學(xué)校

Yes, study comes hard to you, my dear Enrico, as your mother says. I do not yet see you set out for school with that resolute mind and that smiling face which I should like. You are still intractable. But listen; reflect a little! What a miserable, despicable thing your day would be if you did not go to school! At the end of a week you would beg with clasped hands that you might return there, for you would be eaten up with weariness and shame; disgusted with your sports and with your existence.
是的，學(xué)習(xí)對(duì)你來(lái)說(shuō)是件難事，我親愛(ài)的恩里科，就像你媽媽說(shuō)的那樣。我還沒(méi)有看到你像我所希望的那樣意志堅(jiān)定，帶著微笑去學(xué)校。你仍然是一副不情愿的樣子。但是聽(tīng)著，反思一下！如果你不去上學(xué)，你的日子會(huì)多么痛苦，多么可憐呀！一個(gè)星期結(jié)束，你會(huì)合著手來(lái)乞求我讓你回到學(xué)校的，因?yàn)槟銜?huì)被乏味和羞愧所吞沒(méi)，你會(huì)對(duì)你的游戲感到厭倦，并且會(huì)討厭自己的存在。

Everybody, everybody studies now, my child. Think of the workmen who go to school in the evening after having toiled all the day; think of the women, of the girls of the people, who go to school on Sunday, after having worked all the week; of the soldiers who turn to their books and copy-books when they return exhausted from their drill! Think of the dumb and of the boys who are blind, but who study, nevertheless; and last of all, think of the prisoners，who also learn to read and write. Reflect in the morning, when you set out，that at that very moment, in your own city, thirty thousand other boys are going like yourself, to shut themselves up in a room for three hours and study. Think of the innumerable boys who, at nearly this precise hour, are going to school in all countries. Behold them with your imagination, going, going, through the lanes of quiet villages; through the streets of the noisy towns, along the shores of rivers and lakes; here beneath a burning sun; there amid fogs, in boats, in countrieswhich are intersected with canals; on horseback on the far-reaching plains; in sledges over the snow; through valleys and over hills; across forests and torrents, over the solitary paths of mountains; alone, in couples, in groups, in long files, all with their books under their arms, clad in a thousand ways, speaking a thousand tongues, from the most remote schools in Russia almost lost in the ice to the furthermost schools of Arabia, shaded by palm-trees，millions and millions, all going to learn the same things, in a hundred varied forms. Imagine this vast, vast throng of boys of a hundred races, this immense movement of which you form a part, and think, if this movement were to cease, humanity would fall back into barbarism; this movement is the progress, the hope, the glory of the world.
每個(gè)人，現(xiàn)在每個(gè)人都在學(xué)習(xí)，我的孩子。想想工人們辛苦勞作一天后，晚上還去學(xué)校學(xué)習(xí)；想想婦女和普通百姓家的女孩們，她們勞動(dòng)了一周，星期日還去上學(xué)；想想那些士兵，他們筋疲力盡地從操練場(chǎng)上回來(lái)，還照樣看書(shū)做作業(yè)；想想那些說(shuō)不了話(huà)、雙目失明的孩子，他們卻也仍在學(xué)習(xí)；最后，再想想那些囚犯，他們也在學(xué)習(xí)讀書(shū)寫(xiě)字。每天早晨當(dāng)你出門(mén)的時(shí)候，想一想：此時(shí)此刻，在你身處的城市里，有另外三萬(wàn)個(gè)小孩子和你一樣正在去上學(xué)，把自己關(guān)在教室里學(xué)習(xí)三個(gè)小時(shí)。想想世界各地?cái)?shù)不盡數(shù)的孩子們，就在這一時(shí)刻，也正在趕往學(xué)校的路上。發(fā)揮你的想象，看看他們！他們有的正穿行于安靜山村的小巷，有的正沿著河邊或湖岸，行走在熱鬧城鎮(zhèn)的街道上；這里的孩子在嚴(yán)嚴(yán)烈日下走著，那邊的孩子正在迷霧中前行，乘著小船，在河道密集的鄉(xiāng)間穿梭；有的騎在馬背上，在一望無(wú)際的草原上馳騁；有的乘坐雪橇，在雪地里飛奔；有的越過(guò)山澗、翻過(guò)高山，有的穿過(guò)森林、渡過(guò)洪流，在偏僻的山路上邁著步。他們有的獨(dú)自一人，有的三五成群，有的排成長(zhǎng)隊(duì)，所有孩子的胳膊下都夾著書(shū)本。他們穿著各式各樣，語(yǔ)言千差萬(wàn)別，從俄羅斯最偏僻的幾乎被冰雪覆蓋的學(xué)校，到阿拉伯最遙遠(yuǎn)的椰樹(shù)掩映的校園，成千上萬(wàn)的孩子都準(zhǔn)備以各自不同的方式去學(xué)習(xí)相同的知識(shí)。想象一下這個(gè)由上百個(gè)種族的孩子組成的龐大的群體，這個(gè)浩浩蕩蕩的行動(dòng)大軍，而你也是其中的一員；想一想，如果這個(gè)行動(dòng)停止了，人類(lèi)將會(huì)退回到野蠻的狀態(tài)。這個(gè)行動(dòng)是世界的進(jìn)步、希望和榮耀。

Courage, then, little soldier of the immense army. Your books are your arms, your class is your squadron，the field of battle is the whole earth, and the victory is human civilization. Be not a cowardly soldier, my Enrico.
那么，鼓足勇氣吧，這支大軍中的小戰(zhàn)士！你的書(shū)本就是你的武器，你的班級(jí)就是你的中隊(duì)，整個(gè)地球就是你的戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)，你的勝利就是人類(lèi)的文明。不要做膽怯的士兵呀，我的恩里科！

Your Father
你的父親