JK Rowling的哈佛毕业演讲(2)

life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand withexquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

我永远不会忘记那个非洲来的被酷刑折磨的受害者，他是一个和我那时候年龄相仿的年轻男子，但在他家乡经受过的拷打后，他已经有了精神病。当他向录像机讲述强加在他身上的暴行时，他无法控制地发抖。他比我高一英尺，但像一个小孩一样脆弱。后来我的工作是护送他去地下站，这个整个生活被野蛮摧毁的男子礼貌地握着我的手，祝福我一生幸福。

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an emptycorridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream ofpain and horror such as I have never heard since. The door opened, andthe researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hotdrink for the young man sitting with her. She had just given him thenews that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against hiscountry’s regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

只要我活着，我就能记住我沿着一个空旷的走廊走，突然从后面关闭的一扇门传来我从没听到过的充满痛苦和恐怖的尖叫。门打开了，有个研究人员探出头，让我快点跑去弄点热饮料给坐在她旁边的那个年轻男子。原来，她刚告诉那个男子，为了报复他对他国家的政权做了公开的反对演讲，他的妈妈被抓住、处决了。

Every day of my working week in my early 20s I was reminded howincredibly fortunate I was, to live in a country with a democraticallyelected government, where legal representation and a public trial werethe rights of everyone. 在我20多岁时工作的每一天，我提醒我自己我是多么的幸运啊，能生活在一个民主选举产生的政府的国家，在这里合法的陈述和公共审判是每一个人的权利。

Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind willinflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began tohave nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw,heard and read. 每一天，我看到更多的证据，证明邪恶的人类为了获得、维持权利而加害与他们同样的人类。我开始为这些我看到的、听到的、读到的东西做恶梦，是文字恶梦。

And yet I also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known before.

然而，我也在国际特赦组织学到了比我以前知道的更多的人类善良的一面。

Amnesty mobilises thousands of people who have never been torturedor imprisoned for their beliefs to act on behalf of those who have. Thepower of human empathy, leading to collective action, saves lives, andfrees prisoners. Ordinary people, whose personal well-being andsecurity are assured, join together in huge numbers to save people theydo not know, and will never meet. My small participation in thatprocess was one of the most humbling and inspiring experiences of mylife.

国际特赦组织动员了数千位没有因为信仰问题而被拷问或入狱的人，让他们来代表那些经历过这些的人行动起来。人类的同理心具有能引导集体行动的力量，这种力量能拯救生命，让囚徒获得自由。在这种活动中，那些拥有受到保护的个人福址和安全的普通人聚在了一起，来拯救他们不认识、也永远不会见面的人。我在这个过程中小小的参与是我生命中最卑微，也是最令人振奋的经历之一。

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn andunderstand, without having experienced. They can think themselves intoother people’s minds, imagine themselves into other people’s places.

人类和在这个星球上的其他生物不同，人类能够在没有自我经历的情况下学习和理解。他们

可以设身处地的思他人所思，想他人所想。

Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, thatis morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, orcontrol, just as much as to understand or sympathise.

当然，这是一种力量，如同我虚构的魔法，这种力量是道德中立的。有人可能常运用这种能力去操作和控制，就像用于理解和同情一样。

And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. Theychoose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience,never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born otherthan 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 nottouch them personally; they can refuse to know. 而且，许多人根本不喜欢训练他们的想象力。他们宁愿在自己的经验范围内维持舒适的状态，也不愿麻烦地去思考这样的问题：如果他们不是现在的自己，那么应该是什么感觉呢？他们拒绝听到尖叫，拒绝关注囚牢，他们可以对任何与他们自身无关的苦难关上思维与心灵的大门，他们可以拒绝知道这些。

I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except thatI do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing tolive in narrow spaces can lead to a form of mental agoraphobia, andthat brings its own terrors. I think the wilfully unimaginative seemore monsters. They are often more afraid.

我可能会羡慕那些以这种方式生活的人，但我不认为他们的噩梦比我少。选择在狭小的空间生活会导致精神上的恐旷症（对于陌生人、事物的恐惧），而且会带来它自身形成的恐怖。我想那些任性固执的缺乏想象力的人会看到更多的怪物，他们常常更容易感到害怕。

What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable realmonsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evilourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.

甚至于，那些选择不去想他人所想的人可能激活真正的恶魔。因为，虽然我们没有亲手犯下那些昭然若揭的恶行，我们却以冷漠的方式和邪恶在串谋。

One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classicscorridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of somethingI could not then define, was this, written by the Greek authorPlutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

我在那个经典走廊(harry potter书内的一个地点？)的末端学到的，也是我18岁时在那冒险搜寻但不知道怎么定义的重要事情之一就是，如古希腊作家普卢塔克所写的：“我们对内在修养的追求将会改变外在现实。” That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand timesevery day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapableconnection with the outside world, the fact that we touch otherpeople’s lives simply by existing.

这是一个令人惊讶的说法，然而它在我们生命中每一天会被证明一千多次。这句话部分地说明了我们和外部世界不 …… 此处隐藏：6047字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……