艾米·珀迪是一个喜爱滑板和旅行的女孩，生活对她来说曾经对此灿烂多彩，似乎一切都有可能。然而，当她因意外事故截肢后，过去的爱好似乎变得可望而不可及。但她却从来没有因为残缺而为自己的生活设下限制，这世上从来没有被束缚的身体，只有被束缚的心灵。下面是小编为大家收集关于TED英语演讲：超越界限的生活，欢迎借鉴参考。
Living beyond limits
演讲者：Amy Purdy
中英对照演讲稿
If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go? That's the question that changed my life forever. Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert, all I wanted was tobe free. I would day dream about traveling the world, living in a place where it snowed, and I would picture all of the stories that I would go on to tell.
如果你的人生是一本书，而你是作者，你希望故事如何发展?这个问题改变了我的一生。在炎热的拉斯韦加斯沙漠长大的我，唯一想要的就是自由。我会想象自己去环游世界，住在下雪的地方，我会编织各种故事，在日后娓娓道来。
At the age of 19, the day after I graduated high school, I moved to a place where it snowed and I became a massage the rapist. With this job all I needed were my hands and my massage table by myside and I could go anywhere. For the first time in my life, I felt free,independent and completely in control of my life. That is, until my life took a detour.
我在19岁从高中毕业的隔天，搬到一个会下雪的地方，开始当起按摩师。做这份工作，我只需要有双手和按摩桌在身边，就能去任何地方。那是我生命中第一次感到自由、独立，并且完全掌控自己的生活。直到我的生命出现转折。
I went home from work early one day with what I thought was the flu,and less than 24 hours later I was in the hospital on life support with less than a two percent chance of living. It wasn't until days later as I lay in acoma that the doctors diagnosed me with bacterial mening it is, avaccine-preventable blood infection. Over the course of two and a half months I lost my spleen, my kidneys, the hearing in my left ear and both of my legs below the knee.
有天我提早收工回家，原以为自己染上流感，结果不到24小时，我就住进医院，装上维生系统，只有不到2%的存活率。几天后，我就全身瘫痪，医生诊断我罹患了细菌性脑膜炎，一种能靠注射疫苗预防的血液感染。经过两个半月的疗程，我丧失了脾脏和肾脏，还有左耳听力，双脚膝盖以下也截肢了。
When my parents wheeled me out of the hospital I felt like I had been pieced back together like a patchwork doll. I thought the worst was over until weeks later when I saw my new legs for the first time. The calves were bulky blocks of metal with pipes bolted together for the ankles and a yellow rubber foot with a raised rubber line from the toe to the ankle to look like a vein. I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting that.
父母用轮椅将我推出医院时，我感觉自己像是用碎片拼凑而成的娃娃。我以为最糟的情况已经结束了，但几周后我第一次看到自己的双脚，才发现并非如此。小腿变成又粗又重的金属块，跟管子和脚踝拴在一起，还有个泛黄的橡胶脚，上面有条突起的橡胶线从脚趾延伸至脚踝，为了看起来像条血管。我不知道未来会发生什么事，但我没想到会发生这种事。
With my mom by my side and tears streaming down our faces, I strapped on these chunky legs and I stood up. They were sopainful and so confining that all I could think was, how am I ever going to travel the world in these things? How was I ever going to live the life full of adventure and stories, as I always wanted? And how was I going to snowboard again?
我妈在我身旁，泪水从我俩的脸庞落下，我绑上这双粗重的脚，站起身来。如此剧烈的疼痛和紧绷让我不得不想，我要怎么戴着这些东西环游世界?我要怎么继续拥有那个我从小就梦寐以求的，充满冒险和故事的生活?
That day, I went home, I crawled into bed and this is what my life looked like for the next few months: me passed out,escaping from reality, with my legs resting by my side. I was absolutely physically and emotionally broken.
我要怎么再次站上滑雪板?那天回到家后，我爬上床，这是我之后几个月的生活样貌：浑浑噩噩，逃避现实，双脚就放在一旁。
But I knew that in order to move forward, I had to let go of the old Amy and learn to embrace the new Amy. And that is when it dawned on me that I didn't have to be five-foot-five anymore. I could be as tall as I wanted! Or as short as I wanted, depending on who I was dating. And if I snowboarded again, my feet aren't going to get cold.And best of all, I thought, I can make my feet the size of all the shoes that are on the sales rack. (Laughter) And I did! So there were benefits here.
我的身心都已支离破碎。但我知道要向前迈进，就得放下以前的艾咪，学习拥抱新的艾咪。那一刻我才发现，我的身高不再得是一六五，我想要多高就可以多高!我也可以想要多矮就多矮，看约会对象是谁再决定。如果我再去滑雪，脚就不会觉得冷了。最棒的是我想我可以把自己的脚做成鞋店特价区里的鞋子尺寸。我真的这么做了!看来还是有点好处。
It was this moment that I asked myself that life-defining question: If my life were a book and I were the author, how would I want the story to go? And I began to daydream. I daydreamed like I did as a little girl and I imagined myself walking gracefully, helping other people through my journey and snowboarding again. And I didn't just see myself carving down a mountain of powder, I could actually feel it. I could feel the wind against my face and the beat of my racing heart as if it were happening in that very moment. And that is when a new chapter in my life began.
就在这个时刻我自问那个定义人生的问题：如果我的人生是一本书，而我是作者，我希望故事怎么发展?我开始幻想。像我孩提时那样，想象自己优雅行进，用自己的历程帮助别人，并且再次滑雪。我不是只看见自己割雪滑过山上的粉雪，我真的能感觉得到。我可以感觉到吹拂在脸上的风，还有飞快的心跳，就像身历其境一般。那是我人生开启新篇章的时刻。
Four months later I was back up on a snowboard, although things didn't go quite as expected: My knees and my ankles wouldn't bend and at one point I traumatized all the skiers on the chair lift when I fell and my legs, still attached to my snowboard — (Laughter) — went flying down the mountain, and I was on top of the mountain still. I was so shocked, I was just as shocked as everybody else, and I was so discouraged, butI knew that if I could find the right pair of feet that I would be able to do this again. And this is when I learned that our borders and our obstacles canonly do two things: one, stop us in our tracks or two, force us to get creative.
四个月后，我重新站上滑雪板，虽然情况不如想象中美好：我的膝盖和脚踝无法弯曲，一度在缆车上的滑雪客心中留下阴影，因为我跌倒的时候，双脚还黏在滑雪板上，(笑声)整个飞下山岭，身体却还在山上。我很惊讶，就跟每个人一样惊讶，我好挫折，但我知道如果能找到对的那双脚，我就能再次滑雪。就是这个时候，我了解到限制和阻碍只会影响两件事：第一，终止我们的习惯，第二，强迫我们发挥创意。
I did a year of research, still couldn't figure out what kind of legs to use, couldn't find any resources that could help me. So I decided to make a pair myself. My leg maker and I put random parts together and we made a pair of feet that I could snowboard in. As you can see, rusted bolts, rubber, wood and neon pink duct tape. And yes, I can change my toe nail polish. It was these legs and the best 21st birthday gift I could ever receive — a new kidney from my dad — that allowed me to follow my dreams again. I started snowboarding, then I went back to work, then I went back toschool.
我研究了一年，至今仍无法找出要用哪一种脚，无法找到任何能帮助我的资源。因此我决定自己做一双脚。制脚师和我任意组装零件，最后完成了一双让我能滑雪的脚。你可以看到，生锈的螺丝、橡皮、木头和粉红布胶带。没错，我还能换不同的指甲油。这些脚和最棒的21岁生日礼物，也就是爸爸捐给我的一颗肾，让我能再次追寻我的梦想。我开始站上雪板滑雪，接着回去工作、回到校园。
Then in 20xx I cofounded a nonprofit organization for youth and young adults with physical disabilities so theycould get involved with action sports. From there, I had the opportunity to go to South Africa, where I helped to put shoes on thousands of children's feet so they could attend school.
20xx年时我合伙创办非营利组织，帮助有肢体障碍的青少年，让他们能参与极限运动。我在那里得到前往南非的机会，可以去帮助成千上万名孩童让他们有鞋穿好去上学。
And just this past February, I won two back-to-back World Cup gold medals — (Applause) — which made me the highest ranked adaptive female snowboarder in the world.
今年二月，我接连赢得两面世界杯金牌，(掌声)这让我成为世界顶尖的女性身障滑雪板员。
Eleven years ago, when I lost my legs, I had no idea what to expect. But if you ask me today, if I would ever want to change my situation, I would have to say no. Because my legs haven't disabled me, if anything they've enabled me. They've forced me to rely on my imagination and to believe in the possibilities, and that's why I believe that our imaginations can be used as tools for breaking through borders, because in our minds, we can do anything and we can be anything.
我20xx年前失去双脚的时候，完全没想到会有这件事。但如果你今天问我，是否曾想过要改变处境，我会说不。因为我的双脚从未让我失能，反而赋予我能力。我的脚迫使我仰赖想象力，让我相信一切都有希望，因此我相信我们的想象力能够成为工具，用来打破藩篱，因为在我们心中，我们能做任何事，能成为各种人。
It's believing in those dreams and facing our fears head-on that allows us to live our lives beyond our limits. And although today is about innovation without borders, I have to say that in mylife, innovation has only been possible because of my borders. I've learned that borders are where the actual ends, but also where the imagination and the story begins.
是因为相信那些梦想，正视迎面而来的恐惧，让每个人能活出自我，超越极限。虽然今天的主题是关于创新无界线，但我得说在我的生活中创新能实现正是因为我的限制。我一直以为限制就是真正的尽头，但其实限制是想象力与故事的开端。
So the thought that I would like to challenge you with today is that maybe instead of looking at our challenges andour limitations as something negative or bad, we can begin to look at them as blessings, magnificent gifts that can be used to ignite our imaginations and help us go further than we ever knew we could go. It's not about breaking down borders. It's about pushing off of them and seeing what amazing places they might bring us. Thank you.
今天我想挑战你们的观点就是与其把我们的挑战和限制视为某种负面或不好的事，我们可以开始将这些事视为祝福，是能点燃想象力的珍贵礼物，帮助我们不再画地自限，走得更远。这并不是指要打破限制，而是要跳脱限制，看限制能带我们到什么好地方去。谢谢。