如果給我一個(gè)時(shí)間轉(zhuǎn)換器，我會(huì)告訴21歲的自己——個(gè)人的幸福就是認(rèn)識(shí)到生活并不是一張記錄著“得到什么東西”和“取得什么成就”的清單。

哈利波特這本系列書風(fēng)靡全球，他的作者j·k·羅琳也享譽(yù)海內(nèi)外，我們看到作者此時(shí)的光鮮，又知不知道他彼時(shí)的慘淡呢？而當(dāng)初的失敗到底又給她帶來(lái)什么額外收益呢？讓我們一起來(lái)看一下~

j·k·羅琳：失敗的額外收益
looking back at the 21-year-old that i was at graduation is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. half my lifetime ago, i was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition i had for myself and what those closest of…to me expected of me.
對(duì)于一個(gè)已經(jīng)42歲的人來(lái)說(shuō)，回顧自己21歲畢業(yè)時(shí)的情景并不是什么愉快的事情。我的前半生一直在自己的志向與最親近的人對(duì)我的期望之間勉強(qiáng)維持著平衡。

i was convinced that the only thing i wanted to do—ever—was [to] write novels. however, my parents, both of whom came from 1)impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal 2)quirk that never pay a 3)mortgage or secure a 4)pension.
我知道現(xiàn)在聽(tīng)來(lái)這話就像卡通版的鐵砧那么諷刺，不過(guò)……所以他們希望我報(bào)讀專業(yè)學(xué)位，而我則想讀英國(guó)文學(xué)。我們達(dá)成了一個(gè)現(xiàn)在回想起來(lái)雙方都不甚滿意的讓步，于是我改讀現(xiàn)代語(yǔ)言。可是父母的小車才剛在大路盡頭拐彎，我立刻拋棄了德語(yǔ)，在古典文學(xué)的走廊上狂奔。

i know the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon 5)anvil now, but…so they hoped that i would take a vocational degree; i wanted to study english literature. a 6)compromise was reached that 7)in retrospect satisfied nobody, and i went up to study modern languages. hardly had my parents’ car rounded the corner at the end of the road than i ditched german and 8)scuttled off down the classics corridor.
我知道現(xiàn)在聽(tīng)來(lái)這話就像卡通版的鐵砧那么諷刺，不過(guò)……所以他們希望我報(bào)讀專業(yè)學(xué)位，而我則想讀英國(guó)文學(xué)。我們達(dá)成了一個(gè)現(xiàn)在回想起來(lái)雙方都不甚滿意的讓步，于是我改讀現(xiàn)代語(yǔ)言。可是父母的小車才剛在大路盡頭拐彎，我立刻拋棄了德語(yǔ)，在古典文學(xué)的走廊上狂奔。

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 9)mythology when it came to securing the keys to an 10)executive bathroom.
我忘了自己是怎么把這件事告訴父母的，他們也可能是在我畢業(yè)那天才發(fā)現(xiàn)我讀的是古典文學(xué)。如果想得到通往豪華浴室的鑰匙的話，那么在這個(gè)星球上的所有科目中，我想他們很難找到一門比希臘神話更沒(méi)用的課程了。

now i would like to make it clear—in 11)parenthesis—that i do not blame my parents for their point of view. there is an 12)expiry date on blaming your parents for 13)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 criticize my parents for hoping that i would never experience poverty. they had been poor themselves, and i have since been poor, and i quite…agree with them that it is not an 14)ennobling experience. poverty 15)entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand 16)petty 17)humiliations and hardships. climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is 18)romanticized only by fools.
我想插一句來(lái)說(shuō)明——我并不責(zé)怪父母有這樣的觀點(diǎn)。抱怨父母引導(dǎo)自己走錯(cuò)方向這件事有一個(gè)有效期限。一旦你們達(dá)到可以開車的（合法）年齡，就要自行承擔(dān)責(zé)任。而且我也不能因?yàn)楦改赶Ｍ�我不再貧窮而指責(zé)他們。他們自己嘗盡了沒(méi)錢的滋味，我一直以來(lái)的日子也不富足，我也……同意他們的觀點(diǎn)——貧窮并不能讓人高貴。貧窮會(huì)帶來(lái)一連串恐懼與壓力，有時(shí)甚至是沮喪；它意味著無(wú)數(shù)卑劣的羞辱以及各種艱難困苦。通過(guò)自己的努力擺脫貧窮確實(shí)是值得自豪的事情，但只有傻瓜才會(huì)把貧窮當(dāng)成美談。

what i feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
和你們這么大的時(shí)候，我最害怕的不是貧窮，而是失敗。

at your age, in spite of a 19)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.
和你們這么大的時(shí)候，盡管我明顯缺少在校園求學(xué)的動(dòng)力——我花了太多時(shí)間在咖啡館寫故事，不怎么聽(tīng)課——我在應(yīng)試方面很有一套，而這也是多年來(lái)評(píng)價(jià)我以及我的同齡人是否成功的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

now i am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known heartbreak…h(huán)ardship or heartache. talent and intelligence never yet 20)inoculated anyone against the 21)caprice of the fates, and i do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of 22)unruffled 23)privilege and 24)contentment.
你們還年輕，天資聰明，受過(guò)良好教育，但我并不會(huì)愚蠢地因此判定你們不懂得傷心難過(guò)……困難或者心痛的滋味。才華與智商未能使人免受命運(yùn)無(wú)常的折磨，而我從不認(rèn)為這里的所有人都已經(jīng)享有平靜的恩典和滿足。

however, the fact that you are graduating from harvard suggests that you are not very 25)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 removed from the average person’s idea of success. so high have you already flown!
然而，你們能從哈佛畢業(yè)，說(shuō)明你們和失敗還不是老朋友。對(duì)你們來(lái)說(shuō)，對(duì)于失敗的恐懼與對(duì)于成功的渴望可能有同等的驅(qū)動(dòng)力。確實(shí)，你們對(duì)于失敗的概念或許與普通人對(duì)成功的看法相去無(wú)幾呢。你們的起點(diǎn)已經(jīng)相當(dāng)高了！

1)ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of 2)criteria if you let it. so i think it['s] fair to say that by any 3)conventional measure, a 4)mere seven years after my graduation day, i had failed on an 5)epic scale. an 6)exceptionally short-lived marriage had 7)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 that my parents had had for me, and that i had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, i was the biggest failure i knew.
最終，我們所有人都要自行判斷何謂失敗，但是如果你愿意的話，這個(gè)世界很愿意給你一堆失敗的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。因此基于任何傳統(tǒng)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，我完全可以說(shuō)畢業(yè)不過(guò)七年的自己失敗得一塌糊涂。一段異常短暫的婚姻破滅了，作為一個(gè)失業(yè)的單身媽媽，我成了這個(gè)現(xiàn)代化英國(guó)里最窮的階層，只是還未到無(wú)家可歸的地步。我父母的憂慮以及我自己的擔(dān)心都成真了。從所有慣常標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來(lái)看，我知道的最失敗的人就是我自己。

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 8)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.
我并不想在這里對(duì)你們說(shuō)失敗很好玩。我的那段人生非常灰暗，那時(shí)我并不知道等待著自己的是……媒體后來(lái)所說(shuō)的“童話般的出路”。我并不知道這條隧道有多長(zhǎng)，在一段相當(dāng)長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間里，隧道那頭的光芒只是一個(gè)渺茫的希望，而不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。

so why do i talk about the benefits of failure? simply because failure meant a stripping away of the 9)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 10)arena where i believed i truly belonged. i was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and i was still alive, and i still had a daughter whom i adored, and i had an old typewriter and a big idea. and so 11)rock bottom became the solid foundation on which i rebuilt my life.
那么我為什么還要談?wù)撌�敗的收益呢？�?jiǎn)單來(lái)說(shuō)，因?yàn)槭�敗就意味著與“可有可無(wú)”進(jìn)行決裂。我不再自欺欺人，做回真正的自己，開始集中全副精力完成我唯一重視的寫作。如果我真的在其他方面成功了，我可能就不會(huì)下定決心，誓要在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域中取得成功——我相信這里才是自己真正的歸屬。我自由了，因?yàn)槲易畲蟮目謶忠呀?jīng)成真，而我活得好好的，還有一個(gè)心愛(ài)的女兒、一臺(tái)舊打字機(jī)和一個(gè)好點(diǎn)子。于是人生最低點(diǎn)反而成了堅(jiān)固的底座，我以此為基礎(chǔ)重筑生活。

you might never fail on the scale i did, but some failure in life is 12)inevitable. it is possible to live without failing at something, unless you live so 13)cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail 14)by default.

你們也許不會(huì)像我這樣一敗涂地，但生活中失敗總是難免的。只要活著總會(huì)在哪兒栽跟頭，除非你活得特別小心，但這么小心翼翼還不如不活呢——在這種情況下，你因放棄人生而敗。

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 15)rubies.
失敗讓我的內(nèi)心產(chǎn)生了一種順利通過(guò)考試也無(wú)法獲得的安全感。失敗讓我更了解自己，這些知識(shí)從其他途徑無(wú)法獲得。我發(fā)現(xiàn)自己意志堅(jiān)定，自控能力也比想象中要強(qiáng)，我還發(fā)現(xiàn)自己擁有幾個(gè)比紅寶石更寶貴的朋友。

the knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from 16)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 17)adversity. such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any 18)qualification i ever earned.

你們?cè)诖煺壑兄匦抡酒饋?lái)，更有智慧，更加強(qiáng)大——當(dāng)你們明白到這一點(diǎn)，就意味著你們今后更有生存能力。在面臨逆境的考驗(yàn)之前，你們不會(huì)真正了解自己，也沒(méi)法確定一段感情有多堅(jiān)定。這樣的認(rèn)識(shí)是一份真正的禮物，比我任何一份證書都要珍貴，因?yàn)槠浍@取的過(guò)程非常痛苦。

so given a time-turner注, i would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of 19)acquisition or achievement. your qualifications, your cv, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the 20)humility to know that will enable you to survive its 21)vicissitudes.
如果給我一個(gè)時(shí)間轉(zhuǎn)換器，我會(huì)告訴21歲的自己——個(gè)人的幸福就是認(rèn)識(shí)到生活并不是一張記錄著“得到什么東西”和“取得什么成就”的清單。證書和簡(jiǎn)歷都不是你們的人生，盡管你們會(huì)碰到許多和我一般年紀(jì)或者更年長(zhǎng)的人，他們也沒(méi)搞明白這一點(diǎn)。人生中難關(guān)重重，錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜，也沒(méi)有人可以完全掌控自己的生活，只要謙遜地認(rèn)識(shí)到這一點(diǎn)，你們就能順利渡過(guò)生命的興衰浮沉。

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