評論
打印
President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates:
尊敬的福斯特校長，哈佛集團的各位成員，監督理事會的各位理事，各位老師，各位自豪的家長，尤其是畢業生們：
The first thing I would like to say is "thank you". Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I've endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and convince myself that I am at the world's largest Gryffindors' reunion.
首先請允許我說一聲謝謝。哈佛不僅給了我至高無上的榮譽，連日來一想到要發表這個畢業演說所經受的恐懼和緊張，更令我減肥成功。這真是“雙贏”。現在，我只需要深呼吸幾次，瞇著眼睛看看前面的大紅橫幅，然后安慰自己，讓自己相信我正在參加世界上最大的魔法學院聚會。
Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormourly in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
發表畢業演說責任重大。至少我回想我當年的畢業典禮時是這么認為的。那天致辭的是英國著名的哲學家瑪麗·沃諾克男爵夫人（編者注：瑪麗·沃諾克男爵夫人，教育家，哲學家，存在主義作家，曾先后任職于牛津大學和劍橋大學，終身貴族）。回想她的演講，對我完成這篇演講稿有極大的幫助，因為我已完全不記得她當時講了什么。這讓我釋然，讓我不再擔心我可能會無意中影響你們，使你們放棄在商業、法律或政治上的大好前途，轉而醉心于成為一個快樂的魔法師。
