02 The bicycle and the sweet-shop

The bicycle and the sweet-shop When I was seven, my mother decided I should leave kindergarten and go to a proper boy's school. By good fortune, there existed a wellknown Preparatory School for boys about a mile from our house. It was called Llandaff Cathedral School, and it stood right under the shadow of Llandaff cathedral. Like the cathedral, the school is still there and still flourishing.

自行车和糖果店我七岁时，母亲决定让我离开幼儿园，去一所像样的男校。 幸运的是，离我们家大约一英里的地方有一所著名的男孩预备学校。 它被称为兰达夫大教堂学校，就在兰达夫大教堂的阴影下。 和大教堂一样，这所学校依然存在，而且依然欣欣向荣。

Llandaff Cathedral But here again, I can remember very little about the two years I attended Llandaff Cathedral School, between the age of seven and nine. Only two moments remain clearly in my mind. The first lasted not more than five seconds but I will never forget it. It was my first term and I was walking home alone across the village green after school when suddenly one of the senior twelve-year-old boys came riding full speed down the road on his bicycle about twenty yards away from me. The road was on a hill and the boy was going down the slope, and as he flashed by he started

但是在这里，我对我在兰德夫教堂学校上学的两年，也就是七到九岁，记得很少。 只有两个时刻清晰地留在我的脑海里。 第一次不超过五秒钟，但我永远不会忘记。 那是我的第一个学期，放学后，我一个人走在回家的路上，穿过村庄的绿地，突然，一个12岁的高年级男孩骑着自行车全速从离我大约20码远的地方骑过来。 这条路是在一座山上，男孩正沿着山坡往下走，他一闪而过，就吓了一跳

backpedalling very quickly so that the freewheeling mechanism of his bike made a loud whirring sound. At the same time, he took his hands off the handlebars and folded them casually across his chest. I stopped dead and stared after him. How wonderful he was! How swift and brave and graceful in his long trousers with bicycle-clips around them and his scarlet school cap at a jaunty angle on his head! One day, I told myself, one glorious day I will have a bike like that and I will wear long trousers with bicycle-clips and my school cap will sit jaunty on my head and I will go whizzing down the hill pedalling backwards with no hands on the handlebars! I promise you that if somebody had caught me by the shoulder at that moment and said to me, 'What is your greatest wish in life, little boy? What is your absolute ambition? To be a doctor? A fine musician? A painter? A writer? Or the Lord Chancellor?' I would have answered without hesitation that my only ambition, my hope, my longing was to have a bike like that and to go whizzing down the hill with no hands on the

倒车速度非常快，以至于他的自行车自由转动的机械装置发出了巨大的呼呼声。 与此同时，他把双手从车把上拿下来，随意地交叉在胸前。 我突然停了下来，盯着他的背影。 他是多么了不起啊!他穿着系着自行车别针的长裤，戴着一顶猩红色的校帽，神气十足地歪在头上，是多么敏捷、勇敢和优雅啊!我对自己说，总有一天，我会有一辆那样的自行车，我会穿上带自行车夹的长裤，戴上潇洒的校帽，不用把手放在车把上，倒着蹬着车嗖嗖地下山!我向你保证，如果有人在那一刻抓住我的肩膀问我:“小男孩，你一生中最大的愿望是什么?” 你的绝对抱负是什么? 成为一名医生?一个优秀的音乐家? 一个画家吗?一个作家?或者大法官?”我会毫不犹豫地回答说，我唯一的抱负，我的希望，我的渴望就是拥有一辆那样的自行车，不用手就能从山上呼啸而下

handlebars. It would be fabulous. It made me tremble just to think about it. My second and only other memory of Llandaff Cathedral School is extremely bizarre. It happened a little over a year later, when I was just nine. By then I had made some friends and when I walked to school in the mornings I would start out alone but would pick up four other boys of my own age along the way. After school was over, the same four boys and I would set out together across the village green and through the village itself, heading for home. On the way to school and on the way back we always passed the sweet-shop. No we didn't, we never passed it. We always stopped. We lingered outside its rather small window gazing in at the big glass jars full of Bull's-eyes and Old Fashioned Humbugs and Strawberry Bonbons and Glacier Mints and Acid Drops and Pear Drops and Lemon Drops and all the rest of them. Each of us received sixpence a week for pocket-money, and whenever there was any money in our pockets, we would all troop in together to buy a pennyworth of this or that. My

车把。那太棒了。 我一想到这件事就发抖。 我对兰达夫教堂学校的第二个也是唯一的记忆是非常奇怪的。 这件事发生在一年多以后，当时我只有九岁。 那时候我已经交了一些朋友，每天早上上学的时候，我都是一个人出发，但一路上会顺便带上另外四个和我同龄的男孩。 放学后，我和同样的四个男孩一起出发，穿过村庄的草地，穿过村庄，回家。 在上学和放学的路上，我们总是经过这家糖果店。 不，我们没有，我们从来没有通过。 我们总是停下来。我们在那扇很小的窗户外徘徊，凝视着里面的大玻璃瓶，里面装满了牛眼糖、老式假糖、草莓软糖、冰川薄荷糖、酸糖、梨糖、柠檬糖和其他所有的东西。 我们每个人每星期都能领到六便士的零用钱，只要口袋里有钱，我们就聚在一起买一便士的这个或那个。 我的