Part 3 The School

 

第三部分 学校

Yes, study comes hard to you, my dear Enrico, as your mother says. I do not yet see you set out for school with that resolute mind and that smiling face which I should like. You are still intractable. But listen; reflect a little! What a miserable, despicable thing your day would be if you did not go to school! At the end of a week you would beg with clasped hands that you might return there, for you would be eaten up with weariness and shame; disgusted with your sports and with your existence.

是的，学习对你来说是件难事，我亲爱的恩里科，就像你妈妈说的那样。我还没有看到你像我所希望的那样意志坚定，带着微笑去学校。你仍然是一副不情愿的样子。但是听着，反思一下！如果你不去上学，你的日子会多么痛苦，多么可怜呀！一个星期结束，你会合着手来乞求我让你回到学校的，因为你会被乏味和羞愧所吞没，你会对你的游戏感到厌倦，并且会讨厌自己的存在。

Everybody, everybody studies now, my child. Think of the workmen who go to school in the evening after having toiled all the day; think of the women, of the girls of the people, who go to school on Sunday, after having worked all the week; of the soldiers who turn to their books and copy-books when they return exhausted from their drill! Think of the dumb and of the boys who are blind, but who study, nevertheless; and last of all, think of the prisoners，who also learn to read and write. Reflect in the morning, when you set out，that at that very moment, in your own city, thirty thousand other boys are going like yourself, to shut themselves up in a room for three hours and study. Think of the innumerable boys who, at nearly this precise hour, are going to school in all countries. Behold them with your imagination, going, going, through the lanes of quiet villages; through the streets of the noisy towns, along the shores of rivers and lakes; here beneath a burning sun; there amid fogs, in boats, in countrieswhich are intersected with canals; on horseback on the far-reaching plains; in sledges over the snow; through valleys and over hills; across forests and torrents, over the solitary paths of mountains; alone, in couples, in groups, in long files, all with their books under their arms, clad in a thousand ways, speaking a thousand tongues, from the most remote schools in Russia almost lost in the ice to the furthermost schools of Arabia, shaded by palm-trees，millions and millions, all going to learn the same things, in a hundred varied forms. Imagine this vast, vast throng of boys of a hundred races, this immense movement of which you form a part, and think, if this movement were to cease, humanity would fall back into barbarism; this movement is the progress, the hope, the glory of the world.

每个人，现在每个人都在学习，我的孩子。想想工人们辛苦劳作一天后，晚上还去学校学习；想想妇女和普通百姓家的女孩们，她们劳动了一周，星期日还去上学；想想那些士兵，他们筋疲力尽地从操练场上回来，还照样看书做作业；想想那些说不了话、双目失明的孩子，他们却也仍在学习；最后，再想想那些囚犯，他们也在学习读书写字。每天早晨当你出门的时候，想一想：此时此刻，在你身处的城市里，有另外三万个小孩子和你一样正在去上学，把自己关在教室里学习三个小时。想想世界各地数不尽数的孩子们，就在这一时刻，也正在赶往学校的路上。发挥你的想象，看看他们！他们有的正穿行于安静山村的小巷，有的正沿着河边或湖岸，行走在热闹城镇的街道上；这里的孩子在严严烈日下走着，那边的孩子正在迷雾中前行，乘着小船，在河道密集的乡间穿梭；有的骑在马背上，在一望无际的草原上驰骋；有的乘坐雪橇，在雪地里飞奔；有的越过山涧、翻过高山，有的穿过森林、渡过洪流，在偏僻的山路上迈着步。他们有的独自一人，有的三五成群，有的排成长队，所有孩子的胳膊下都夹着书本。他们穿着各式各样，语言千差万别，从俄罗斯最偏僻的几乎被冰雪覆盖的学校，到阿拉伯最遥远的椰树掩映的校园，成千上万的孩子都准备以各自不同的方式去学习相同的知识。想象一下这个由上百个种族的孩子组成的庞大的群体，这个浩浩荡荡的行动大军，而你也是其中的一员；想一想，如果这个行动停止了，人类将会退回到野蛮的状态。这个行动是世界的进步、希望和荣耀。

Courage, then, little soldier of the immense army. Your books are your arms, your class is your squadron，the field of battle is the whole earth, and the victory is human civilization. Be not a cowardly soldier, my Enrico.

那么，鼓足勇气吧，这支大军中的小战士！你的书本就是你的武器，你的班级就是你的中队，整个地球就是你的战场，你的胜利就是人类的文明。不要做胆怯的士兵呀，我的恩里科！

Your Father

你的父亲