當逆境來臨時，你才會真正認識自己

最新 04-02

有道晨讀周一至周日每日更新

不要害怕失敗(Excerpt)

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

我在你們這個年齡，最害怕的不是貧窮，而是失敗。

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,

我在您們這麼大時，明顯缺乏在大學學習的動力，我花了太久時間在咖啡吧寫故事，而在課堂的時間卻很少。

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.

我有一個通過考試的訣竅，並且數年間一直讓我在大學生活和同齡人中不落人後。

I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartache.

我不想愚蠢地假設，因為你們年輕、有天份，並且受過良好的教育，就從來沒有遇到困難或心碎的時刻。

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.

擁有才華和智慧，從來不會使人對命運的反覆無常有所準備；我也不會假設大家坐在這裡冷靜地滿足於自身的優越感。

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.

相反，你們是哈佛畢業生的這個事實，意味著你們並不很了解失敗。你們也許極其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失敗。

Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person"s idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.

說實話，你們眼中的失敗，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，畢竟你們在學業上已經達到很高的高度了。

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.

最終，我們所有人都必須自己決定什麼算作失敗，但如果你願意，世界是相當渴望給你一套標準的。

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.

所以我想很公平的講，從任何傳統的標準看，在我畢業僅僅七年後的日子裡，我的失敗達到了史詩般空前的規模。

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.

短命的婚姻閃電般地破裂，我又失業成了一個艱難的單身母親。除了流浪漢，我是當代英國最窮的人之一，真的一無所有。

The fears 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.

當年父母和我自己對未來的擔憂，現在都變成了現實。按照慣常的標準來看，我也是我所知道的最失敗的人。

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.

現在，我不打算站在這裡告訴你們，失敗是有趣的。那段日子是我生命中的黑暗歲月。我不知道它是否代表童話故事裡需要歷經的磨難。

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.

更不知道自己還要在黑暗中走多久。很長一段時間裡，前面留給我的只是希望，而不是現實。

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.

那麼為什麼我要談論失敗的好處呢？因為失敗意味著剝離掉那些不必要的東西。我因此不再偽裝自己、遠離自我，而重新開始把所有精力放在對我最重要的事情上。

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.

如果不是沒有在其他領域成功過，我可能就不會找到，在一個我確信真正屬於的舞台上取得成功的決心。

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.

我獲得了自由，因為最害怕的雖然已經發生了，但我還活著，我仍然有一個我深愛的女兒，我還有一個舊打字機和一個很大的想法。所以困境的谷底，成為我重建生活的堅實基礎。

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

你們可能永遠沒有達到我經歷的那種失敗程度，但有些失敗，在生活中是不可避免的。

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.

生活不可能沒有一點失敗，除非你生活的萬般小心，而那也意味著你沒有真正在生活了。無論怎樣，有些失敗還是註定地要發生。

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.

失敗使我的內心產生一種安全感，這是我從考試中沒有得到過的。失敗讓我看清自己，這也是我通過其他方式無法體會的。

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.

我發現，我比自己認為的，要有更強的意志和決心。我還發現，我擁有比寶石更加珍貴的朋友。

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.

從挫折中獲得智慧、變得堅強，意味著你比以往任何時候都更有能力生存。只有在逆境來臨的時候，你才會真正認識你自己，了解身邊的人。

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.

這種了解是真正的財富，雖然是用痛苦換來的，但比我以前得到的任何資格證書都有用。

So given a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement.

如果給我一部時間機器，我會告訴21歲的自己，人的幸福在於知道生活不是一份漂亮的成績單。

Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.

你的資歷、簡歷，都不是你的生活，雖然你會碰到很多與我同齡或更老一點的人今天依然還在混淆兩者。

Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone"s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

生活是艱辛的，複雜的，超出任何人的控制能力，而謙恭地了解這一點，將使你歷經滄桑後能夠更好的生存。

朗讀：Olivia

來源：小e英語

BGM：Rachel Portman - One Day Main Titles

背景介紹

J.K·羅琳（J. K. Rowling，1965年7月31日－），畢業於英國埃克塞特大學，是一位英國知名奇幻小說家，其主要作品為小說《哈利波特》系列。2018年3月8日，《2018胡潤全球白手起家女富豪榜》發布，J．K．羅琳以95億元人民幣的個人財富，位居第62位。