今天我們來回顧一下J.K.羅琳2008年在哈佛大學畢業典禮上的講話。這次她演講的題目是The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination。意思是失敗的附加福利和想像力的重要性。Fringe Benefits是個詞組，意思是（工資外的）額外補貼，附加福利。
失敗的附加益處
演講中羅琳回顧了自己前半生一直在平衡自己的雄心壯志和親人的期盼。羅琳這輩子打算投身於寫小說，但是她出身貧寒的父母認為羅琳的想像力不過是怪癖，無法養活自己，所以他們期望羅琳能夠獲得職業技能的學位。而羅琳希望學習英國文學。最後他們相互妥協達成一致，羅琳去學習現代語言了。當然羅琳並非指責父母的觀點，因為她自己長大成人後，應該對自己的人生負責。父母飽受貧寒之苦，而羅琳也曾身無分文，貧窮不是高貴的經歷，憑藉自己的力量擺脫貧困，才值得自豪。
相對於貧窮，羅琳年輕時更害怕的是失敗。在大學裡，考試是衡量學生成敗的標準。進入社會後，每個人都有自己對於失敗的定義，而且這個世界也會給你設定一套標準。羅琳覺得畢業七年後自己所遭遇的，不管從哪個角度來看都是最大的失敗：婚姻失敗，賦閒待業。作為單親媽媽，羅琳可以說淪落到當代英國最為貧困的境地。
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.
現在，我站在這裡，告訴你們失敗可是件一點也不好玩的事情。那個時候我的人生被黑暗籠罩，根本想不到在未來的時光裡這段經歷竟會被報導為神話般的堅定意志。那時候我不知道黑暗的隧道何時才是盡頭，而盡頭的任何光亮都像是渺茫的希望而非穩固的現實。
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply becausefailure meant astrippingaway 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.
為什麼我還要談起失敗的好處呢？簡單的說，是因為失敗會為我們揭去表面那些無關緊要的東西。我不再裝模作樣，終於重新做回自己，開始將所有的精力投入到自己在意的唯一作品。如果我此前在其它的任何什麼方面有所成功，我恐怕都會失去在自己真正歸屬的舞臺上獲得成功的決心。我最大的恐懼終於成為現實，而我卻因此獲得了自由，我還活著，還有我深愛的女兒，我還有一架老式打字機和一個宏大的夢想。這片頑固的低谷成為我腳下堅定的基石，在此之上，我重築了自己的人生。
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.
你們也許不會像我摔得這樣慘，但是人生路上總會有些失敗。你也許可以毫無失敗的度過一生，但你將活得如此小心翼翼，就好像你幾乎沒有活過——不管從什麼意義上講，你都註定要失敗的。
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.
失敗賦予我內心的安全感，而這是考試及格也不能讓我感受到的。失敗讓我明白關於自己的一些東西，這是除了失敗以外我決不可能獲得的認知。我意識到自己擁有堅強的意志，而且比我以前設想的還要自律；我還發現我擁有的朋友們是如此寶貴，其價值連寶石也不能媲美。
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.
你在挫折中成長，更聰明，更強壯，這意味著從此以後你已擁有了牢不可催的生存能力。直到通過逆境的考驗，你才會真正了解自己，以及你周圍的人賦予你的力量。這些認知都是寶貴的財富，我歷經艱辛才獲得的財富，這比我得到的任何資格證書都更有價值。
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. 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 humility to know that will enable you to survive itsvicissitudes.
如果能夠讓時光倒流，我會告訴21歲的自己，幸福在於懂得人生不是收穫和成就的清單。你的資格證書或你的簡歷，並不是你的生活；儘管你將遇到很多我這樣年紀、甚至比我更老的人，他們卻還分不清楚兩者間的區別。生活是嚴酷的，也是複雜的，更不處於任何人的掌控；謙遜的懂得並接受這一點，會幫助安然你度過生活中的風浪。
想像力的重要性
羅琳之所以認為想像力重要，不僅僅是因為想像力在她重築人生時發揮了巨大作用。更因為想像力是人類獨有的預見未知的能力，它還是所有發明創造的源泉。它具有已被證實的最富變革性和啟示性的力量，而正是想像力讓我們能夠切身體會他人的經驗——雖然我們自己並未身臨其境。
羅琳回顧了二十幾歲的時候，在位於倫敦的國際特赦組織總部的研究部門的工作經歷。那段經歷讓她看到了集權統治下人們冒險寄出的信件，看到那些無聲無息地失蹤了的人的照片，讀過嚴刑拷打的受害人的證詞，看過記錄他們的慘狀的照片。她永遠也無法忘記一個來自非洲的經受嚴刑拷打的受害者。這個人生已被殘暴摧毀的男人卻優雅有禮的拉著她的手，祝她未來幸福快樂。每天她都看見更多的人類的邪惡加諸於同胞的證據，這樣的罪惡僅僅是為了獲得或者維持權力。她開始做惡夢，徹頭徹尾的惡夢，夢到那些她看到、聽到和讀到的事情。然而，在國際特赦組織裡她還了解了很多關於人類的好的一面，有些是她從不知道的。國際特赦組織調動了幾千人，代表那些飽受折磨的人並為之行事。人類的同情心的力量引導了集體行動，拯救生命，釋放被關押的人們。羅琳參與其中，是她今生最為卑微、卻最為振奮的經歷。
Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s 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.
人類與地球上的其它生物不同。就算沒有親身經歷，人類也可以學習和理解。人類可以將自己代入別人的思想之中，設想自己處於他人的境地。
當然，這也是力量，就好像我的小說中的魔法。這是在道德上中立的力量，可以被用於操縱和控制，也可以被用於理解和同情。
And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.
還有很多人寧願不去使用他們的想像力。他們選擇舒舒服服的呆在自己的經歷之內，從不費事去想像如果他們生下來是別的人，那一切將會怎樣。他們可以拒絕傾聽叫喊聲，也不會窺視籠子內的情況；對於任何沒有降臨到自身的痛苦，他們都可以關閉自己的頭腦和心靈；他們可以拒絕知道。
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 leads 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.
也許我禁不住會想要嫉妒這樣生活的人，只可惜我不相信他們做的惡夢會比我少。選擇生活在狹窄的範圍裡，會導致某種精神上的對於陌生環境的恐懼症，並由此產生相應的害怕心理。我認為那些自己決定不去想像的人會看到更多的怪物。他們通常會更害怕。
十八歲時，羅琳踏上了古典文學的探險道路；當走到盡頭的時候，她學到了很多東西，其中之一就是希臘作家Plutarch的這句話：
我們在內心的所得，將改變外界的現實
What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality。
在某種程度上，它表達了我們與外面世界的無法逃避的聯繫；它道出這樣一個事實，僅僅是我們自身的存在，就已經觸碰到了他人的生活。她告訴哈佛的畢業生麼：
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to transform the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
如果你選擇用你的身份和影響力來提高你的聲音，為那些沒有聲音的人吶喊；如果你選擇不僅認同權勢群體，更要與弱勢群體為伍；如果你保留了想像的能力，能夠與不具備你的優勢的那些人感同身受。那麼，不僅僅是你的家人會為你自豪，更有成千上萬的、因為你而生活得更好的人會為你歡呼。我們並不需要魔法來改造世界。我們在內心深處已經擁有了所需的所有力量：我們擁有想像更好的世界的力量。
最後羅琳祝福所有畢業生能夠收穫珍貴的友誼，並將古羅馬哲學家Seneca的一句話送給所有畢業生。
人生就像故事，不在於漫長，而在於精彩。
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
你的點讚，在看和轉發，我都真的當成了喜歡，也是我持續更新的動力。