每天跟Kelly 学英语-《哈瑞·珀特》的作者JK·罗琳 哈佛毕

Part 5

Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.

Though I personally will defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. 罗琳对于睡前给孩子们读书是非常重视的，也确实有助于孩子们的想象力。我从孩子们1岁多，每天晚上关灯之后，我就给他们讲一只蝴蝶叫蝴里吧啦的故事，我讲很多知识点融进去，自然的、科学的，然后又很搞笑，又有不同的声音模仿，孩子们每晚最大的幸福就是听我讲故事，一共讲了5年，后期就变成了孩子们自己往下编，我很后悔没有将我的故事记录下来，应该会对很多孩子都有益处。

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.

In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

每天跟Kelly 学英语-《哈瑞·珀特》的作者JK·罗琳 哈佛毕业典礼演讲-失败的益处和想象力的重要（3）

One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books.

This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs.

Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working at the African research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London.

There in my little office I read hastily scribbled letters smuggled out of totalitarian regimes by men and women who were risking imprisonment to inform the outside world of what was happening to them.

I saw photographs of those who had disappeared without trace, sent to Amnesty by their desperate families and friends.

I read the testimony of torture victims and saw pictures of their injuries. I opened handwritten, eye-witness accounts of summary trials and executions, of kidnappings and rapes.

Many of my co-workers were ex-political prisoners, people who had been displaced from their homes, or fled into exile, because they had the temerity to speak against their governments.

Visitors to our offices included those who had come to give information, or to try and find out what had happened to those they had left behind.

I shall never forget the African torture victim, a young man no older than I was at the time, who had become mentally ill after all he had endured in his homeland.

He trembled uncontrollably as he spoke into a video camera about the brutality inflicted upon him.

He was a foot taller than I was, and seemed as fragile as a child.

I was given the job of escorting him back to the Underground Station afterwards, and this man whose life had been shattered by cruelty took my hand with exquisite courtesy, and wished me future happiness.

And as long as I live I shall remember walking along an empty corridor and suddenly hearing, from behind a closed door, a scream of pain and horror such as I have never heard since.

The door opened, and the researcher poked out her head and told me to run and make a hot drink for the young man sitting with her.

She had just had to give him the news that in retaliation for his own outspokenness against his country's regime, his mother had been seized and executed.

wholly 完全地

envision 预测，想象，展望

fount 源泉，字体

revelatory 启示的

sloping off 倾斜

headquarters 总部，指挥部

hastily 急速地，慌忙地

totalitarian 极权主义者

regime 政权

testimony 证据，证词

exile流放，充军

kidnappings 绑架，诱拐

temerity 鲁莽，大胆

brutality 残忍，野蛮，暴行

inflicted 把……强加给，使承受，遭受

escorting 护送

shattered 疲惫不堪的，垮掉的

cruelty 残忍，残酷（行为）

exquisite精致的，强烈的，敏锐的

retaliation 报复，回敬，反击

outspokenness 直言无讳，坦率

对于第二个主题的选择——想象力的重要性——你们可能会认为是因为它对我重建生活起到了帮助，但事实并非完全如此。

虽然我愿誓死捍卫睡前要给孩子讲故事的价值观，我对想象力的理解已经有了更广泛的含义。

想象力不仅仅是人类设想还不存在的事物这种独特的能力，为所有发明和创新提供源泉，它还是人类改造和揭露现实的能力，使我们同情自己不曾经受的他人苦难。

其中一个影响最大的经历发生在我写哈利波特之前，为我随后写书提供了很多想法。

这些想法成形于我早期的工作经历，在20多岁时，尽管我可以在午餐时间里悄悄写故事，可为了付房租，我做的主要工作是在伦敦总部的大赦国际研究部。

在我的小办公室里，我阅读了人们匆匆写的信件，它们是从极权主义政权被偷送出来的。

那些人冒着被监禁的危险，告知外面的世界他们那里正在发生的事情。我看到了那些无迹可寻的人的照片，它们是被那些绝望的家人和朋友送来的。

我看过拷问受害者的证词和被害的照片。我打开过手写的目击证词，描述绑架和强奸犯的审判和处决。

我有很多的同事是前政治犯，他们已离开家园流离失所，或逃亡流放，因为他们敢于怀疑政府、独立思考。

来我们办公室的访客，包括那些前来提供信息，或想设法知道那些被迫留下的同胞发生了什么事的人。

我将永远不会忘记一个非洲酷刑的受害者，一名当时还没有我大的年轻男子，他因在故乡的经历而精神错乱。在摄像机前讲述被残暴地摧残的时候，他颤抖失控。他比我高一英尺，却看上去像一个脆弱的儿童。

我被安排随后护送他到地铁站，这名生活已被残酷地打乱的男子，小心翼翼地握着我的手，祝我未来生活幸福。

只要我还活着我就会记得，在一个空荡荡的的走廊，突然从背后的门里，传来我从未听过的痛苦和恐惧的尖叫。门打开了，调查员探出头请求我，为坐在她旁边的青年男子，调一杯热饮料。她刚刚给他的消息是，为了报复他对国家政权的批评，他的母亲已经被捕并被执行了枪决。