J.K. Rowling

In the small town of Edinburgh, Scotland, there was a business called Nicholson’s Cafe, which was not well known to anyone besides the locals in the 1990s.

Although Europeans enjoy drinking coffee, Austrian writer Stefan Zweig’s saying highlights the difficulty of the situation: “I am not in a cafe but on the way to the cafe.” It is not coffee drinking that people want so much as having an interesting experience while drinking coffee. Nicholson’s Cafe had attempted to make itself interesting by incorporating the local culture, but this had not brought it a lot of customers, and most of the time, it was always deserted.

However, the cafe did have at least one regular customer. A young mother would often visit this cafe, pushing her child along in a baby carriage.

She always sat down in the corner that faced the street. She would sometimes stare intently, in a thoughtful sort of way, at the scene on the street outside the glass window. Oftentimes she would urgently be recalled back to the real world by the baby’s crying, and would hurriedly rock the stroller to calm her down.

More often, she would pick up a pen and write something quickly on a piece of paper. Whenever she did so, she would hold onto the sheet tightly, as though it was something that could disappear.

Occasionally, the waiter in the cafe would come to her table and ask her what she needed. She would always raise her head in a panic and sometimes order the cheapest cup of coffee, as a way of paying for her seat, even though she was struggling for cash. Due to her finances, she would sometimes simply shake her head while looking nervously at the waiter.

Fortunately, the waiters never showed her any disrespect, which is almost equivalent to asking a guest to leave.

In any case, they always bowed to her with a smile on their faces and then retreated gracefully. The smile made her feel relieved, and she thanked them for their tolerance. She was grateful, too, that they did not judge her by her looks. She was ashamed of what she wore; because she was a single mother supporting herself and her young child on government benefits, she had no money to buy nice clothes.

The winters in Scotland are unbearably cold, and the apartment that she rented reflected that in its temperature. The cafe, on the other hand, was warm during the winter, and it boasted good tables where she could sit and write.

Even when life has gotten difficult, this does not prevent people from having dreams.

Her dream of becoming a published author was finally realized when she was 24 years old. A train from Manchester to London was delayed for 4 hours due to an accident. During that long wait, she stared at the grassland, forest, and blue sky outside the window. Suddenly, the image of a thin, black-haired little boy wearing glasses came into her mind. She had no pen and paper at hand, so she could not write it down. She could only imagine it in her mind.
She always had the urge to write, but life always seemed to be playing tricks on her in order to prevent her from fulfilling that dream. As a very young woman, she had gone to Portugal to work as a teacher. While there, she fell in love with a reporter, got married, and gave birth to a daughter. Then came the divorce. She was left with only the baby and a suitcase full of the fragments of novels she had written, and she saw no choice but to return to her hometown.

The real world had become so dark and cold that she yearned to escape from it; the world that she wrote about became her getaway. In this space constructed entirely from fantasy, she could explore her hopes, dreams, and feelings through her characters.

Thanks to the tolerance of Nicholson’s cafe, she was able to write her novel in peace. Doubtlessly the fact that her brother-in-law was one of the owners of this cafe encouraged them to be understanding; however, she was still grateful for the waiters’ respectful attitude. They were kind to everyone, and all customers, rich and poor alike, could bask in the peace and quiet.

After five years of work, the novel was finally completed; the dream of a woman in poverty has quietly spread its wings.

What happened next took her completely by surprise. After the usual difficulties, her book was published and then quickly became popular all over the world. In just a few years, her works were translated into more than 60 languages and sold more than 200 million copies. She became a billionaire in the blink of an eye.

She is J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter.

Although Rowling wrote about Harry Potter in many of the cafes in Edinburgh in her early years, Nicholson’s Cafe was her favorite place to work on the first Harry Potter book. Now the small town of Edinburgh where Rowling lives has lost its tranquility. Thousands of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling fans have come here to seek inspiration.

Sadly, Café Nicholson has since been replaced by other restaurants, but its story -how its tolerance of a poor patron led to such a great literary contribution- lives on.

A warm smile or a tolerant heart is a kind of encouragement to those who are dealing with poverty or adversity. As long as you don’t lose your dreams, everything can change.

The original Chinese article is from https://www.11i.info/diary-126311.html.

當咖啡館有了一顆寬容心

在蘇格蘭的愛丁堡小鎮上，有一家叫做尼科爾森的咖啡館 (Nicolson’s Cafe)，在上世紀90年代它一直默默無聞。

雖然歐洲人對喝咖啡情有獨鍾，就像奧地利作家茨威格所說：我不是在咖啡館裡，就在去咖啡館的路上。

但深厚的文化傳統並沒有給它帶來顧客盈門，在大多數時候，總是冷冷清清。

那時，常有一個年輕的母親，推著一輛嬰兒車光顧這家咖啡館。

她總是在臨街的一個角落裡坐下，有時凝神瞧著玻璃窗外街道上的景象，若有所思，有時又常被嬰兒的啼哭拉回到現實的世界裡，急忙搖動嬰兒車，以讓她能夠安靜下來。

更多的時候，她會拿起一支筆，隨便在順手抓過來的一張紙片上快速地寫著什麼，彷彿不緊緊地抓住，就會消失似的。

偶而，咖啡館的侍者會走到她的桌前，問她需要什麼，她總是會有些慌亂地抬起頭來，有時點上一杯最便宜的咖啡，有時乾脆搖搖頭，然後略顯緊張地看著侍者的表情。

還好，侍者們從未顯露過不屑或者鄙夷的樣子，那樣差不多就相當於逐客令了。

無論怎樣，他們總是面帶微笑地一躬身，然後優雅地退去。這微笑讓她鬆了一口氣，為他們不以貌取人的寬容獻上感恩。

她對自己的穿著的確沒有信心，因為她是一個單親母親，靠著領取政府的救濟金養活著自己和幼小的孩子。她沒有錢去購置衣服，像別的這個年齡的女人一樣，讓自己看上去更體面些。

蘇格蘭的冬天實在酷寒難耐，而她租住的公寓又小又冷，來到這咖啡館不僅可以取暖，而且能夠伸出手來，用筆寫出她的夢想。

是的，雖然生活有些艱難，但並不阻礙人有夢想。

她的夢萌芽在24歲那年，一列曼徹斯特開往倫敦的火車因意外而耽擱了4個小時，在漫長的等待中，她凝望著窗外的草地、森林和藍天，突然一個瘦弱、戴著眼鏡的黑髮小男孩的形象闖入了她的腦海，她的手邊沒有筆和紙，她無法把那映像寫下來，只有在頭腦裡天馬行空地想像，一個構思就這樣形成了。

她有了寫作的衝動，但生活似乎總在和她開玩笑，到葡萄牙當教師，和一個記者相愛，結婚，生下一個女兒。然後是離婚，左手抱著孩子，右手拎著裝著斷續寫下的小說碎片的皮箱，回到了故鄉的小鎮。

俗世的生活是如此陰暗寒冷，她想逃離，筆下的世界成為她的嚮往，只有在那個幻想的空間裡，她才能隨心所欲，通過那些人物，述說自己的遭遇和希望。

幸虧有了這家好心的咖啡館，儘管她經常佔據角落臨窗的座位一待就是幾個小時，儘管嬰兒時而尖厲的哭聲會打破這裡慣有的幽靜，儘管她只是有時點一杯最便宜的咖啡，但從來沒有遭到白眼、嘲笑和驅逐。雖然部分原因是，她的姐夫是這咖啡館的老闆之一，但侍者們對她寬容與恭敬的態度，讓她內心充滿感激。

它平和而慈愛，不嫌貧愛富，就像陽光，毫不吝惜地灑在每一個人身上，從來不管哪個人的口袋裡有多少錢。

一部歷時5年的小說，終於完成了; 一個身處貧困之中的女人的夢想也悄悄地展開了翅膀。

後來的事情是羞澀的她根本無法想像的，她的書幾經波折得以出版，隨後迅速風靡世界，短短幾年時間，她的作品被譯成60多種語言，在200多個國家和地區銷售達2億多冊，幾乎就是轉眼之間，她從不名一文，一下子擁有了10億美元的財富。

她就是《哈利•波特》(Harry Potter) 的作者－－羅琳 (J.K. Rowling)。

中文原文來自https://www.11i.info/diary-126311.html.