名人小故事 文人骚客 2：Magic Mother: J. K. Rowling 魔法妈妈：J.K.罗琳

Magic Mother: J. K. Rowling

魔法妈妈：J.K.罗琳

Joanne Kathleen Rowling entered the world in Chipping Sudbury General Hospital in England, a fitting beginning for someone who would later enjoy making up strange names for people, places and games played on flying broomsticks. Her younger sister was born just under two years later.

乔安•凯瑟琳•罗琳出生在英格兰的一家综合医院 里，这对一个后来喜欢给别人起奇怪名字，喜欢坐着扫 帚到处孔跑的小姑娘来说，是个合适的开始;；她的妹 妹两年后来到这个世上。

Rowling remembers that she always wanted to write and that the first story she actually wrote down, when she was five or six, was a story about a rabbit called Rabbit. Many of her favorite memories center around reading — hearing stories read aloud by her father when she had the measles, enjoying the fantastic adventure stories, reveling in the magical world and her favorite story of all, The Little White Horse.

罗琳记得她从小就喜欢写作，5、6岁时就已经写了 一篇跟兔子有关的故事。小时候美好的记忆似乎总是围 绕阅读的——得麻疹时听爸爸大声讲故事，读那些奇异 的冒险故事，沉浸在奇妙的故事世界里。她最喜欢的故 事是《小白马》。

At University Rowling took her degree in French and spent one year studying in Paris. After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary. The best thing about working in an office, she has said, was typing up stories on the computer when no one was watching. During this time, on a particularly long train ride from Manchester to London in the summer of 1990, the idea came to her of a boy who is a wizard. He attends a school for wizardry — she could see him very plainly in her mind. By the time the train pulled into King’s Cross Station four hours later, many of the characters and the early stages of the plot were fully formed in her head. The story took further shape as she continued working on it in pubs and cafes over her lunch hours.

大学里，罗琳主修法语，并在巴黎留学一年。毕业 后，她搬去伦敦，在国际特救组织担任调查员和双语秘 书。罗琳回忆说，那段时间最有趣的事情就是趁办公室 没人的时候在电脑上打小说。1990年夏天，罗琳坐在由 曼彻斯特出发前往伦敦的火车上，哈利•波特闯入了她 的生命。她可以在脑海里清晰地勾画他的模样，看到他 进入魔法学校。4小时后，当火车驶入国王十字车站时， 大部分人物和故事的前期框架已经在她的脑海里完全形 成了。当她午餐时间坐在咖啡馆里继续构思时，故事的 结构变得更加清晰。

In 1992 Rowling left off working in offices and moved to Portugal to teach English as a Second Language. In spite of her students making jokes about her name (this time they called her “Rolling Stone”)，she enjoyed teaching. She worked afternoons and evenings, leaving mornings free for writing. After her marriage to a Portuguese TV journalist ended in divorce, Rowling returned to Britain with her infant daughter and a suitcase full of Harry Potter notes and chapters. She settled in Edinburgh to be near her sister and set out to finish the book before looking for a teaching job.Wheeling her daughter’s carriage around the city to escape their tiny, cold apartment, she would duck into coffee shops to write when the baby fell asleep. In this way she finished the book and started sending it to publishers. It was rejected several times before she found an London agent, chosen because she liked his name — Christopher Little, who sold the manuscript to Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

1992年，罗琳结束了白领生涯，前往葡萄牙做英语 教师，这是她的第二语言。尽管学生们常拿她的名字开 玩笑，叫她滚石（英语中Rowling与rolling同音），她 仍然非常喜欢教书。她下午和晚上去学校工作，而上午 的自由时间用来写作。不久，她与一名葡萄牙的电视台 记者结婚，但这段婚姻最终以离婚告终。离婚后，罗琳带着女儿和满满一箱子哈利•波特的笔记与手稿回到了 英国。为了能住得离妹妹近些，罗琳在爱丁堡定居下 来，准备在找到新工作前完成这部小说。她常常用手推 车推着女儿四处闲逛，只是为了逃离又小又冷的公寓。 她常常会躲到咖啡馆里，趁女儿睡着时写作。就这样， 罗琳在咖啡馆里完成了哈利•波特的创作，开始寻找出 版商。但她的稿件被几次退回，直到她找到了一个伦敦 的经纪人。罗琳之所以会找到他，仅仅是因为喜欢他可 爱的名字一克里斯多夫•里特，他把手稿卖给了布鲁 姆斯伯里儿童书籍出版商。

Rowling was working as a French teacher when she heard that her book about the boy wizard had been accepted for publication. Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone was published in June 1997 and achieved almost instant success. With the publication of the American edition, retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer，s Stone, in 1998, Rowling’s books continued to make publishing history. Harry Potter climbed to the top of all the bestseller lists for children’s and adult books. Indeed, the story of the boy wizard, his Cinder lad childhood, and his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry caught the imagination of readers of all ages. In Britain a separate edition of the first book appeared with a more “adult” dust jacket so that grown-ups reading it on trains and subways would not have to hide their copy behind a newspaper.

当罗琳得知这本关于小巫师的小说被出版商接受 时，她正在一所学校教法语。1997年6月，《哈利•波 特与哲学家的石头》一出版，就大获成功。1998年，随 着美国版本的出现，这本书被重新命名为《哈利•波特与 魔法石》，罗琳的书继续创造着出版界的历史。《哈利•波 特》登上了儿童与成人书籍最佳销售榜的首位。确实，. 这个小巫师的故事，他灰姑娘一样的童年，和他在霍格 华兹魔法学校的历险引发了各个年龄段读者丰富的想象 力。在英国，出版商出版了一种更成人化封面的版本， 使得大人们在火车或者地铁里阅读此书时而不用把书藏 在报纸后面。

What is the secret of Rowling’s success? Many people think that the stories sell well because they are full of exciting action and they appeal to readers of all ages. But in an interview, Rowling said, “The books are really about the power of the imagination. Deep down, everyone wants to be like Harry. Readers can identify with his courage to face danger and overcome problems.” And it was not Harry Potter who rescued Rowling, but exactly herself.

罗琳成功的秘诀是什么？许多人认为《哈利•波特》 的畅销归功于引人入胜的情节，而且老少皆宜。但在一 次采访中，罗琳说：“这些故事讲的是想象的力量。其实 在每个人心底，大家都想成为哈利。他直面危险、克服 困难的勇气，令读者产生了共鸣。”可以说成就罗琳的 不是《哈利•波特》，而是罗琳自己。