J.K·罗琳(J. K. Rowling，1965年7月31日-)，毕业于英国埃克塞特大学，是一位英国知名奇幻小说家，其主要作品为小说《哈利波特》系列。2018年3月8日，《2018胡润全球白手起家女富豪榜》发布，J.K.罗琳以95亿元人民币的个人财富，位居第62位。以下是JK罗琳2008哈佛毕业典礼演讲《不要害怕失败》(节选)翻译：

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,

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。

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 heartache.

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。

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.

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.

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。

You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success.

你们也许极其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失败。

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.

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.

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。

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，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模。

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。

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.

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.

现在，我不打算站在这里告诉你们，失败是有趣的。

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.

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。

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?

那么为什么我要谈论失败的好处呢?

Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.

因为失败意味着剥离掉那些不必要的东西。

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.

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。

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。

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.

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。

And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

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.

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。

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.

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。

Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way.

失败让我看清自己，这也是我通过其他方式无法体会的。

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.

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。

You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.

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。

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.

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。