Poor head-master! he is always the first at his post in the morning, waiting for the scholars and lending an ear to the parents; and when the other masters are already on their way home, he is still hovering about the school, and looking out that the boys do not get under the carriage-wheels, or hang about the streets to stand on their heads, or fill their bags with sand or stones; and the moment he makes his appearance at a corner, so tall and black, flocks of boys scamper off in all directions, abandoning their games of coppers and marbles, and he threatens them from afar with his forefinger, with his sad and loving air. No one has ever seen him smile, my mother says, since the death of his son, who was a volunteer in the army: he always keeps the latter's portrait before his eyes, on a little table in the head-master's room. He wanted to go away after this misfortune; he prepared his application for retirement to the Municipal Council, and kept it always on his table, putting off sending it from day to day, because it grieved him to leave the boys.
校長先生每晨第一個到學校,等學生來上學,候父兄來談話。別的先生回去了以后,他一人還留著,在學校附近到處巡視,防恐有學生被車子碰倒或在路上胡鬧。只要一看見先生那高而黑的影子,群集在路上逗留的小孩們就會棄了玩的東西逃散。先生那時,總遠遠地用了難過而充滿了情愛的臉色,喚住正在逃散的小孩們。據母親說:先生自愛兒參加志愿兵死去以后,就不見有笑容了。現在校長室的小桌上,置著他愛兒的照相。先生遭了那不幸以后,一時曾想辭職,據說已將向市政所提出辭職的辭職書寫好,藏在抽屜里,因為不忍與小孩別離,還躊躇著未曾決定。
But the other day he seemed undecided; and my father, who was in the director's room with him, was just saying to him, "What a shame it is that you are going away, Signor Director!" when a man entered for the purpose of inscribing the name of a boy who was to be transferred from another schoolhouse to ours, because he had changed his residence. At the sight of this boy, the head-master made a gesture of astonishment, gazed at him for a while, gazed at the portrait that he keeps on his little table, and then stared at the boy again, as he drew him between his knees, and made him hold up his head. This boy resembled his dead son. The head-master said, "It is all right," wrote down his name, dismissed the father and son, and remained absorbed in thought. "What a pity that you are going away!" repeated my father. And then the head-master took up his application for retirement, tore it in two, and said, "I shall remain."
有一天,我父親在校長室和先生談話。父親向先生說:“辭職是多少乏味的事啊!”這時,恰巧有一個人領了孩子來見校長,是請求轉學的。校長先生見了那小孩似乎吃了一驚,將那小孩的臉貌和桌上的照相比較打量了好久,拉小孩靠近膝旁,拓了他的頭,注視一會兒,說了一句“可以的”,記下姓名,叫他們父子回去,自己仍自沉思。我父親繼續說:“先生一辭職,我們不是困難了嗎?”先生聽了,就從抽屜里取出辭職書,撕成兩段,說:“已把辭職的意思打消了。”