《爱的教育（CUORE）》，意大利，埃德蒙多-德-亚米契斯
Monday, 17th
Today is the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. These three months of vacation in the country have passed like a dream. This morning my mother conducted me to the Baretti schoolhouse to have me enter for the third elementary course. I was thinking of the country and went unwillingly. All the streets were swarming with boys: the two book-shops were thronged with fathers and mothers who were purchasing bags, portfolios, and copy-books, and in front of the school so many people had collected, that the beadle and the policeman found it difficult to the entrance disencumbered. Near the door, I felt myself touched on the shoulder: it was my master of the second class, cheerful, as usual, and with his red hair ruffled, and he said to me:
"So we are seperated forever, Enrico?"
- conduct ：organize and carry out (manage, direct)
- swarming：a large number of animate or inanimate things massed together and usually in motion
- throng：a crowding together of many persons
- portfolio：a hinged cover or flexible case for carrying loose papers, pictures, or pamphlets
- beadle：a minor parish official whose duties include ushering and preserving order at services and sometimes civil functions
- disencumber：to free from encumbrance
- encumber: to burden with a legal claim (such as a mortgage)
- ruffle: an unevenness or disturbance of surface
I knew it perfectly well, yet these words pained me. We made our way in with difficulty. Ladies, gentlemen, women of the people, workmen, officials, nuns, servants, all leading boys with one hand, and holding the promotion books in the other, filled the anteroom and the stairs, making such a buzzing, that is seemed as though one were entering a theatre. I beheld again with pleasure that large room on the ground floor, with the doors leading to the seven classes, where I had passed nearly every day for three years.There was a throng; the teachers were going and coming. My schoolmistress of the first upper class greeted me from the door for the classroom, and said:
- perfectly : to a complete or adequate extent
- pain: acute mental or emotional distress or suffering
- nun: a member of a religious community of women, especially a cloistered one, living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
- anteroom: a small outer room that leads to another room and that is often used as a waiting room
- behold: see or observe (a thing or person, especially a remarkable or impressive one).
- greet: to meet or react to in a specified manner
"Enrico, you are going to the floor above this year. I shall never see you pass by any more!" and she gazed sadly at me.The director was surrounded by women in distress because there was no room for their sons, and it struck me that his beard was a little whiter than it had been last year. I found the boys had grown taller and stouter. On the ground floor, where the divisions had already been made, there were little children of the first and lowest section, who did not want to enter the class-rooms, and who resisted like donkeys: it was necessary to drag them in by force, and some escaped from the benches; others, when they saw their parents depart, began to cry, and the parents had to go back and comfort and reprimand them, and the teachers were in despair.
- distress: a painful situation (misfortune)
- stouter: physically or materially strong
- division: a group of organisms forming part of a larger group
- depart: to go away from (leave)
- comfort: to ease the grief or trouble of
- reprimand: a severe or formal reproof (blame)
- despair: to lose all hope or confidence
My little brother was placed in the class of Mistress Delcati: I was put with Master Perboni, up stairs on the first floor. At ten o'clock we were all in our classes: fifty-four of us; only fifteen or sixteen of my compainions of the second class, among them, Derossi, the one who always gets the first prize. The school seemd to me so small and gloomy when I thought of the woods and the mountains where I had passed the summer! I thought again, too, of my master in the second class, who was so good, and who always smiled at us, and was so small that he seemed to be one of us, and I grieved that I should no longer see him there, with his tumbled red hair. Our teacher is tall; he has no beard; his hair is gray and long; and he looks at us fixedly, one after the other, as though he were reading our inmost thoughts; and he never smiles. I said to myself: "This is my first day. There are nine months more. What toil, what monthly examinations, what fatigue!" I really needed to see my mother when I came out, and I ran to kiss her hand. She said to me:
"Courage, Enrico! We will study together." And I returned home content. But I no longer have my master, with his kind, merry smile, and school does not seem pleasant to me as it did before.
- gloomy : partially or totally dark
- grieve: to cause to suffer (distress)
- tumble: to fall suddenly and helplessly
- inmost: deepest within
- toil: exhausting physical labor.
- fatigue: extreme tiredness, typically resulting from mental or physical exertion or illness.
- content: in a state of peaceful happiness (satisfied)
- merry: giving pleasure (delightful)
星期一, 10月17日
译 | 刘年
今天是入学日。乡村的三个月假期就像一场梦一样过去了。清晨母亲带着我来到Baretti校区，开始三年级的课程学习。乡间的生活仍旧萦绕在脑海，我真不想去学校啊。街道上到处是人，两家书店挤满了购买书包文具的父母们，学校的大门也被人群拥堵住了，校方人员和警察正努力的维持入口处的通畅。靠近大门的时候，有人碰了一下我的肩膀，原来是我二年级的老师，还是老样子，红色的头发，微微卷起，脸上挂着笑容。他对我说道，
"Enrico, 我们要分开了，不能再教你了。"
我当然清楚，只是听他这么一说，难免有些难过起来。好不容易我们穿过人群进了学校，里面全是人：女士们、先生们、妇人们、职员们、修女们、佣人们，都一手拉着孩子，一手拿着书本，站在接待大厅和楼道上，人声鼎沸，仿佛置身戏院一般。站在大厅，眼前熟悉的场景让我心生欢喜。大厅连着七个教室，过去的三年这些教室都是我必经之地。大厅里全是人，老师们来来去去。这时教我一年级的女老师从一间教室的门口探出来和我打招呼：
"Enrico, 今年你要去楼上上课了，我们很难碰到了。"她看着我略显伤感。校长被一群焦虑的女士们团团围住了，因为学校没有更多的名额接收她们的孩子。我吃惊的发现，校长原本略显发白的胡须比起去年有白了些。同学们也都长高张壮了。一楼大厅基本上被刚入学的低年级孩子们占据了。有的不愿意进教室的；有的勉强拽进教室，跟犟驴似的，又从椅子上逃出来；还有些孩子，看见父母离开就开始哇哇大哭，父母们不得不重新回来，有的轻声安慰，有的严加训斥。最无奈的当属他们的老师了，个个满脸绝望。
我的弟弟被安排在Delcati女士的班上，而我则被安排在Perboni老师的班上，靠近一楼楼道的地方。十点整的时候，所有人都已经进了教室。我们班有五十四名同学，其中只有十五六名是以前二年级的同学，尖子生Derossi也还在。比起夏天乡间的花草树木和深山丛林，学校显得逼仄而昏暗。想起红头发的二年级老师，他个子不大，就像我们中的一个，总是和颜悦色，如今很难再看到他了，难免悲从中来。现在的老师是一个高个子男人，没有胡子，深灰色的长发。他板着脸把每个人都仔细的看了一遍，好像要把每个人内心看透一样。我默念道：“这只是新学期的第一天啊，后面还有九个月等着呢。还有每月的月考，真是苦差事啊！”一放学我就飞奔向我的母亲，亲吻她的手。母亲对我说：
"勇敢一点，Enrico！我们一起学习。" 我心满意足的回家了。想起再也看不到老师和蔼可亲的笑容，上学和之前比起来显得有些无趣了。
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