中的一句话：“困难只是暂时的，都会过去...”当我走出浴室时，我想：我遇到的麻烦同样会有结束的一天，我会将这一页翻过去，我会好起来的，等我做到了，我就去哈佛，把这个真实的故事告诉大家！今天我来了 并且想告诉你们我已经把“奥普拉·温福瑞电视网”带上正轨了。

And it was all because I wanted to do it by the time I got to speak to you all so thank you so much.You don‟t know what motivation you were for me, thank you.I‟m even prouder to share a fundamental truth that you might not have learned even as graduates of Harvard unless you studied the ancient Greek hero with Professor Nagy.Professor Nagy as we were coming in this morning said, “Please Ms.Winfrey, walk decisively.”

这一切都是因为我想在来哈佛之前把事情做好，所以非常感谢你们！你们不知道你们给了我多大的动力，谢谢！我甚至能更骄傲地来和各位分享一个基本的真理。作为哈佛的毕业生你也未必知道，除非你上过Nagy教授的课程知道古希腊英雄人物。在今天早上来的路上，Nagy教授说：“温福瑞女士，请坚决地向前走。” I shall walk decisively.我应该坚决地向前走。

This is what I want to share.It doesn‟t matter how far you might rise.At some point you are bound to stumble because if you‟re constantly doing what we do, raising the bar.If you‟re constantly pushing yourself higher, higher the law of averages not to mention the Myth of Icarus predicts that you will at some point fall.And when you do I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure.Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.Now when you‟re down there in the hole, it looks like failure.So this past year I had to spoon feed those words to myself.And when you‟re down in the hole, when that moment comes, it‟s really okay to feel bad for a little while.Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost but then here‟s the key, learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.And then figure out what is the next right move.And the key to life is to develop an internal moral, emotional G.P.S.that can tell you which way to go.Because now and forever more when you Google yourself your search results will read “Harvard, 2013″.And in a very competitive world that really is a calling card because I can tell you as one who employs a lot of people when I see “Harvard” I sit up a little straighter and say, “Where is he or she? Bring them in.” It‟s an impressive calling card that can lead to even more impressive bullets in the years ahead: lawyer, senator, C.E.O., scientist, physicist, winners of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes or late night talk show host.But the challenge of life I have found is to build a résumé that doesn‟t simply tell a story about what you want to be but it‟s a story about who you want to be.It‟s a résumé that doesn‟t just tell a story about what you want to accomplish but why.A story that‟s not just a collection of titles and positions but a story that‟s really about your purpose.Because when you inevitably stumble and find yourself stuck in a hole that is the story that will get you out.What is your true calling? What is your dharma? What is your purpose? For me that discovery came in 1994 when I interviewed a little girl who had decided to collect pocket change in order to help other people in need.She raised a thousand dollars all by herself and I thought, well if that little 9-year-old girl with a bucket and big heart could do that, I wonder what I could do? So I asked for our viewers to take up their own change collection and in one month, just from pennies and nickels and dimes, we raised more than three million dollars that we used to send one student from every state in the United States to college.That was the beginning of the Angel Network.这就是我想分享的。无论你已经达到怎样的成就，在某个节点，你会发现你会跌倒，因为如果你一直不断的在做我们每个人做的事：不断设定更高的目标。如果你一直不断把你自己推向更高的目标，你将在某一点上落下，更不必说伊卡洛斯能预测你会跌倒的神话。当你真的跌倒时我想让你知道，并请记住：“世间并不存在失败，那不过是生活想让我们换个方向走走罢了，现在当你在人生谷底，那看起来像是失败。”在过去的一年里，这些话支撑着我自己。当你到了人生谷底，到那时候，你可以难过一段时间，给自己时间去哀悼你认为你可能失去的一切，但关键在于：从每个失败和遭遇中学习特别是你的每个错误，都会教并迫使你成为真正的自己，然后想想接下来怎么做。生活的重点在于建立内在道德、情感的定位系统，它能为你指路，因为现在或将来当你在谷歌上搜索你自己，结果会是“哈佛2013毕业生”。在这个竞争激烈的世界，那的确是块敲门砖。我作为一个雇佣过很多人的人，可以说当我听到哈佛的毕业生，我都会坐直一点，然后说“他/她在哪，带来见我”。这是一个令人印象深刻的敲门砖，在未来的日子里那的确是颗有力的子弹：成为律师、议员、老板、科学家、物理学家，诺贝尔奖普利策奖获得者或者晚间脱口秀主持人。然而来自生活的挑战并不是做个履历简单地告诉大家你想做什么，而是你想成为什么样的人。这份履历不只是告诉大家你完成了什么，而是你为什么做这些？这份履历不仅仅是一个头衔和职位的罗列，而是告诉大家你究竟想做什么？因为当你不可避免地跌倒或陷入困境时，它可以帮你走出困境，人生真正的意义是什么？你的人生哲学是什么？你的目标是什么？对我来说，我是在1994年采访了一位决定攒零花钱来帮助他人的小女孩，她筹集了一千美金。我想：“嗯，如果一个9岁的小姑娘，用一个筐和热忱的心就能做到，我能做到什么？”所以我请我们的观众拿出自己的零钱，在一个月内我从一分一毫筹集超过300万美金，我们用这笔钱从每个州选出一个学生上大学。这就是“天使网络”的开始。

And so what I did was I simply asked our viewers, “Do what you can wherever you are, from wherever you sit in life.Give me your time or your talent your money if you have it.” And they did.Extend yourself in kindness to other human beings wherever you can.And together we built 55 schools in 12 different countries and restored nearly 300 homes that were devastated by hurricanes Rita and Katrina.So the Angel Network — I have been on the air for a long time — but it was the Angel Network that actually focused my internal G.P.S.It helped me to decide that I wasn‟t going to just be on TV every day but that the goal of my shows, my interviews, my business, my philanthropy all of it, whatever ventures I might pursue would be to make clear that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates me.Because what had become clear to me, and I want you to know, it isn‟t always clear in the beginning because as I said I had been on television since I was 19 years old.But around ‟94 I got really clear.So don‟t expect the clarity to come all at once, to know your purpose right away, but what became clear to me was that I was here on Earth to use television and not be used by it;to use television to illuminate the transcendent power of our better angels.So this Angel Network, it didn‟t just change the lives of those who were helped, but the lives of those who also did the helping.It reminded us that no matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and more importantly it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort.I saw something on the “Bill Moore Show” recently that so reminded me of this point.It was an interview with David and Francine Wheeler.They lost their 7-year-old son, Ben, in the Sandy Hook tragedy.And even though gun safety legislation to strengthen background checks had just been voted down in Congress at the time that they were doing this interview they talked about how they refused to be discouraged.Francine said this, she said, “Our hearts are broken but our spirits are not.I‟m going to tell them what it‟s like to find a conversation about change that is love, and I‟m going to do that without fighting them.” And then her husband David added this, “You simply cannot demonize or vilify someone who doesn‟t agree with you, because the minute you do that, your discussion is over.And we cannot do that any longer.The problem is too enormous.There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light.” In our political system and in the media we often see the reflection of a country that is polarized, that is paralyzed and is self-interested.And yet, I know you know the truth.We all know that we are better than the cynicism and the pessimism that is regurgitated throughout Washington and the 24-hour cable news cycle.Not my channel, by the way.We understand that the vast majority of people in this country believe in stronger background checks because they realize that we can uphold the Second Amendment and also reduce the violence that is robbing us of our children.They don‟t have to be incompatible.其实我做的只是简单的请求我们的观众：“无论你在哪里处于人生的哪个阶段，如果可以，请拿出你的时间、天赋以及金钱，做你力所能及的事。”他们这样做了。无论你在哪里，将你的仁慈带给他人。众人拾柴火焰高，我们一起在12个国家建了55所学校，重建了近300个被丽塔和卡特里娜飓风摧毁的家园。所以“天使网络”聚集了我内在的定位系统。它能帮助我知道，我不是仅仅每天在电视上出现，还有我的采访目标，我的生意，我的慈善事业，所有的一切。无论我追求怎样的事业，我更清楚把我们凝聚在一起的力量比分离我们的力量更令人满足和不可抗拒。但我想让你们知道，任何事情的一开始对于我们未必明朗，正如我所说我19岁就开始上电视，然而到了94年我才渐渐清楚，所以不要期待一下子就想清楚、并马上明白自己的使命。对我来说，我最终清楚，我要利用电视而不是被电视利用，利用电视来照亮我们内在天使的一面。这个“天使网络”，它不只是改变那些我们帮助过的人们的生活，同时也改变那些提供帮助的人们的生活。它提醒我们，无论是谁，看上去如何，或者我们相信什么，更重要的是它成为了我们为共同目标走到一起的驱动力。我最近在“比利摩尔秀”上看到一些东西再次提醒了我。那是一个采访戴维和弗朗辛·惠勒的节目，他们在Sandy Hook惨案中痛失他们7岁幼子Ben。尽管在此次访谈时国会已经否决了加强背景调查的枪支安全立法，他们谈到他们拒绝被国会的否决所打击。弗朗辛说：“我们的心都碎了，但我们的精神没有垮，我想告诉他们关于变故的对话是怎样的感觉，那感觉就是爱。我将会接受他而不是抵触。”然后她的丈夫戴维继续说：“你不能诋毁或妖魔化那些持有异见的人，因为如果你这样做的那一刻，就不再有下文，我不能再那样做了，问题已经很严重了，总会有方法将光明驱逐黑暗。”在我们的政治体系和媒体环境下，我们经常看到对这个国家的反思，这个两级分化，近乎瘫痪、自我利益的国家。然而，我知道你们明白真相。我们都知道我们比电视上新闻媒体24小时滚动从华盛顿传来的那些愤世嫉俗和悲观主义更好。顺便说一句，那不是我的电视频道。我们理解，在这个国家绝大多数人相信并支持背景调查，因为他们明白我们可以支持宪法第二次修正案，同时减少残杀我们孩子的暴力。而这两者并不必水火不相容。

And we understand that most Americans believe in a clear path to citizenship for the 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants who reside in this country because it‟s possible to both enforce our laws and at the same time embrace the words on the Statue of Liberty that have welcomed generations of huddled masses to our shores.We can do both.我们知道大多数美国人相信让1200万没有合法身份的移民居住在这个国家成为公民会有一条清晰的路径。因为在捍卫法律的同时，我们还要拥抱自由女神像上的辞藻，而这些话语欢迎了一代代人到达美国的海岸。我们都能做得到。And we understand.I know you do because you went to Harvard.There are people from both parties, and no party, [who] believe that indigent mothers and families should have access to healthy food and a roof over their heads and a strong public education because here in the richest nation on Earth, we can afford a basic level of security and opportunity.So the question is, what are we going to do about it? Really, what are you going to do about it? Maybe you agree with these beliefs.Maybe you don‟t.Maybe you care about these issues and maybe there are other challenges that you, Class of 2013, are passionate about.Maybe you want to make a difference by serving in government.Maybe you want to launch your own television show.Or maybe you simply want to collect some change.Your parents would appreciate that about now.The point is your generation is charged with this task of breaking through what the body politic has thus far made impervious to change.Each of you has been blessed with this enormous opportunity of attending this prestigious school.You now have a chance to better your life, the lives of your neighbors and also the life of our country.When you do that let me tell you what I know for sure.That‟s when your story gets really good.Maya Angelou always says, “When you learn, teach.When you get, give.That my friends is what gives your story purpose and meaning.” So you all have the power in your own way to develop your own Angel Network and in doing so, your class will be armed with more tools of influence and empowerment than any other generation in history.I did it in an analog world.I was blessed with a platform that at its height reached nearly 20,000,000 viewers a day.Now here in a world of Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Tumbler, you can reach billions in just seconds.You‟re the generation that rejected predictions about your detachment and your disengagement by showing up to vote in record numbers in 2008.And when the pundits said, they said they talked about you, they said you‟d be too disappointed, you‟d be too dejected to repeat that same kind of turnout in 2012 election and you proved them wrong by showing up in even greater numbers.That‟s who you are.正如我们了解的那样，你们能理解，因为你们上了哈佛。来自两党派和无党派的人同样坚信：贫困的母亲和家庭都理应获得使其健康的食物、住所以及强有力的教育支持。因为我们现在正生活在全世界最为富有的国家中，我们有能力去提供安全与机遇最基础的社会保障。于是问题便随之而来：我们将对此有何打算呢？说真的，我们将要对此做些什么呢？也许你是赞同这些理念的，也有可能你会持反对意见。或许你作为2013届哈佛的毕业生，对这些问题很上心，抑或是你把关注点放在了其他极具挑战性的事情上。你可能想要通过行政工作改变我们的社会，你可能想要做自己的电视节目，你也可能仅仅是想收集一些零钱，你的父母会赞扬你现在的所作所为。关键是你们这一代人肩负着突破国家积年累月无法突破的重重围嶂的使命。你们每一位上了哈佛这所名校的人都拥有千万机会、无尽不可。现在你有机会来改善你的生活，改变你周围人的生活，以及整个国家的命运。当你这样做的时候，我可以坚定地告诉你：这个时候，有关你的故事已然尽善尽美。Maya Angelou常常说：“有所学时你要去施教，有所得时你便去给予。我亲爱的朋友，那将赋予你的故事以目的与意义。”你们都有能力用自己的方式去打造属于你们自己的“天使网络”，与此同时你会拥有史无前例的影响力与权力的工具。我用虚拟网络的方式做到这一点，我的网络电视在鼎盛时期的日浏览量能够达到2000万，在这个Twitter、Facebook、YouTube与Tumbler盛行的时代，你在片刻之间便可获得几十亿的浏览量。就是你们这一代，在其他人都以为你们会对政治漠不关心的时候，你们用你们的一腔热情，彻底颠覆了世人的想象，你们在2008年的时候，参与总统大选投票的人数创造新高。当那些“博学多识”的人们猜测道，你们必然已经失望透顶，你们在2012年总统大选中由于太沮丧而不可能重复2008年的辉煌时，你们用甚至比2008年更高的参与记录，再一次让世人刮目相看。这就是你们这一代.This generation, your generation I know, has developed a finely honed radar for B.S.Can you say “B.S.” at Harvard? The spin and phoniness and artificial nastiness that saturates so much of our national debate.I know you all understand better than most that real progress requires authentic — an authentic way of being, honesty, and above all empathy.I have to say that the single most important lesson I learned in 25 years talking every single day to people, was that there is a common denominator in our human experience.Most of us, I tell you we don‟t want to be divided.What we want, the common denominator that I found in every single interview, is we want to be validated.We want to be understood.I have done over 35,000 interviews in my career and as soon as that camera shuts off everyone always turns to me and inevitably in their own way asks this question “Was that okay?” I heard it from President Bush, I heard it from President Obama.I‟ve heard it from heroes and from housewives.I‟ve heard it from victims and perpetrators of crimes.I even heard it from Beyonce and all of her Beyonceness.She finishes performing, hands me the microphone and says, “Was that okay?” Friends and family, yours, enemies, strangers in every argument in every encounter, every exchange I will tell you, they all want to know one thing: was that okay? Did you hear me? Do you see me? Did what I say mean anything to you? And even though this is a college where Facebook was born my hope is that you would try to go out and have more face-to-face conversations with people you may disagree with.我所了解的你们这一代对一些胡言乱语有极为敏锐的追求，你能在哈佛“胡说”吗？关于我们的国家，虚伪幻象铺张在你眼前，纷扰流言充斥在你耳畔。我深知你们比众人更加了解，一个国家真正的进步是要求建立在真实而坦然的基础之上的，还有更为重要的——一种感同身受的心理。我想我不得不坦言，在我25年的访谈历程中，我所学到的最重要的，我们的人生有一个共同的公分母。我可以告诉你的是，我们中的大多数人，并不愿意被分割。我在每次访谈中发现我们的“公分母”，发现我们想要的，是我们想要被证实、被认可。我们渴望被理解。我的职业生涯中容纳了大约35000个访谈，每每在摄像机的镜头关闭后，几乎所有人都不可避免地转向我，用他们各自的方式，询问着同一个问题“像这样可以吗？”布什总统这样问，奥巴马总统这样问，我在英雄的口中听到过这个疑问，同样也在家庭主妇的口中听说过这句话。我听受害者这样问，也听过那些有罪行的人们这样问，我甚至听过碧昂斯和她的粉丝们这样问。碧昂斯结束表演之后，把麦克风递到我手中，问道：“像我这样可以吗？”朋友或家人、支持者或敌人、每次争论或邂逅的陌生人，有关每一次交流，我都可以笃定地告诉你们，他们都想知道一件事儿——“像这样可以吗？你听得见我吗？你看的见我吗?我之所言是否对你有些许意义？”尽管这里是Facebook诞生的大学，我还是希望你们能够脱离虚拟，尽可能多的和那些与你意见相左的人进行一些面对面的交流。That you‟ll have the courage to look them in the eye and hear their point of view and help make sure that the speed and distance and anonymity of our world doesn‟t cause us to lose our ability to stand in somebody else‟s shoes and recognize all that we share as a people.This is imperative, for you as an individual, and for our success as a nation.“There has to be some way that this darkness can be banished with light,” says the man whose little boy was massacred on just an ordinary Friday in December.So whether you call it soul or spirit or higher self, intelligence, there is I know this, there is a light inside each of you, all of us, that illuminates your very human beingness if you let it.And as a young girl from rural Mississippi I learned long ago that being myself was much easier than pretending to be Barbara Walters.Although when I first started because I had Barbara in my head I would try to sit like Barbara, talk like Barbara, move like Barbara and then one night I was on the news reading the news and I called Canada “Can-a-da,” and that was the end of me being Barbara.I cracked myself up on TV.Couldn‟t start laughing and my real personality came through and I figured out, oh gee, I can be a much better Oprah than I could be a pretend Barbara.你们要有勇气去直视他们的双眼，去聆听他们的观点，并且确保这世界的高速、距离、匿名不会让我们失去站在他人的立场上去认可那些我们作为人类共同享受东西的能力。这是你作为一个个体或是为了整个国家的成功必须要做到的。“一定存在某种方法可以使光明驱逐黑暗。”一位孩子在12月一个普通的星期五被杀害的父亲如是说道。所以无论你愿意称她为灵魂、精神、抑或是更高尚的自我，天资什么的，我知道，我们内心深处的星星之火总能够点燃我们——只要你愿意让自己被点亮。作为一个来自密西西比州农村的年轻姑娘，我早就知道，成为自己比假装成芭芭拉更容易。纵使我对自己的坚守是因为我想要成为芭芭拉而起，我希望的的坐姿像芭芭拉、谈吐像芭芭拉，举止像芭芭拉。直到有一天晚上，我在电视上读新闻的时候，我把“Canada”读成“Can-a-da”，这就成了我试图变成芭芭拉的终止。我在电视上把自己层层剖析，我笑个不停。随后真正的自我脱颖而出，我突然就想通了“哦，哎呀，与其成为芭芭拉我能够成为一个更出色的奥普拉。”