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Coretti was pleased this morning, because his master of the second class, Coatti, a big man, with a huge head of curly hair, a great black beard, big dark eyes, and a voice like a cannon, had come to assist in the work of the monthly examination. He is always threatening the boys that he will break them in pieces and carry them by the nape of the neck to the quæstor, and he makes all sorts of frightful faces; but he never punishes any one, but always smiles the while behind his beard, so that no one can see it. There are eight masters in all, including Coatti, and a little, beardless assistant, who looks like a boy. There is one master of the fourth class, who is lame and always wrapped up in a big woollen scarf, and who is always suffering from pains which he contracted when he was a teacher in the country, in a damp school, where the walls were dripping with moisture. Another of the teachers of the fourth is old and perfectly white-haired, and has been a teacher of the blind. There is one well-dressed master, with eye-glasses, and a blond mustache, who is called the little lawyer, because, while he was teaching, he studied law and took his diploma; and he is also making a book to teach how to write letters. On the other hand, the one who teaches gymnastics is of a soldierly type, and was with Garibaldi, and has on his neck a scar from a sabre wound received at the battle of Milazzo. Then there is the head-master, who is tall and bald, and wears gold spectacles, with a gray beard that flows down upon his breast; he dresses entirely in black, and is always buttoned up to the chin. He is so kind to the boys, that when they enter the director's room, all in a tremble, because they have been summoned to receive a reproof, he does not scold them, but takes them by the hand, and tells them so many reasons why they ought not to behave so, and why they should be sorry, and promise to be good, and he speaks in such a kind manner, and in so gentle a voice, that they all come out with red eyes, more confused than if they had been punished.
可莱谛今天早晨很高兴，因为他三年级时的老师科伊蒂协助月考工作来了。他是一个大块头的男人，硕大的头上留着卷发，蓄着一大把黑色胡须，长着大大的黑眼睛，说起话来声音响如大炮。他常常恐吓男孩们，说要把他们撕成碎片，然后提着他们的颈背去交给警察。他还会做出各种各样可怕的鬼脸。但是他从不惩罚任何人，却总在胡须后偷笑，这样就没人能看到了。总共来了八位老师，包括科伊蒂和一位小个子的年轻助手，他看上去像个小男孩。有一位是五年级的老师，他脚有些跛，总是围着一条大羊毛围巾，一直饱受着从事乡间教师工作时染上的病痛的折磨。那是一所潮湿的学校，墙壁都潮湿得滴水。另外一位五年级的老师是一位白发苍苍的老先生，以前曾当过盲人的老师。有一位穿着考究的老师，戴着眼镜，留着淡黄色的胡子，被大家称为“小律师”，因为他一边教书，一边学习法律，还拿了文凭。他还在撰写一本关于怎样写信的书。在另一方面，教体育的老师以前是军人，曾在加里波第将军的麾下效力，他脖子上有条伤疤，是米拉佐战役中受的刀伤。还有一位就是校长先生，高个子、秃头，戴着金框眼镜，灰白的胡须一直垂到胸前。他穿全黑的衣服，纽扣一直扣到颏下。他对男孩们相当宽容，他们走进校长室的时候全都是战战兢兢的，因为他们以为是被叫去训话的，他却不训斥他们，只是握住他们的手，给他们讲很多很多的道理，告诉他们为什么不应该那样做，为什么他们应该觉得抱歉，还叫他们以后要做好孩子，他说话时态度那样和蔼，声音那样温柔，以至于孩子们出来时都红着眼睛，比受了惩罚还要慌乱。
Poor head-master! he is always the first at his post in the morning, waiting for the scholars and lending an ear to the parents; and when the other masters are already on their way home, he is still hovering about the school, and looking out that the boys do not get under the carriage-wheels, or hang about the streets to stand on their heads, or fill their bags with sand or stones; and the moment he makes his apperance at a corner, so tall and black, flocks of boys scamper off in all directions, abandoning their games of coppers and marbles, and he threatens them from afar with his forefingers, with his sad and loving air. No one has ever seen him smile, my mother says, since the death of his son, who was a volunteer in the army: he always keeps the latter's portrait before his eyes, on a little table in the head-master's room. He wanted to go away after this misfortune; he prepared his application for retirement to the Municipal Council, and kept it always on his table, putting off sending it from day to day, because it grieved him to leave the boys. But the other day he seemed undecided; and my father, who was in the director's room with him, was just saying to him, "What a shame it is that you are going away, Signor Director!" when a man entered for the purpose of inscribing the name of a boy who was to be transferred from another schoolhouse to ours, because he had changed his residence. At the sight of this boy, the head-master made a gesture of astonishment, gazed at him for a while, gazed at the portrait that he keeps on his little table, and then stared at the boy again, as he drew him between his knees, and made him hold up his head. This boy resembled his dead son. The head-master said, "It is all right," wrote down his name, dismissed the father and son, and remained absorbed in thought. "What a pity that you are going away!" repeated my father. And then the head-master took up his application for retirement, tore it in two, and said, "I shall remain."
可怜的校长先生啊！他总是清晨第一个到岗的人，等着学生来上课，候着家长们来谈话。当其他老师都已经下班回家的时候，他仍在学校附近巡视着，以防学生被马车车轮轧到，或是在街头闲逛、倒立，或是往书包里装满沙子和小石头。他在街角出现的那个瞬间，身影又高又黑，男孩们就会丢弃铜板和弹珠的游戏，向四处奔逃，他会远远地伸出食指吓唬他们，表情却是难过而充满慈爱的。我母亲说，从他志愿当兵的儿子死去的那天起，就没人见过他笑了：他总是把爱儿的肖像摆在眼前，就在校长室的小办公桌上。遭遇这不幸之后他想辞职。他已把提交给市政委员会的退休申请写好，一直放在办公桌上，却一日一日地延迟寄信的时间，因为他不忍心与孩子们分离。不久前的一天，他看上去很犹豫不决。我父亲在校长室与他谈话，正对他说：“您要辞职了，真是太令人惋惜了，校长先生！”正在这时，一个男人走进来，要给因为搬家而刚从其他学校转来的儿子登记姓名。一看见这男孩，校长露出惊讶的表情，盯着他看了一会儿，然后看了看他小办公桌上的肖像，又凝视那个男孩，把他拉过来靠近自己的两膝之间，让他抬起头来。这个男孩很像他死去的儿子。校长说：“可以了。”然后写下了他的名字，让父子俩回去了，继续陷入沉思。“您要辞职，真是可惜啊！”我父亲重复道。接着，校长拿起他的辞职申请，撕成两半，说道：“我要留下。”