Chapter Ⅳ 接过墨客的衣钵摇旗呐喊（14）（2/2）
《最震撼人心的声音》作者：姜宇 2017-02-11 10:27
r passing ex***nations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
现在，我不想愚蠢地假设，因为你们年轻、有天分，并且受过良好的教育，就从来不懂得艰难或心碎的时刻。才华和智慧，从来不会使人对命运的变化无常有所准备。我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。
Now, I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. 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.
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。你们也许极其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失败。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。
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. 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.
最终，我们所有人都必须自己决定什么算做失败，但如果你愿意，世界是相当渴望给你一套标准的。所以我承认命运的公平，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅7年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：一段异常短暂的婚姻破裂了，我失业了，成了一个单身母亲。而且在现代的英国，我除了不是无家可归外，是要多穷有多穷。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都发生了。按照惯常的标准来看，我也是我所知道的最失败的人。
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. 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. 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. 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.
现在，我不想愚蠢地假设，因为你们年轻、有天分，并且受过良好的教育，就从来不懂得艰难或心碎的时刻。才华和智慧，从来不会使人对命运的变化无常有所准备。我也不会假设大家坐在这里冷静地满足于自身的优越感。
Now, I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. 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.
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。你们也许极其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失败。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。
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. 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.
最终，我们所有人都必须自己决定什么算做失败，但如果你愿意，世界是相当渴望给你一套标准的。所以我承认命运的公平，从任何传统的标准看，在我毕业仅仅7年后的日子里，我的失败达到了史诗般空前的规模：一段异常短暂的婚姻破裂了，我失业了，成了一个单身母亲。而且在现代的英国，我除了不是无家可归外，是要多穷有多穷。当年父母和我自己对未来的担忧，现在都发生了。按照惯常的标准来看，我也是我所知道的最失败的人。
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. 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. 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. 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.