雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(4)

Alan stayed overnight at the best hotel in Blandford Forum – an expedient that would hardly have been approved by his father. (Alan had to account for every penny that he spent: no mere figure of speech, for his letter ended 'Sending back ￡1-0-1 in ￡ note and penny stamp.') But the proprietors only charged a nominal amount and saw him off in the morning. Then:

艾倫在布蘭德福特最好的旅店過了一夜，假如他父親知道這件事，保準不會同意。（艾倫必須要計較每一便士，這毫不誇張，比如他會在信的結尾寫着：「請寄回1英鎊1便士：1英鎊鈔票和1便士郵票」）幸好旅店老闆只是象徵性的收了他一點錢，而且早上還特地爲他送行。然後：

Just near Blandford some nice downs and suddenly merely undulating near all the way here but the last mile was all downhill.

布蘭德福特附近有些很好的下坡，整個路上只是有點顛，最後一英里全是下坡。

From West Hill he could see his destination: the little Georgian town of Sherborne and the school itself by the abbey.

他從一座小山頂上，望見了他的終點：喬治王風格的小鎮，和大修道院旁的舍爾伯尼公學。

For a boy of his class to improvise a solution without a fuss was not at all the expected thing. The bicycle journey was regarded with astonishment, and was reported in the local newspaper.13 While Winston Churchill called for the 'unconditional surrender' of the 'enemy' miners, Alan had made the most of the general strike for himself. He had enjoyed two days of freedom outside the usual system. But they were over very quickly. There was a book14 about life at Sherborne, The Loom of Youth by Alec Waugh, and this described the sensations:

這樣一個小男孩，面對大罷工時，能不慌不忙地拿出一套應急方案，並且成功地解決了問題，這是很不簡單的。當地的報紙，報道了艾倫這趟單車旅行，人們都覺得很吃驚。當溫斯頓.丘吉爾向那些「敵人」高呼「無條件投降」時，艾倫卻利用罷工，享受了兩天自由。這件事很快就過去了，接下來的日子，正如一本描寫舍爾伯尼的書，艾力克.沃《青春的織機》裏面回憶的：