While on a train at age 25, an idea struck J.K. Rowling like a bolt of lightning: Boy doesn't know he's a wizard goes to wizard school. Not having a pen on her at the time, Rowling sat on the train as the ideas came flooding in. That night, she began writing her first book—Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. She didn't know it at the time, but years later, those very words would spark the imagination of millions of children worldwide.
25 歲的 J.K. 羅琳坐在火車上時，一個想法如閃電般閃過腦中：一名不知道自己是巫師的男孩到巫師學校上學。當時羅琳手邊沒有筆，靈感源源不絕流瀉進來時她正坐在火車上。當晚，她開始著手寫她的第一本書－－《哈利波特：神秘的魔法石》。當時她不知道，但幾年後，書中的那些文字點燃了世上幾百萬名孩子的想像力。
Shortly after she began writing, however, her mother passed away. Regrettably, Rowling had never shared with her mother the wonders of Harry Potter. The years after her mother's passing were hard for Rowling. As a struggling writer, she married and had her first child. However, the marriage was short-lived. Reflecting on this period, Rowling says, "I'd failed on an epic scale." In her own words, this is when she entered the darkest period of her life and questioned whether she would get through it.
然而，在她開始寫書後不久，她的母親就過世了。遺憾的是，羅琳從未將《哈利波特》的成功奇景和她母親分享。母親離世後的日子對羅琳來說不是很好過。這位刻苦掙扎的作家之後結了婚，並有了第一個孩子。然而，這段婚姻卻很短暫。回顧這段時期，羅琳說：「我失敗得一塌糊塗。」在她自己的說法，她在這段時間進入了人生最黑暗的時期，並質疑自己是否能撐過去。
Amidst the darkness, Rowling found comfort in her writing and went on to complete the Harry Potter series. These very years, the ones that tested her resolve and inner strength, formed much of her writing and ultimately how the series would unfold. Many of the characters and creatures that make up the wizarding world arose from this dark period of her life. She would later reflect, the books wouldn't be what they are if she hadn't have died. I mean, her death is virtually on every other page of the Harry Potter books.
在這段黑暗期，羅琳在書寫中找到慰藉，並繼續完成《哈利波特》系列小說。就是這幾年，考驗她的決心和內在力量的幾年，成就了她大部分的寫作，以及系列故事最終展開的方式。構成巫師世界的許多角色和生物是從她人生這段黑暗期中誕生的。她之後回想，如果她沒有死去過，這些書不會是現在的樣子。我的意思是，《哈利波特》書籍中幾乎每隔幾頁就能看到她的毀滅。
Harry Potter has since become the best-selling book series in history. The books have sold over 400 million copies, and the movie series has grossed 5.3 billion dollars in total. Rowling is now credited with doing more for childhood literacy than any other person in history. She now views her dark period as providing the very direction she needed to focus on the only work that mattered to her: being a mother and telling great stories.
《哈利波特》自此成了史上最暢銷的系列作品。小說銷售量超過四億本，電影系列也總共賺進五十三億美元。現在人們認為，羅琳在兒童的識字能力方面貢獻良多，比起史上其他人都更多。現在，她認為自己的那段黑暗期正好提供了她所需要的方向，讓她專注在對她來說唯一重要的工作：做好一個母親，並說出很棒的故事。
"And so rock bottom became the solid foundation upon which I rebuilt my life," Rowling acknowledges. In life, it is not what happens to us that matters, but rather how we choose to interpret what happens, and therefore who we become as a result. You know you've found the hidden wisdom in your deepest scar, when you view it as your greatest gift.
「所以人生的谷底成為我重建人生的穩固基石。」羅琳承認。人生中，重要的不是我們發生了什麼事情，而是我們選擇如何詮釋這些事，並且最終成為怎麼樣的人。當你將最深的傷口視為最棒的禮物，你就知道你已經找到了其中深藏的智慧。
