My duty will be to develop these germs: surely I shall find some happiness in discharging that office.

我的职责是帮助这些萌芽成长，当然在尽责时我能获得某种愉快。

Much enjoyment I do not expect in the life opening before me:

但我并不期望从展现在我面前的生活中尝到多大乐趣。

yet it will, doubtless, if I regulate my mind, and exert my powers as I ought, yield me enough to live on from day to day.

不过无疑要是我调节自己的心态，尽力去做，它也会给我以足够的酬报，让我一天天生活下去。

Was I very gleeful, settled, content, during the hours I passed in yonder bare, humble schoolroom this morning and afternoon?

今天上午和下午我在那边四壁空空、简陋不堪的教室里度过的几小时，难道自己就快乐、安心、知足吗，

Not to deceive myself, I must reply -- No: I felt desolate to a degree.

为了不自欺欺人，我得回答——没有。我觉得有些孤寂。

I felt -- yes, idiot that I am -- I felt degraded.

我感到——是呀．自己真愚蠢——我感到有失身份。

I doubted I had taken a step which sank instead of raising me in the scale of social existence.

我对周围见到和听到的无知、贫穷和粗俗略微有点失望。

I was weakly dismayed at the ignorance, the poverty, the coarseness of all I heard and saw round me.

我怀疑我所跨出的一步不是提高而是降低了自己的社会地位。

But let me not hate and despise myself too much for these feelings;

但别让我因为这些情感而痛恨和蔑视自己。

I know them to be wrong -- that is a great step gained; I shall strive to overcome them.

我知道这些情感是不对的——这是一大进步。我要努力驱除这些情感。

To-morrow, I trust, I shall get the better of them partially;

我相信明天我将部分地战胜它们；

and in a few weeks, perhaps, they will be quite subdued.

几周之后或许完全征服它们；

In a few months, it is possible, the happiness of seeing progress,

几个月后，我会高兴地看到进步，

and a change for the better in my scholars may substitute gratification for disgust.

看到学生们大有进展，于是满意就会取代厌恶了。

Meantime, let me ask myself one question-

同时，也让我问自己一个问题