17 Getting dressed for the big school

Getting dressed for the big school When I was twelve, my mother said to me, 'I've entered you for Marlborough and Repton. Which would you like to go to?' Both were famous Public Schools, but that was all I knew about them. 'Repton,' I said. 'I'll go to Repton.' It was an easier word to say than Marlborough. 'Very well,' my mother said. 'You shall go to Repton.' We were living in Kent then, in a place called Bexley. Repton was up in the Midlands, near Derby, and some 140 miles away to the north. That was of no consequence. There were plenty of trains. Nobody was taken to school by car in those days. We were put on the train.

我十二岁时，母亲对我说:“我已经为你报名了马尔伯勒和雷普顿的学校。 你想去哪?”这两所学校都是著名的公立学校，但我对它们的了解仅此而已。 “雷普顿，”我说。“我要去雷普顿。”这个词比马尔伯勒容易说。 “很好，”我母亲说。 “你应该去雷普顿。”那时我们住在肯特郡一个叫贝克斯利的地方。 雷普顿在中部，靠近德比，往北约140英里。 那无关紧要。 有很多火车。 在那些日子里，没有人乘汽车上学。 我们被送上了火车。

Alfhild, me, Asta, Else and dogs. Tenby. I was exactly thirteen in September 1929 when the time came for me to go to Repton. On the day of my departure, I had first of all to get dressed for the part. I had been to London with my mother the week before to buy the school clothes, and I remember how shocked I was when I saw the outfit I was expected to wear. 'I can't possibly go about in those!' I cried. 'Nobody wears things like that!' 'Are you sure you haven't made a mistake?' my mother said to the shop assistant. 'If he's going to Repton, madam, he must wear these clothes,' the assistant said firmly.

阿尔菲尔德，我，阿斯塔，爱尔莎和狗。 腾比。1929年9月，我正好13岁，当时我要去雷普顿。 在我离开的那天，我首先要为这个角色穿好衣服。 一周前，我和母亲去伦敦买了校服，我记得当我看到自己要穿的衣服时，我是多么震惊。 “我不可能穿着这身到处走!”我哭了。 “没人会穿那样的东西!”“你确定你没有弄错吗?”妈妈对店员说。 “如果他要去雷普顿，夫人，他必须穿这些衣服，”助手坚定地说。

And now this amazing fancy-dress was all laid out on my bed waiting to be put on. 'Put it on,' my mother said. 'Hurry up or you'll miss the train.' 'I'll look like a complete idiot,' I said. My mother went out of the room and left me to it. With immense reluctance, I began to dress myself. First there was a white shirt with a detachable white collar. This collar was unlike any other collar I had seen. It was as stiff as a piece of perspex. At the front, the stiff points of the collar were bent over to make a pair of wings, and the whole thing was so tall that the points of the wings, as I discovered later, rubbed against the underneath of my chin. It was known as a butterfly collar. To attach the butterfly collar to the shirt you needed a back stud and a front stud. I had never been through this rigmarole before. I must do this properly, I told myself. So first I put the back stud into the back of the collar-band of the shirt. Then I tried to attach the back of the collar to the back stud, but the collar was so stiff I couldn't get the stud through the slit. I decided to soften it with

现在这件奇妙的化装服已经摆在我的床上，等着我穿上。 “把它穿上，”妈妈说。 “快点，不然你就赶不上火车了。”“我会看起来像个十足的白痴，”我说。 我母亲走出房间，让我自己去干。 我极不情愿地开始穿衣服。 首先是一件白色衬衫，领子是可拆卸的。 这个领子和我见过的其他领子都不一样。 它像一块有机玻璃一样坚硬。 在前面，衣领的硬尖被弯曲成一对翅膀，整个东西是如此之高，以至于翅膀的尖，正如我后来发现的那样，摩擦着我的下巴。 它被称为蝴蝶领。 要把蝴蝶领系在衬衫上，你需要一个后耳钉和一个前耳钉。 我以前从来没有经历过这些繁琐的手续。 我必须把这件事做好，我告诉自己。 所以首先我把后耳钉在衬衫领口的后面。 然后我试着把领子的背面系在后面的钮扣上，但是领子太硬了，我无法把钮扣穿过缝。 我决定用

spit. I put the edge of the collar into my mouth and sucked the starch away. It worked. The stud went through the slit and the back of the collar was now attached to the back of the shirt. I inserted the front stud into one side of the front of the shirt and slipped the shirt over my head. With the help of a mirror, I now set about pushing the top of the front stud through the first of the two slits in the front of the collar. It wouldn't go. The slit was so small and stiff and starchy that nothing would go through it. I took the shirt off and put both the front slits of the collar into my mouth and chewed them until they were soft. The starch didn't taste of anything. I put the shirt back on again and at last I was able to get the front stud through the collar-slits. Around the collar but underneath the butterfly wings, I tied a black tie, using an ordinary tieknot.

随地吐痰。我把衣领的边缘放进嘴里，吸掉了淀粉。 它工作。钮扣从缝里穿了出来，领子的后面现在连在衬衫的后面了。 我把前面的饰钉插入衬衫前面的一侧，然后把衬衫套在头上。 在镜子的帮助下，我现在开始把前饰钉的顶部从领子前面的两个缝中的第一个缝里推进去。 它不会走。那条缝又小又硬，粘满了淀粉，什么也穿不进去。 我把衬衫脱了下来，把领子前面的两个开口都放进嘴里，咀嚼着，直到它们变软为止。 淀粉没有任何味道。 我把衬衫重新穿上，终于把前面的钮扣从领缝里穿了进去。 在蝴蝶翅膀下面的领子周围，我用普通的领带系了一条黑色领带。