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MY SCHOOLMISTRESS OF THE UPPER FIRST.

我二年级的女老师

Thursday, 27th.

星期四,27日

My schoolmistress has kept her promise which she made, and came Today just as I was on the point of going out with my mother to carry some linen to a poor woman recommended by the Gazette. It was a year since I had seen her in our house. We all made a great deal of her. She is just the same as ever, a little thing, with a green veil wound about her bonnet, carelessly dressed, and with untidy hair, because she has not time to keep herself nice; but with a little less color than last year, with some white hairs, and a constant cough. My mother said to her:—

我的女老师信守诺言,今天上门来拜访,正巧碰上我和母亲正要外出,我们要带一些亚麻布给《公报》上报道过的一位贫困的妇女。从老师上次来我家,已经有一年了。我们都盛情招待她。她模样一如往昔,身材瘦小,帽子上缠绕着一条绿色的面纱,衣着随意,头发凌乱,因为她没功夫精心打扮自己。但是她脸色比去年稍显黯淡,多了些白发,时不时地咳嗽一下。我母亲对她说:

"And your health, my dear mistress? You do not take sufficient care of yourself!"

“那么,你的健康怎样,我亲爱的老师?你对自己照顾得不够!”

"It does not matter," the other replied, with her smile, at once cheerful and melancholy.

“没关系的,”老师笑着答道,欢乐中带着一丝忧伤。

"You speak too loud," my mother added; "you exert yourself too much with your boys."

“你讲话太大声了,”母亲补充道,“你对学生们太费心力了。”

That is true; her voice is always to be heard; I remember how it was when I went to school to her; she talked and talked all the time, so that the boys might not divert their attention, and she did not remain seated a moment. I felt quite sure that she would come, because she never forgets her pupils; she remembers their names for years; on the days of the monthly examination, she runs to ask the director what marks they have won; she waits for them at the entrance, and makes them show their compositions, in order that she may see what progress they have made; and many still come from the gymnasium to see her, who already wear long trousers and a watch. Today she had come back in a great state of excitement, from the picture-gallery, whither she had taken her boys, just as she had conducted them all to a museum every Thursday in years gone by, and explained everything to them. The poor mistress has grown still thinner than of old. But she is always brisk, and always becomes animated when she speaks of her school. She wanted to have a peep at the bed on which she had seen me lying very ill two years ago, and which is now occupied by my brother; she gazed at it for a while, and could not speak. She was obliged to go away soon to visit a boy belonging to her class, the son of a saddler, who is ill with the measles; and she had besides a package of sheets to correct, a whole evening's work, and she has still a private lesson in arithmetic to give to the mistress of a shop before nightfall.

那是真的,大家总能听见她的声音。我还记得做她的学生时的情形,她一直地讲啊讲啊,使得学生们没法分散注意力,她一刻也不曾坐下来。我相当肯定她会来拜访,因为她从不会忘记自己的学生,过了好多年都还能记得学生的名字。在月考的那天,她会跑去向校长问学生的成绩。她在校门口等学生,叫他们给她看他们写的作文,这样她就能知道他们进步了多少。很多已经穿上长裤、戴上手表的学生仍然从中学跑回来看她。多年来,每个星期四她都会带学生们去参观一个博物馆,并把一切解释给他们听。今天她刚领着学生们去参观了画廊,兴高采烈地回来了。可怜的老师上了年纪,愈加消瘦了。但她总是那样活泼,谈起学校的时候她总是兴致勃勃的。两年前我重病,她来看过我,她想看一眼我当时躺的床。那床现在已经归我弟弟睡了,她凝视了它好一会儿,没能说出话来。她必须离开了,因为还要去拜访一个自己班上的学生,他是马贩的儿子,患了麻疹;另外她还有一叠作业要批改,要干上一整晚了;在天黑前,她还要给一家店铺的老板娘做家教,补习算术。

"Well, Enrico," she said to me as she was going, "are you still fond of your schoolmistress, now that you solve difficult problems and write long compositions?" She kissed me, and called up once more from the foot of the stairs: "You are not to forget me, you know, Enrico!" Oh, my kind teacher, never, never will I forget thee! Even when I grow up I will remember thee and will go to seek thee among thy boys; and every time that I pass near a school and hear the voice of a schoolmistress, I shall think that I hear thy voice, and I shall recall the two years that I passed in thy school, where I learned so many things, where I so often saw thee ill and weary, but always earnest, always indulgent, in despair when any one acquired a bad trick in the writing-fingers, trembling when the examiners interrogated us, happy when we made a good appearance, always kind and loving as a mother. Never, never shall I forget thee, my teacher!

“好吧,安利柯,”她临走时对我说,“既然你都能解决难的问题,也能写长篇的作文了,你还会喜爱你以前的老师吗?”她亲吻了我,在楼梯底下又向上叫我:“你可不要忘了我,你知道的,安利柯!”哦,我亲切的老师,我永远、永远不会忘记你的!即使我长大了,我还是会记得你,会在你的学生里找寻你;每当我路过一所学校,或是听到一位女老师的声音,我会把它当成听到了你的声音,我会回忆起在你那里学习的两年时光。那段时间我学到了很多的东西,我常常见你气色不好、满脸倦容,但对我们总是热心而宽容;一有学生养成不好的写字习惯时,你会忧心忡忡;当考试员考问我们的时候,你会担心得发抖;当我们表现出色时,你会满心欢喜;你总是像母亲一样和蔼、充满爱心。我永远、永远不会忘记你的,我的老师! LgdluGOLqL981O0T0efjUuggIImpPOsUAuzMmN/DgnEsygS1RPHLHvIz707Cw5Pu



IN AN ATTIC.

在阁楼里

Friday, 28th.

星期五,28日

Yesterday afternoon I went with my mother and my sister Sylvia, to carry the linen to the poor woman recommended by the newspaper: I carried the bundle; Sylvia had the paper with the initials of the name and the address. We climbed to the very roof of a tall house, to a long corridor with many doors. My mother knocked at the last; it was opened by a woman who was still young, blond and thin, and it instantly struck me that I had seen her many times before, with that very same blue kerchief that she wore on her head.

昨天下午,我同母亲、姐姐西尔维娅一起去送亚麻布品给报纸报道的那个贫困的妇女。我提着包裹,西尔维娅拿着写着这位妇女名字首字母和住址的纸条。我们爬上了一座高楼的顶部,有条走廊通向许多房间。母亲敲了最后一间的门。一个年轻的、瘦瘦的金发妇女打开了门,我立刻想起我以前见过她很多次,她头上总戴着这一条蓝色大方巾。

"Are you the person of whom the newspaper says so and so?" asked my mother.

“你是报纸上所说的那位吗?”我母亲问道。

"Yes, signora, I am."

“是的,夫人,我是。”

"Well, we have brought you a little linen." Then the woman began to thank us and bless us, and could not make enough of it. Meanwhile I espied in one corner of the bare, dark room, a boy kneeling in front of a chair, with his back turned towards us, who appeared to be writing; and he really was writing, with his paper on the chair and his inkstand on the floor. How did he manage to write thus in the dark? While I was saying this to myself, I suddenly recognized the red hair and the coarse jacket of Crossi, the son of the vegetable-pedler, the boy with the useless arm. I told my mother softly, while the woman was putting away the things.

“我们给你带了一些亚麻布品。”那位妇女开始感谢我们,并祝福我们,好像怎么感谢怎么祝福都不够似的。这时,我发现在这又空又暗的房间一角,一个男孩跪在一张椅子前面,背对着我们,好像在写字。他的确是在写字,把纸铺在椅子上,墨水瓶放在地板上。他是怎么做到在黑暗中写字的呢?正当我暗自思忖的时候,我突然认出了克洛西的红发和他粗劣的夹克,就是那个蔬菜小贩的儿子,一只手臂残疾的男孩。趁那个妇女把东西收好的时候,我轻声把这些告诉了母亲。

"Hush!" replied my mother; "perhaps he will feel ashamed to see you giving alms to his mother: don't speak to him."

“嘘!”母亲答道,“看到你送救济品给她母亲,他可能会感到难为情的,你别去和他讲话。”

But at that moment Crossi turned round; I was embarrassed; he smiled, and then my mother gave me a push, so that I should run to him and embrace him. I did embrace him: he rose and took me by the hand.

但恰在那时克洛西转过身来了。我很尴尬,他微笑着。这时母亲推了我一把,让我能跑过去拥抱他。我拥抱了他,他站起来握住了我的手。

"Here I am," his mother was saying in the meantime to my mother, "alone with this boy, my husband in America these seven years, and I sick in addition, so that I can no longer make my rounds with my vegetables, and earn a few cents. We have not even a table left for my poor Luigino to do his work on. When there was a bench down at the door, he could, at least, write on the bench; but that has been taken away. He has not even a little light so that he can study without ruining his eyes. And it is a mercy that I can send him to school, since the city provides him with books and copy-books. Poor Luigino, who would be so glad to study! Unhappy woman, that I am!"

“我在这里,”他母亲正对我母亲说,“和这孩子相依为命,我丈夫去美国已经七年了,我又病了,再也不能挑着菜四处叫卖来糊口了。我们连桌子没剩下一张,没法让我可怜的路易吉诺在桌子上写功课。以前门下还有条长凳,他至少能在那上面写字,但是现在那个也被拿走了。他连一盏小灯都没有,这么个学习法,眼睛都要坏了。幸亏市政府给他提供书本和字帖,我才能送他去上学。可怜的路易吉诺,他多么喜欢读书啊!我真是个不幸的女人!”

My mother gave her all that she had in her purse, kissed the boy, and almost wept as we went out. And she had good cause to say to me: "Look at that poor boy; see how he is forced to work, when you have every comfort, and yet study seems hard to you! Ah! Enrico, there is more merit in the work which he does in one day, than in your work for a year. It is to such that the first prizes should be given!"

母亲把钱包里所有的钱都给了她,亲吻了那个男孩。我们走出去的时候,母亲几乎快哭出来了。她语重心长地对我说:“瞧瞧那个可怜的男孩,瞧瞧他是怎么被迫去学习的,而你养尊处优,还抱怨学习对你来说太难!啊!安利柯,他学习一天的功劳比你学习一年的还要多。像这种孩子才应该被授予头奖啊!” LgdluGOLqL981O0T0efjUuggIImpPOsUAuzMmN/DgnEsygS1RPHLHvIz707Cw5Pu

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