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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！