这是J·K·罗琳于2008年在哈佛大学毕业典礼上的演讲。

This is J.K. Rowling, speaking at Harvard's graduation in 2008.

在诸位这个年纪，她最恐惧的并非贫穷，而是失败。

At your age, what she dreaded was not being poor. It was failing.

大学毕业七年后，她的婚姻破裂了，并在没有工作的情况下独自抚养孩子。

Seven years after graduating, her marriage was over and she raised a child with no job.

"跌入谷底，成了我日后重建生活的坚实地基。"

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

失败剥离掉了所有无关紧要的事物，她不再假装。

Failure cleared away everything that did not matter, and she stopped pretending.

她将仅剩的所有时间，全部倾注于那部对自己而言依然意义非凡的作品创作中。

Every hour she had left went into the one piece of work that still mattered to her.

在成名出书很久以前，她曾在伦敦的国际特赦组织工作。

Long before the books, she worked at Amnesty International in London.

她读过人们冒着被投入监狱的危险，从严酷政权下秘密带出的信件。

She read letters people had smuggled out of harsh regimes, risking prison to be heard.

"改变世界我们不需要魔法，我们所需要的一切力量，早就在我们体内了。"

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already."

她告诉台下的毕业生，人的一生中绝不可能在任何事情上都永不经历失败。

No one gets through a life without failing at something, she told them.

人生并不是一张罗列你取得何种成就或拥有多少财富的清单。

A life is not a list of the things you achieve or the things you own.

她引用塞内卡的名言为演讲画上句号："正如故事一样，人生最重要的不在于有多长，而在于有多好。"

She closed with a line from Seneca. "As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters."