雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(19)

He was a serious person, and not what Alec Waugh called 'the average boy'. He was not 'in the highest degree conventional', and he was suffering for it. For him there had to be a reason for everything; it had to make sense – and to make one sense, not two. But Sherborne was no help to him in this respect, except in making him more conscious of himself. To be independent he had to work his way through official and unofficial rules alike, and there were certainly no 'ready-made sentiments' for him. At Sherborne the two natural wonders of his life were 'Stinks' and 'Filth'.

艾倫是個嚴肅的人，不是艾力克所說的「普通男孩」。對他來說，每件事都必須有個原因，必須在邏輯上能講通，必須要有道理。但是，舍爾伯尼完全不是這樣，這裏對他的唯一幫助，就是讓他產生了更加強烈的自我意識。爲了保持獨立，他必須在官方和私下的種種規矩中，找到自己的對策，沒有人能幫助他。

If Nowell Smith sometimes had reservations about the public school system, no such doubts assailed Alan's form-master in the autumn of 1927, a certain A.H. Trelawny Ross. A man schooled at Sherborne, who had returned there immediately from Oxford in 1911, he learnt nothing and forgot nothing in his thirty years as a housemaster.18 A stern foe of 'slackness', he shared none of the headmaster's qualms about slavishness. His style of English also contrasted with that of Nowell Smith, his 1928 'house letter' commencing thus: I have a bone to pick with my Captain of the Dayroom (height 4' 11”). He has been telling people I am a woman-hater. This fib was started some years ago by a dame who did not find me gushing enough. My view actually is that a woman-hater has a mental kink, just as a female man-hater has, of whom there are plenty about. …

如果說史密斯校長對公學體制仍有一些保留意見，那麼艾倫在1927年秋天遇到的老師，特勞尼.羅斯，則是一個徹頭徹尾的公學體制支持者。他曾就讀於舍爾伯尼，1911年從牛津畢業，然後又回到這裏。在三十年的舍監工作中，他什麼都不記得，但又什麼都沒忘。他是一個苛刻的對頭，絲毫沒有校長那種對於缺乏獨創性的困惑。

A narrow nationalist, who had not properly learnt the lesson of loyalty to school as well as to house, Ross was little interested in his form. However, he gave them the benefit of his knowledge and experience of life. He taught Latin translation for a week, Latin prose for a week, and English for a week, this consisting of spelling, 'how to start, write, and address a letter, ' 'how to make a précis, ' 'how a sonnet is built up, and by a typed summary of the main points, to show how to get good sensible, well-arranged written essays.'

羅斯對他的年級，並不怎麼感興趣，但他的知識和生活經歷，卻讓學生們受益匪淺。他教了一星期拉丁語翻譯，一星期拉丁語散文，一星期英語，這些都包括拼寫，還有如何開頭、寫信和寫收寄地址，如何列提綱，如何寫十四行詩，如何總結摘要，如何做報告，如何寫論文。