While the people were saying this to themselves, one of the firemen stepped out of the window, set his right foot on the windowsill and his left on the ladder, and standing thus upright in the air, he grasped the lodgers, one after the other, as the other men handed them to him from within, passed them on to a comrade, who had climbed up from the street, and who, after securing a firm grasp for them on the rungs, sent them down, one after the other, with the assistance of more firemen.
在群眾叫喊聲中,突然來了一個消防隊員,右腳踏了窗沿,左腳踏住梯子,身子懸空站著,是中的消防隊員把遭難者一一拖出來遞給他,他又一一遞給從下面上去的消防隊員。下面的又一一遞給更下面的同伴。
First came the woman of the balcony, then a baby, then another woman, then an old man. All were saved. After the old man, the fireman who had remained inside descended. The last to come down was the corporal who had been the first to hasten up. The crowd received them all with a burst of applause; but when the last made his appearance, the vanguard of the rescuers, the one who had faced the abyss in advance of the rest, the one who would have perished had it been fated that one should perish, the crowd saluted him like a conqueror, shouting and stretching out their arms, with an affectionate impulse of admiration and of gratitude, and in a few minutes his obscure name--Giuseppe Robbino--rang from a thousand throats.
最先下來的是那個曾掛在欄桿上的女子,其次是小孩,再其次的也是個女子,再其次的是個老人。遭難者全部下來了。室中的消防隊員也就——下來,最后下來的是那個最先上去的伍長。他們下來的時候,群眾喝彩歡迎,等到那拼了生命最先上去最后下來的勇敢的伍長下來時,群眾歡聲雷動,都張開了手,好像歡迎凱旋的將軍也似的喝彩。一瞬間,他那寇塞貝·洛辟諾的名氏在數千人的口中傳遍了。
"Have you understood? That is courage--the courage of the heart, which does not reason, which does not waver, which dashes blindly on, like a lightning flash, wherever it hears the cry of a dying man. One of these days I will take you to the exercises of the firemen, and I will point out to you Corporal Robbino; for you would be very glad to know him, would you not?" I replied that I should. "Here he is," said my father.
“知道嗎?這就叫做勇氣。勇氣這東西不是講理由的,是不躊躇的,見了人有危難就會像電光似的不顧一切地跳過去。過幾天,帶了你去看消防隊的練習,領你去見洛辟諾伍長吧。他是怎樣一個人,你想知道他嗎?”“就是這一位!”父親說。
I turned round with a start. The two firemen, having completed their inspection, were traversing the room in order to reach the door. My father pointed to the smaller of the men, who had straps of gold braid, and said, "Shake hands with Corporal Robbino." The corporal halted, and offered me his hand; I pressed it; he made a salute and withdrew. "And bear this well in mind," said my father; "for out of the thousands of hands which you will shake in the course of your life there will probably not be ten which possess the worth of his.
我不覺吃了一驚,回過頭去,見那兩個消防隊員正檢查完畢,要出去了。“快和洛辟諾伍長握手!”父親指著那衣上綴有金邊的短小精悍的人說。伍長立住了伸手過來,我去和他握手。伍長道別而去。父親說:“好好地把這記著!你在一生中,握手的人當有幾千,但像他那樣豪勇的人恐不上十個吧!”