19 The Headmaster

The Headmaster And again! The Headmaster, while I was at Repton, struck me as being a rather shoddy bandy-legged little fellow with a big bald head and lots of energy but not much charm. Mind you, I never did know him well because in all those months and years I was at the school, I doubt whether he addressed more than six sentences to me altogether. So perhaps it was wrong of me to form a judgement like that. What is so interesting about this Headmaster is that he became a famous person later on. At the end of my third year, he was suddenly appointed

校长又来了!我在雷普顿读书的时候，校长给我的印象是，他是一个相当粗劣的、弯腿的小个子，脑袋又大又秃，精力充沛，但不怎么有魅力。 请注意，我从来都不太了解他，因为在我上学的那些年月里，我怀疑他对我说的话总共不会超过六句。 所以，也许我做出那样的判断是错误的。 有趣的是，这位校长后来成了一个名人。 在我第三年结束的时候，他突然被任命了

Bishop of Chester and off he went to live in a palace by the River Dee. I remember at the time trying to puzzle out how on earth a person could suddenly leap from being a schoolmaster to becoming a Bishop all in one jump, but there were bigger puzzles to come. From Chester, he was soon promoted again to become Bishop of London, and from there, after not all that many years, he bounced up the ladder once more to get the top job of them all, Archbishop of Canterbury! And not long after that it was he himself who had the task of crowning our present Queen in Westminster Abbey with half the world watching him on television. Well, well, well! And this was the man who used to deliver the most vicious beatings to the boys under his care! By now I am sure you will be wondering why I lay so much emphasis upon school beatings in these pages. The answer is that I cannot help it. All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite

他被任命为切斯特的主教，然后去了迪河边的一座宫殿住了下来。 我记得当时我试图弄清楚一个人究竟是如何一下子从校长一跃成为主教的，但更大的谜题还在后面。 从切斯特，他很快又被提升为伦敦主教，从那里，没过多少年，他又一次爬上了梯子，得到了最高的职位——坎特伯雷大主教!不久之后，他亲自在威斯敏斯特教堂为我们的现任女王加冕，全世界一半的人都在电视上看着他。 好啦，好啦，好啦!这就是那个过去常常对他照顾的孩子们进行最恶毒的殴打的人!到现在为止，我相信你会想知道为什么我在这些页面中如此强调学校的殴打。 答案是我无能为力。 在我的整个学校生活中，我对这样一个事实感到震惊:校长和高年级男生被允许伤害其他男生，有时甚至是相当

severely. I couldn't get over it. I never have got over it. It would, of course, be unfair to suggest that all masters were constantly beating the daylights out of all the boys in those days. They weren't. Only a few did so, but that was quite enough to leave a lasting impression of horror upon me. It left another more physical impression upon me as well. Even today, whenever I have to sit for any length of time on a hard bench or chair, I begin to feel my heart beating along the old lines that the cane made on my bottom some fifty-five years ago. There is nothing wrong with a few quick sharp tickles on the rump. They probably do a naughty boy a lot of good. But this Headmaster we were talking about wasn't just tickling you when he took out his cane to deliver a flogging. He never flogged me, thank goodness, but I was given a vivid description of one of these ceremonies by my best friend at Repton, whose name was Michael. Michael was ordered to take down his trousers and kneel on the Headmaster's sofa with the top half of his body hanging over one end of

严重。我无法释怀。 我从来没有克服过。当然，如果说当时所有的老师都在不停地把孩子们打得天昏地暗，那是不公平的。 他们没有。只有少数人这样做了，但这足以给我留下一个持久的恐怖印象。 它也给我留下了另一个更实际的印象。 即使在今天，每当我不得不在一张硬板凳或椅子上坐上一段时间，我都会开始感觉到我的心脏沿着55年前手杖在我屁股上留下的旧线跳动。 在屁股上快速地痒几下并没有什么问题。 它们可能对一个淘气的男孩有很多好处。 但我们说的这位校长，当他拿出手杖来鞭打你的时候，可不仅仅是在挠你的痒。 谢天谢地，他从来没有鞭打过我，但我在雷普顿的好朋友迈克尔给我生动地描述了其中一个仪式。 迈克尔被命令脱下裤子，跪在校长的沙发上，上半身挂在椅子的一端

the sofa. The great man then gave him one terrific crack. After that, there was a pause. The cane was put down and the Headmaster began filling his pipe from a tin of tobacco. He also started to lecture the kneeling boy about sin and wrongdoing. Soon, the cane was picked up again and a second tremendous crack was administered upon the trembling buttocks. Then the pipe-filling business and the lecture went on for maybe another thirty seconds. Then came the third crack of the cane. Then the instrument of torture was put once more upon the table and a box of matches was produced. A match was struck and applied to the pipe. The pipe failed to light properly. A fourth stroke was delivered, with the lecture continuing. This slow and fearsome process went on until ten terrible strokes had been delivered, and all the time, over the pipe-lighting and the matchstriking, the lecture on evil and wrongdoing and sinning and misdeeds and malpractice went on without a stop. It even went on as the strokes were being administered. At the end of it all, a basin, a sponge and a small clean towel were produced by

沙发上。然后这位伟人狠狠地咬了他一下。 在那之后，有一个停顿。 校长放下手杖，开始往烟斗里装一听烟草。 他还开始教训这个跪着的男孩关于罪恶和不法行为。 不久，手杖又被拿了起来，在颤抖的屁股上又重重地打了一声。 然后是管道填埋，讲座又持续了大约30秒。 接着，传来了第三声手杖的噼啪声。 然后刑具又被放在桌子上，一盒火柴拿来了。 划了根火柴，在管子上擦了擦。 管子不能正常点灯。 第四次中风，讲座还在继续。 这个缓慢而可怕的过程一直持续到可怕的十下。在点烟斗和划火柴的过程中，关于邪恶、不正当、罪恶、恶行和渎职的训诫一直在不停地进行着。 甚至在进行中风治疗的过程中，这种情况还在继续。 最后，一个盆子、一块海绵和一条干净的小毛巾由

the Headmaster, and the victim was told to wash away the blood before pulling up his trousers. Do you wonder then that this man's behaviour used to puzzle me tremendously? He was an ordinary clergyman at that time as well as being Headmaster, and I would sit in the dim light of the school chapel and listen to him preaching about the Lamb of God and about Mercy and Forgiveness and all the rest of it and my young mind would become totally confused. I knew very well that only the night before this preacher had shown neither Forgiveness nor Mercy in flogging some small boy who had broken the rules. So what was it all about? I used to ask myself. Did they preach one thing and practise another, these men of God? And if someone had told me at the time that this flogging clergyman was one day to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, I would never have believed it. It was all this, I think, that made me begin to have doubts about religion and even about God. If this person, I kept telling myself, was one of

他被告知要洗掉血迹，然后再拉起裤子。 你不奇怪这个人的行为曾经使我非常困惑吗? 他当时是一个普通的牧师，也是校长，我坐在学校小教堂昏暗的灯光下，听他讲上帝的羔羊、仁慈和宽恕等等，我年轻的头脑完全被弄糊涂了。 我很清楚，就在前一天晚上，这位牧师鞭打了一个违反规定的小男孩，既没有表现出宽恕，也没有表现出怜悯。 那么这到底是怎么回事呢?我常常问自己。 这些属神的人，说的是一个，做的是另一个吗? 如果当时有人告诉我，这个受鞭打的牧师有一天会成为坎特伯雷大主教，我绝对不会相信。 我想，正是这一切让我开始怀疑宗教，甚至怀疑上帝。 我一直告诉自己，如果这个人是

God's chosen salesmen on earth, then there must be something very wrong about the whole business.

上帝在世上拣选的推销员，那么整个行业一定有什么地方出了问题。