I was fourteen years old and had never been in serious trouble before. I had been getting behind with my school work so one day I cheated. I returned to my classroom one evening after everyone else had left, opened the desk of the boy who was always top of the class, took out his exercise book and copied down his answers. He may have been top of the class but that did not mean that he had got everything right. I had exactly the same questions wrong as he had, and furthermore I did not understand some of the answers I had copied out. I had not been very cleaver! My crime was exposed and I had to own up to my misdeeds.
那时我十四岁，并从没有犯过什么严重的错误，一天我没完成作业，所以我决定作弊。一天晚上，在所有人都离开后，我回到教室里，打开了一直是班里第一的那个男孩的书桌，拿出他的作业开始抄他的答案。他也许是班里最好的同学但这并不意味着他能做对所有的题。我错的题与他的一模一样，而且我并不明白所有抄的答案。我不能再笨了。我的罪行暴露了，不得不供认自己的错误。
At nine am. the next morning the headmaster passed sentence on me. I was to report to him at four in the afternoon for six strokes of the cane. I was a shaking bundle of nerves that morning and it worsened as the day progressed. The hour of retribution arrived and I made my way to the headmaster’s door and gingerly tapped upon it. The headmaster told me to wait outside until he was ready to see me. I felt convinced that this was a deliberate ploy to increase the apprehension for me. My stomach was churning over, and that was doing strange things to my digestive system. I felt a pressing need to go to the toilet, but I dare not leave my place outside the door!
第二天上午九点，班主任宣布了对我的处罚，我得在下午四点去找他接受六下鞭笞，整个上午我神经高度紧张，并且随着时间的推移紧张感加剧。惩罚的时间到了，我来到班主任办公室门前，小心翼翼的敲门，班主任告诉我在门外等着直到他准备好见我。我确信这是一种故意增加我的不安的方法。我感到胃里在翻滚，并对我的消化系统起着奇怪的作用。我感到强烈的去厕所的欲望但是我不敢离开我所站的位置。
I was kept waiting ten minutes which seemed like ten hours. When I was called into the study I was getting really desperate. I was squeezing my buttocks together with my hands. Before the headmaster could say anything to me I yelled out –
我等了十分钟，但这看起来像是十个小时。当我被叫入办公室后，我真的开始绝望。我用双手把屁股挤在一起。在班主任发话之前，我叫了出来。
"Please sir, I want to go to the toilet immediately!"
求你了先生，我想去厕所，立刻！
He could obviously see that I was close to having a messy accident and he rose straight away from his chair
他能明显的看出我马上就要拉出来了，他立马从椅子上站了起来。
"Come with me, Bradley!" he said as he made tracks for a door at the other end of the room.
跟我来，布拉德利，他说着打开了屋子另一端的一扇门。
Still squeezing my buttocks together I followed him the few yards to his own bathroom. I couldn’t wait to be told! I dashed to the toilet, dragged down my trousers and underpants together and flopped down on the toilet seat in the nick of time! The headmaster just stood in front of me and watched! What humiliation! The plop-plop-plop seemed to echo all round the bathroom! It was temporally interrupted while I involuntary let out a long, loud, juicy, trumpeting fart! The stink was overwhelming! The headmaster continued to stand and watch me as I tore off the toilet paper and wiped my arse! I pulled up my pants and trousers and washed my hands before being taken back into the study.
仍然把两瓣屁股挤在一起，我跟着他走进了他的私人厕所。还没等他说什么，我冲进了厕所，把裤子内裤一并拉下，跌坐在马桶上。班主任就站在我面前看着我。这让人感到多么羞辱。排泄的声音在整个厕所里回响，这声音被我放出的一个长长的，响亮的，刺激的，公开的屁暂时打断。发出的臭味势不可挡。班主任继续站在那里，看着我拉出卫生纸并擦屁股。我提起内裤和裤子，洗手，而后返回办公室中。
All that and I still had the caning to come! The headmaster opened a tall wall cupboard to reveal a row of canes hanging inside. There must have been a dozen or more of them.
尽管如此，仍有鞭打等待着我。班主任打开一个高壁橱，露出了内挂的一排藤条，至少有12把之多。
"After that little distraction I think perhaps we can now concentrate on the purpose of your visit here!" he told me.
在刚才的小插曲后，我想也许我们可以专注于你来的目的上了，他告诉我。
My knees were knocking, my body was shaking, my throat was dry and my arse was tingling in anticipation of what was in store for it! He took out a cane, flexed it in his hands, swished it through the air and brought it down with a loud CRACK! onto a cushion on his chair. A deep indentation appeared in the cushion. I winced! He replaced the cane and selected another, going through the procedure again. I had heard that he always did this, going through about half a dozen canes before selecting the one he was going to use. It was all part of the philological warfare to reduce a boy to a wobbling jelly before the caning begins! In my case he need not have bothered; I was a wobbling jelly before I had even knocked on his door! He demonstrated six canes before settling on one of them.
我的膝盖不由主的碰在了一次，身体也在发抖，我的喉咙很干，屁股感到刺痛。他拿出了一支藤条，弯在手里，抽向空中，打在他的椅子上并发出撕裂的响声。
垫子处深深地凹陷了进去。我有些畏缩。他把藤条放回并取了另一支。重复了刚才的步骤。我听说他一直是这样，在选定他最终用的之前，要试上大约六支。这是心理战术的一部分，为了在鞭打开始之前让男孩感到害怕。但对于我来说，不需要这么麻烦，在我敲门之前我已经十分害怕了。在最终选定前，他试了六支藤条。
"This one should do nicely for you, Bradley! Fetch that ottoman from near the fireplace and bring it over here!"
这根适合你，布拉德利。把那个椅子从壁炉旁边那过来。
The ottoman was a circular, hair-stuffed seat which stood about eighteen inches high and two feet in diameter. After I had brought it over to him he sized me up with his eyes and readjusted the position of the ottoman to about four feet from the side of his desk. He was apparently, something of an expert at placing it just the right distance from the desk according to the size of the boy.
这是把离地18英寸直径2英尺的绒毛圆椅，我把它搬来后，他用目光打量着我，并重新调整椅子到离他的桌子4英尺。他显然是一个专家，可以根据男孩的身材调整桌椅之间的距离。
"Get down on the floor, Bradley with your knees right up against the ottoman, bend over it and stretch out your arms to take hold of the legs of my desk."
布拉德利，趴下，膝盖顶着椅子，趴在椅子上，伸出胳膊抓住桌腿。
I got across the seat and had to stretch with all my effort to reach the legs of the desk. My chin was on the carpet and I could feel that my arse was sticking up with my trousers stretched taut around it!
我趴在凳子上，我得用尽全身力气抓住桌子腿。我的嘴碰在地毯上，我能感觉到我的屁股正被裤子紧紧地勒住。
"Let go of those legs if you dare, Bradley!" he warned me, "You will get extra strokes if you do!"
如果你放开他们，布拉德利，他警告我，你就会得到额外的鞭打。
I heard a swish and a noise like a firecracker! The searing pain which followed left me in no doubt that the firecracker was the sound of the cane landing on my arse! I opened my mouth wide but no sound came out. The second stroke left me gasping. The pain seemed to intensify a second or so after the cane struck. I was stretched so tightly that I could barely move an inch, and I dare not lose my grip on the desk’s legs. On the third stroke I yelled out with a loud "Agh!" and again on the forth. When the fifth one landed I cried unashamedly. It was a relief to cry! The sixth stroke left me bawling like a baby. I scrambled up as quickly as I could, pressing my hands firmly against my arse!
我听到嗖的一声和像鞭炮一样的杂音。毫无疑问，这声音是鞭子打在我的屁股上的声响，灼热的疼痛在我的屁股上传播开来。我张开大嘴但没发出声音。第二鞭让我倒吸一口凉气。疼痛在鞭子打在屁股上后一秒左右加剧。我身体伸展得那么紧以至于我动也没法动，而且我也不敢松开抓在桌子腿上的手。第三鞭，我啊的一声叫了出来，同样的事伴随着第四鞭发生。第五鞭落下时，我不知羞耻的哭了出来哭是一种解脱。第六鞭，我就像一个小宝宝大喊大叫，我以最快的速度爬起身，双手紧紧按在屁股上。
The headmaster walked leisurely to his cupboard and replaced the cane. He never said a word until he returned to me.
班主任从容的走到橱柜边上，放回了藤条。再回到我身边前他一句话都没说。
"I always examine a boy’s stripes after a caning, Bradley." he told me, "Some are composed enough for this straight away and some are not. The state you are in puts you amongst the latter! You need time to recover! Report to me at seven o’clock tonight. You may leave my study now."
鞭打过后我总是检查男孩屁股上的伤口，布拉德利，他对我说，一些男孩已经得到了足够的教训可以离开而一些还不够。看你现在的状态是后者。你需要时间恢复。晚上七点来见我。你现在可以走了。
I left the study and ran, hoping nobody was going to see me in that state. I headed for the nearest toilets. They were the ones near the classrooms and fortunately all the boys had left that area. I locked myself in one of the cubicles, I had privacy there. I did not want to use the toilet, I just wanted to get my trousers and underpants down and away from my raw arse! I dropped down onto the toilet seat and just sat there crying for a while. The tears eventually stopped but the pain certainly did not. Venturing out of the cubicle I looked at myself in the mirror. My friends would be sure to ask me if I had cried. My eyes were a telltale red, I would have to admit that I had.
我跑着离开办公室，希望没有人看见我现在这个样子。我径直走向最近的厕所，它们是离教室最近的，不过幸好所有的男孩都离开了。我将自己锁在一个隔间里，在这里我有自己的隐私。我并不想上厕所，我只是想把我的裤子和内裤脱下来，远离我红肿的屁股。我坐在马桶上哭泣了一会，泪水最终停了下来但痛苦当然没有停止。我冒险走出隔间，看向镜子里的自己。我的朋友们一定会问我是不是哭过了。我眼圈发红，不得不承认这一点。
Tea was at six o’clock. Sitting down was an agony, but at least I managed to. I did not remain in the dining room for very long. I bolted down some food, gulped half a cup of tea and left. To my relief, the other boys I came in contact with were surprisingly sympathetic. The time arrived to return to the headmaster. I was not looking forward to it! Having my bare arse examined was going to be embarrassing.
茶点在六点钟开始。坐下是一件痛苦的事情但至少我做到了。我没在餐厅呆多久。我吃了点东西，喝下半杯茶后离开了。让我感到宽慰的是，和我交谈的男孩们都十分同情我。回到班主任那里的时间到了，这一点我并不期待。检查我的光屁股会是一件十分令人尴尬的事情。
The headmaster’s study was also his living room. He was seated in a comfortable armchair before an open coal fire. He ordered me over to him and told me to turn round and bare my arse (he did not put it in those words of course!). That done I was made to bend over and touch my toes. He seemed to take ages looking at my backside!