[美文欣赏]
　　Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten, and, as is conventional, I wished her success. I was lying. What I actually wish for her is failure. I believe in the power of failure.
　　Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can often be a problematical victory. First-time success is usually a fluke. First-time failure, by contrast, is expected; it is the natural order of things.
　　Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase describing a good cook as "she who has broken many pots." If you've spent enough time in the kitchen to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about cooking. I once had a late dinner with a group of chefs, and they spent time comparing knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility their failures gave them.
　　I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am aware that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don't set out to write it; I try my best every day. Still, every week, one column is inferior to the others, sometimes spectacularly so.

[参考译文]
　　上周，孙女开办了一个幼儿园。按常理，我预祝她成功。实际上我撒了慌，我真正对她的希望是失败，因为我相信失败的力量。
　　成功是令人厌烦的。成功只是证明你能够做你已经知道自己会做的事情，或是第一次就能正确地做某件事情，而这通常是一次有问题的成功。第一次的成功通常都是侥幸的成功，相反的，第一次的失败恰恰是值得期待的。这是事物的自然法则。
　　失败是学习的过程。我听说过一个在非洲用来形容大厨的词语， “那个炒坏了很多锅的”。如果你花了足够时间在厨房，炒坏了无数锅，那你也就掌握了大量烹饪方面的知识。有次我和厨师们共进晚餐，他们一直在比较刀伤和烫伤疤痕的多少，因为他们知道曾经的失败带来了无上的信誉。
　　我以为日报专栏写作谋生。每周我都会意识到会有其中一个成为本周最差专栏。我并不刻意去这样写，而是每天都尽我最大的努力，但每周都还是会有一个专栏比其他的差，有时候差距还挺大。