成功地失敗

景一

My day in the sun had arrived—my magnum1 opus2 would be revealed. I had just delivered a memorized speech that I had prepared for weeks， and I was about to learn how the panel3 judged my performance. A hush fell across the room. The drum rolled in my mind， anyway.

我在陽光下的日子已經(jīng)到來——我的杰作即將揭曉。我剛剛做了一場準(zhǔn)備了好幾個星期的演講，馬上就想知道評審小組是如何評價我的表現(xiàn)的。房間里一片寂靜。無論如何，鼓聲已經(jīng)在我頭腦中敲響了。

The contest organizer announced the third-place winner. Alas4， the name was not mine. Then he read the second-place winner， and once again it was not me. At last， the moment of truth came. Either I was about to bask5 in the warmth of victory or rue6 the last several months spent preparing. While neither of these came to pass， my heart felt closer to the latter.

競賽組織者宣布了獲獎的第三名。唉，那個名字不是我的。然后他讀出了第二名的獲獎?wù)?，仍然不是我。最后，宣布真相的時刻來臨了。要么我即將沐浴在勝利的溫暖中，要么我會對過去幾個月的準(zhǔn)備感到懊悔。雖然這兩種情況都沒有發(fā)生，但我心里覺得更接近后者。

Losing is a part of life. However， it was an indescribably7 underwhelming8 feeling to drive 200 miles round trip， get up early on a freezing Saturday morning， and yet still finish fourth out of four contestants9. After Lincoln lost the 1858 Illinois Senate race， he reportedly said， “I felt like the 12-year-old boy who stubbed his toe. I was too big to cry and it hurt too bad to laugh.” Oh yeah， I could relate.

失去是生活的一部分。然而，在一個寒冷的星期六的早晨早早起床，驅(qū)車往返200英里，但仍然在四名選手中名列第四，這是一種難以形容的令人沮喪的感覺。據(jù)報道，在林肯在1858年伊利諾伊州參議院競選失利之后，他說：“我覺得自己就像一個撞到腳趾的12歲男孩。我太大了不能哭出來，太疼了也笑不出來。”哦，是的，我能理解。

I had spent many hours in front of a computer and in libraries doing research for the Lincoln Bicentennial10 Speech Contest. As I pored11 over several biographies， one notion stood out： Lincoln had many sound defeats， but he never allowed them to hinder his spirit or ambition. While I believe many history lessons can be applied to modern life， I hadnt considered “the agony of defeat” as a historically valuable learning experience. I never dreamed I could relate to Lincoln！ I thought “failing—successfully” was a very appropriate topic， given the many letdowns Lincoln experienced， and so this became the title of my speech.

我花了很多時間在電腦前和圖書館里為林肯兩百周年演講比賽做研究。當(dāng)我仔細(xì)閱讀幾本傳記時，有一個觀點(diǎn)很突出：林肯有許多次大敗，但他從不允許這些失敗妨礙他的精神或雄心。雖然我相信許多歷史教訓(xùn)可以應(yīng)用到現(xiàn)代生活中，但我沒有把“失敗的痛苦”視為一種有歷史價值的學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)歷。我做夢也沒想到我能和林肯聯(lián)系上！鑒于林肯經(jīng)歷了許多挫折，我認(rèn)為“成功地失敗”是一個非常合適的話題，因此這成為了我演講的題目。

After not placing in the first year of the speech contest， I really wanted to compete again. Lincoln had been the epitome12 of persistence13， so I was not going to give up on a contest about a historic individual who did not give up！I reworked my speech for the following year， and again I did not place.

在沒有獲得演講比賽名次的一年之后，我真的很想再次參加比賽。林肯是堅(jiān)持不懈的象征，所以我不會放棄一場關(guān)于一位永不言棄的歷史人物的比賽！為了第二年的演講，我修改了演講稿，最后還是沒能取得名次。

I couldnt accept the fact that I had failed twice in something that I had worked so hard on， until I think about the individual whom Id spent so much time learning about. Never mind the lost prize money and praise. I had learned， really learned， about a great man who had experienced failure and disappointment， and had many chances to give up. We remember Lincoln because he didnt take this route； he didnt throw lavish14 pity-parties， and he persevered to become， according to many， the greatest American president.

我不能接受這樣一個事實(shí)：我曾經(jīng)兩次在我為之努力的事情上失敗，直到我想到了我花了這么多時間去了解的那個人。別介意失去的獎金和贊美。我已經(jīng)懂了，真正懂了，一個偉大的人經(jīng)歷過失敗和失望，也有很多機(jī)會放棄。我們之所以記得林肯，是因?yàn)樗蛔邔こＢ罚凰麤]有舉辦過奢侈的慈善晚會，而他堅(jiān)持不懈地成為了許多人眼中最偉大的美國總統(tǒng)。

While I did not earn monetary15 awards as a result of this contest， I did gain a new perspective. Through learning about Lincoln， I discovered that I can fail successfully. Now， whenever Im faced with a setback， I remember what Lincoln said after his unsuccessful 1854 Senate race： “The path was worn and slippery. My foot slipped from under me， knocking the other out of the way， but I recovered and said to myself， ‘Its a slip and not a fall.”

雖然我沒有因?yàn)檫@次比賽而獲得金錢獎勵，但我確實(shí)獲得了一個新的觀點(diǎn)。通過對林肯的了解，我發(fā)現(xiàn)我可以成功地失敗?，F(xiàn)在，每當(dāng)我遇到挫折時，我都會想起林肯在1854年參議院競選失敗后所說的話：“這條路又舊又滑。我腳下打滑，磕磕碰碰，但我又站穩(wěn)了，并對自己說：‘這是一次腳滑，而不是摔倒?！?/p>

1. magnum [ ] n. 大酒瓶

2. opus [ ] n. 作品 magnum opus 代表作；巨著；杰作

3. panel [ ] n. 座談小組，全體陪審員

4. alas [ ] int. 唉（表悲傷、遺憾、恐懼、關(guān)切等等）

5. bask [ ] v. （使）曬太陽；取暖；（使）愉快或舒適

6. rue [ ] vt. 后悔；懊悔

7. indescribably [ ] adv. 難以形容地；不明確地

8. underwhelming [ ] adj. 未給人留下深刻印象的；未激起人們熱情的

9. contestant [ ] n. 競爭者；爭辯者

10. bicentennial [ ] n. 二百周年紀(jì)念 adj. 二百周年的

11. pore [ ] vi. 細(xì)想；凝視；熟讀 12. epitome [ ] n. 縮影；摘要；象征

13. persistence [ ] n. 持續(xù)；存留；堅(jiān)持不懈；毅力

14. lavish [ ] adj. 浪費(fèi)的；豐富的；大方的 15. monetary [ ] adj. 貨幣的；財(cái)政的