Like that of her own character, Harry¹ Potter, J. K. Rowling's life has the luster² of a fairy tale.

J. K. 罗琳的生活就像她创造的人物哈里· 波特一样, 颇具童话色彩。

Divorced, living on public assistance in a tiny Edinburgh flat with her little daughter, Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a table in a café during her daughter's naps -- and it was Harry Potter that rescued her. First, the Scottish Ants Council gave her a grant to finish the book. After its sale to Bloomsbury(UK) and Scholastic³ Books, the accolades⁴ began to pile up. Harry Potter won The British Book Awards Children's Book of the year, and the Smarties Prize, and rave⁵ reviews on both sides of the Atlantic.

离异后, 她带着年幼的女儿靠政府救济居住在爱丁堡的小小公寓里。《哈利· 波特和魔法石》是她趁着女儿午睡时, 在一家小咖啡馆的桌子上写成的。正是《哈利· 波特》挽救了她。最初, 苏格兰艺术协会资助她完成了该书。书稿卖给英国的布卢母斯伯里出版社和学究书籍出版社以后, 荣誉纷至沓来。该书不仅获得年度英国儿童图书奖和史玛提斯童书奖, 也得到了大西洋两岸的盛赞。

A graduate of Exeter University, a teacher, and then unemployed⁶ single parent, Rowling wrote Harry Potter when "I was very low, and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark⁷ raving⁸ mad." But Rowling has always written books, and her first book was called Rabbit. "I was about six, and I haven't stopped scribbling⁹ since."

罗琳毕业于埃克塞特大学, 毕业后当了一名老师, 后来就成了失业的单身母亲。罗琳说:“ 写《哈里· 波特》时, 我情绪低落, 我必须做点什么。没有挑战的话, 我会变成胡言乱语的十足的疯子。”其实罗琳一直在写作, 她的第一本书名为《兔子》。“ 那时我大约六岁,从此我就没停止过涂鸦。”

The following is an abstract from what J. K. Rowling wrote about herself. From which we might keep track with the growth of the person who gave birth to the living ambition of the world, Harry Potter the Little Wizard.

下面文字节选自罗琳的自述。我们或许可以从中找到她成长的轨迹, 正是她创造了小魔法师哈利· 波特, 点燃了全世界人的梦想。

I wrote a lot in my teens, but I never showed any of it to my friends ... I went to Exeter University straight after school, where I studied French. This was a big mistake. I had listened too hard to my parents, who thought languages would lead to a great career as a bilingual secretary. Unfortunately I am one of the most disorganized people in the world and, as I later proved, the worst secretary ever.

我少年时写了很多东西, 但从未给朋友们看过...... 中学毕业后我直接上了埃克塞特大学, 学了法语。这是个天大的错误。我父母认为学好语言可以从事好职业, 做双语秘书。我顺从了他们。遗憾的是我是这世界上最缺乏条理的人, 事实也证明我是最糟糕的秘书。

When I was twenty-six I gave up on offices completely and went abroad to teach English as a foreign language. I loved teaching English, and as I worked afternoons and evenings, I had mornings free for writing. This was particularly good news as I had now started my third novel. The new book was about a boy who found out he was a wizard and was to wizard school. When I came back from Portugal half a suitcase was full of papers covered with short stories about Harry Potter. I came to live in Edinburgh with my very small daughter, I set myself a deadline; I would finish the Harry novel before starting work as a French teacher, and try to get it published.

二十六岁时, 我完全放弃了文秘工作, 到国外教英语。我爱教英语, 因为中午和晚上工作, 早上就可以写作。这对我来说非常好, 因为当时我已经开始写第三本小说了。新书讲的是一个小孩, 发现自己有魔法, 然后进了魔法学校。我从葡萄牙回国时, 已经装了半行李箱哈里· 波特故事的原稿。之后, 我带着年幼的女儿来到爱丁堡生活, 并且给了自己一个最后期限: 在开始教法语之前完成《哈利· 波特》, 然后设法出版。

It was a year after finishing the book before a publisher bought it. The moment when I found out that Harry would be published was one of the best of my life.

故事写完一年后, 一个出版商买下了这本书。而得知《哈利· 波特》要出版是我一生中最美妙的时刻。