評論
打印
The Soldiers.
士兵
Tuesday, 22d.
星期二，22日。
His son had been a volunteer in the army when he died: this is the reason why the head-master always goes to the Corso to see the soldiers pass, when we come out of school. Yesterday a regiment of infantry was passing, and fifty boys began to dance around the band, singing and beating time with their rulers on their bags and portfolios. We were standing in a group on the sidewalk, watching them: Garrone, squeezed into his clothes, which were too tight for him, was biting at a large piece of bread; Votini, the well-dressed boy, who always wears Florence plush; Precossi, the son of the blacksmith, with his father's jacket; and the Calabrian; and the "little mason"; and Crossi, with his red head; and Franti, with his bold face; and Robetti, too, the son of the artillery captain, the boy who saved the child from the omnibus, and who now walks on crutches.
校長先生自愛兒在陸軍志愿兵中死去以后，課外的時間，常常出去看軍隊通過。昨天又有一聯隊在街上通過，小孩們都集攏在一處，合了那樂隊的調子，把竹尺敲擊皮袋或書夾，依了拍子跳旋著。我們也集在路旁，看著軍隊進行。卡隆著了狹小的衣服，也嚼著很大的面包在那里立著看。還有衣服很漂亮的華梯尼呀；鐵匠店的兒子、穿著父親的舊衣服的潑來可西呀；格拉勃利亞少年呀；“小石匠”呀；赤發的克洛西呀；相貌很平常的匆蘭諦呀；炮兵大尉的兒子，因從馬車下救出幼兒自己跛了腳的洛佩諦呀；都在一起。
Franti burst into a derisive laugh, in the face of a soldier who was limping. But all at once he felt a man's hand on his shoulder: he turned round; it was the head-master. "Take care," said the master to him; "jeering at a soldier when he is in the ranks, when he can neither avenge himself nor reply, is like insulting a man who is bound: it is baseness." Franti disappeared. The soldiers were marching by fours, all perspiring and covered with dust, and their guns were gleaming in the sun.
有一個破了足的兵士走過，勿蘭諦笑了起來。忽然有人去攫勿蘭諦的肩頭，仔細一看，原來是校長先生。校長先生說：“注意！嘲笑在隊伍中的兵士，好像辱罵縛著的人，真是可恥的事！”勿蘭諦立刻躲到不知哪里去了。兵士分作四列進行，身上滿是汗和灰塵，槍映在日光中閃爍地發光。
The head-master said:
校長先生對我們說：
