POETRY.

诗

Friday, 26th.

26日，星期五

You are now beginning to comprehend the poetry of school, Enrico; but at present you only survey the school from within. It will seem much more beautiful and more poetic to you twenty years from now, when you go thither to escort your own boys; and you will then survey it from the outside, as I do. While waiting for school to close, I wander about the silent street, in the vicinity of the edifice, and lay my ear to the windows of the ground floor, which are screened by Venetian blinds.

安利柯啊！你似已渐能了解学校生活有诗的情味了。但你所见的还只是学校的内部。再过二十年，到你领了自己的儿子到学校里去的时候，学校将比你现在所见的更美，更为诗意了。那时，你就像现在的我，能见到学校的外部。我在等你退课的时候，常到学校周围去散步，侧耳听听里面，很是有趣。

At one window I hear the voice of a schoolmistress saying: "Ah, what a shape for a t! It won't do, my dear boy! What would your father say to it?" At the next window there resounds the heavy voice of a master, which is saying: "I will buy fifty metres of stuff at four lire and a half the metre and sell it again." Further on there is the mistress with the red feather, who is reading aloud: "Then Pietro Micca, with the lighted train of powder." From the adjoining class-room comes the chirping of a thousand birds, which signifies that the master has stepped out for a moment.

从一个窗口里，听到女先生的话声：“呀！有这样的 T 字的吗？这不好。你父亲看见了将怎么说啊！”从别个窗口里又听到男先生的粗大的声音：“现在买了五十英尺的布——每尺费钱三角——再将布卖出——”后来，又听那戴红羽毛的女先生大声地读着课本：“于是，彼得洛·弥卡用了那点着火的火药线。”间壁的教室好像无数小鸟在叫，大概先生偶然外出了吧。

I proceed onward, and as I turn the corner, I hear a scholar weeping, and the voice of the mistress reproving and comforting him. From the lofty windows issue verses, names of great and good men, fragments of sentences which inculcate virtue, the love of country, and courage. Then ensue moments of silence, in which one would declare that the edifice is empty, and it does not seem possible that there should be seven hundred boys within; noisy outbursts of hilarity become audible, provoked by the jest of a master in a good humor.

再转过墙角，看见一个学生正哭，听到女先生劝说他的话声。从楼上窗口传出来的是读韵文的声调，伟人善人的名氏，以及奖励道德、爱国、勇气的语音。过了一会儿，一切都静了，静得像这座大屋中没有一人一样，叫人不相信里面有七百个小孩。这时，先生偶然说一句可笑的话。笑声就同时哄起。