JK.Rowling演讲稿(2)

自己编辑的,版权未有,希望能帮助更多喜欢学习英语的同学。

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 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 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... They had hoped that I would

take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that 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 scuttled off down the Classics

corridor. 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