名校励志英语演讲 第17期:失败的额外收益和想象力的重要性
你们对失败的恐惧很可能与你们对成功的渴望一样强烈。
[00:07.46]Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from,
实际上，你们眼中的失败可能在常人看来就是成功，
[00:12.20]the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown.
毕竟你们在学业上已经相当成功了。
[00:20.01]Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure,
最终，我们所有人都必须自己判断什么事失败，
[00:25.23]but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria
但是如果你乐意的话，这个世界是非常渴望给你一套标准的。
[00:28.38]if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure,
因此根据任何传统的标准都可以说，
[00:35.14]a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale.
我在毕业后短短七年里经历了惨痛的失败：
[00:42.11]An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless,
短暂的婚姻闪电般破裂，失业，成为单身母亲。
[00:47.30]a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless.
在现代化的英国，我变得极度贫困，只是还没有到无家可归的地步。
[00:54.41]The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself,
父母和我自己对未来的担忧，当年都变成了现实。
[00:59.27]had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
无论按什么标准，当时我都是我所知道是最失败的人。
[01:07.28]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。
[01:11.31]That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that,
那段日子是我生命中的黑暗岁月，
[01:15.33]there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution.
我不知道我会写出被新闻界成为“童话故事的革命”的作品。
[01:22.27]I had no idea then how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time,
我也不知道自己还要在黑暗中走多久，
[01:27.27]any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
不知道还要过多久才能看到希望的光芒而不是现实的黑暗。
