【pottermore翻譯】Professor McGonagall

(個人翻譯,包含一定主觀意譯,如有謬誤望指出,僅供同好參考及學習用,如有需要可私聊獲取源文件,原版權屬于pottermore,無授權個人翻譯)
原網頁:https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/professor-mcgonagall
Professor McGonagall
麥格教授
Childhood
童年
Minerva McGonagall was the first child, and only daughter, of a Scottish Presbyterian minister and a Hogwarts-educated witch. She grew up in the Highlands of Scotland in the early twentieth century, and only gradually became aware that there was something strange, both about her own abilities, and her parents’ marriage.
米勒娃·麥格是家里第一個孩子,也是家中唯一的女孩,她的父親是蘇格蘭長老教派牧師,母親是一位在霍格沃茨上過學的女巫。20世紀初,米勒娃在蘇格蘭高地長大,并慢慢意識到她的能力和父母的婚姻中有一些奇怪的地方。
Minerva’s father, the Reverend Robert McGonagall, had become captivated by the high-spirited Isobel Ross, who lived in the same village. Like his neighbours, Robert believed that Isobel attended a select ladies’ boarding school in England. In fact, when Isobel vanished from her home for months at a time, it was to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that she went.
米勒娃的父親——羅伯特·麥格牧師——愛上了同村充滿活力的少女伊澤貝爾·羅絲。像他的鄰居一樣,羅伯特以為伊澤貝爾是在英國一所女子寄宿學校上學。事實上,當伊澤貝爾每次離家?guī)讉€月時,她是前往了霍格沃茨魔法學校上學。
Aware that her parents (a witch and wizard) would frown on a connection with the serious young Muggle, Isobel kept their burgeoning relationship a secret. By the time she was eighteen, she had fallen in love with Robert. Unfortunately, she had not found the courage to tell him what she was.
當伊澤貝爾意識到父母(一對巫師夫妻)對她和年輕麻瓜的關系的不滿,伊澤貝爾選擇隱瞞了她和羅伯特迅速發(fā)展的感情。當她18歲時,她愛上了羅伯特。不幸的是,她沒有勇氣告訴他自己的女巫身份。
The couple eloped, to the fury of both sets of parents. Now estranged from her family, Isobel could not bring herself to mar the bliss of the honeymoon by telling her smitten new husband that she had graduated top of her class in Charms at Hogwarts, nor that she had been Captain of the school Quidditch team. Isobel and Robert moved into a manse (minister’s house) on the outskirts of Caithness, where the beautiful Isobel proved surprisingly adept at making the most of the minister’s tiny salary.
這對小夫妻私奔了,雙方父母都很生氣。伊澤貝爾和家人疏遠了,她沒有辦法在幸福的蜜月期間告訴自己新丈夫她以年級第一的成績從霍格沃茨魔法學校畢業(yè),也不能說她在學校擔任魁地奇隊長的事情。伊澤貝爾和羅伯特搬到了凱斯尼斯郊區(qū)的牧師住宅,在那里,美麗的伊澤貝爾妥善的管理著丈夫微薄的薪水。
The birth of the young couple’s first child, Minerva, proved both a joy and a crisis. Missing her family, and the magical community she had given up for love, Isobel insisted on naming her newborn daughter after her own grandmother, an immensely talented witch. The outlandish name raised eyebrows in the community in which she lived, and the Reverend Robert McGonagall found it difficult to explain his wife’s choice to his parishioners. Furthermore, he was alarmed by his wife’s moodiness. Friends assured him that women were often emotional after the birth of a baby, and that Isobel would soon be herself again.
這對年輕夫妻第一個孩子米勒娃的出生,既是幸福同時也是隱患。伊澤貝爾想念家人,想念她為了愛情放棄的魔法世界,她堅持用自己祖母的名字為剛出生的女兒命名,希望她成為同樣天賦異稟的女巫。這個古怪的名字引起了周圍居住者的在意,同時羅伯特·麥格牧師發(fā)現(xiàn)很難向教區(qū)居民解釋清楚他妻子的選擇。此外,他對妻子的喜怒無常感到震驚。朋友們告訴他,女人生完孩子后總是容易情緒波動,用不了多久,伊澤貝爾就會恢復正常。
Isobel, however, became more and more withdrawn, often secluding herself with Minerva for days at a time. Isobel later told her daughter that she had displayed small, but unmistakable, signs of magic from her earliest hours. Toys that had been left on upper shelves were found in her cot. The family cat appeared to do her bidding before she could talk. Her father’s bagpipes were occasionally heard to play themselves from distant rooms, a phenomenon that made the infant Minerva chuckle.
然而,伊澤貝爾變得越來越孤僻,經常和米勒娃一次獨處好幾天。后來伊澤貝爾告訴女兒,在剛出生幾小時后,她就已經展現(xiàn)出了微小而不起眼的魔法跡象。玩具從架子上消失出現(xiàn)在她的嬰兒床里。家里養(yǎng)的貓在她會說話之前似乎就能聽懂她的指示。父親的風笛在遠處的房間奏響,遠遠傳來的風笛聲使嬰兒的米勒娃咯咯笑出聲。
Isobel was torn between pride and fear. She knew that she must confess the truth to Robert before he witnessed something that would alarm him. At last, in response to Robert’s patient questioning, Isobel burst into tears, retrieved her wand from the locked box under her bed and showed him what she was.
伊澤貝爾既驕傲又害怕。她知道自己必須在羅伯特目睹這一切被嚇到之前,向羅伯特坦白一切真相。最終,在羅伯特的耐心詢問中,伊澤貝爾哭著從床下拿出上鎖的盒子,取出魔杖,向羅伯特展示了自己身為女巫的能力。
Although Minerva was too young to remember that night, its aftermath left her with a bitter understanding of the complications of growing up with magic in a Muggle world. Although Robert McGonagall loved his wife no less upon discovering that she was a witch, he was profoundly shocked by her revelation, and by the fact that she had kept such a secret from him for so long. What was more, he, who prided himself on being an upright and honest man, was now drawn into a life of secrecy that was quite foreign to his nature. Isobel explained, through her sobs, that she (and their daughter) were bound by the International Statute of Secrecy, and that they must conceal the truth about themselves, or face the fury of the Ministry of Magic. Robert also quailed at the thought of how the locals – in the main, an austere, straight-laced and conventional breed – would feel about having a witch as their minister’s wife.
盡管米勒娃當時還小,記不得那個晚上發(fā)生了什么,但是這件事的影響使得她對擁有魔法卻在麻瓜世界中長大有了深刻的認識。即使羅伯特·麥格足夠愛他的妻子,即使發(fā)現(xiàn)妻子是一個女巫,他為這件事深感震驚,因為妻子對他隱瞞了這個重大的秘密那么久。更重要的是,他一直為自己是個誠實正直的人感到驕傲,但現(xiàn)在卻被卷入了一種與他本性完全不符的秘密生活中。伊澤貝爾哭著解釋,她(以及女兒)受到《國際巫師保密法》的約束,她們必須隱瞞自己的存在,不然就要面對魔法部憤怒的官員。羅伯特還對當?shù)厝恕饕悄欠N嚴肅、刻板、傳統(tǒng)的品性——如何看待一個妻子是女巫的人擔任牧師感到不安。
Love endured, but trust had been broken between her parents, and Minerva, a clever and observant child, saw this with sadness. Two more children, both sons, were born to the McGonagalls, and both, in due course, revealed magical ability. Minerva helped her mother explain to Malcolm and Robert Junior that they must not flaunt their magic, and aided her mother in concealing from their father the accidents and embarrassments their magic sometimes caused.
愛依然存在,但父母之間的信任徹底崩塌,米勒娃,身為一個聰慧而細心的孩子,只能悲傷地看著這一切發(fā)生。又有兩個孩子,都是男孩,出生在麥格家,都在一定年齡展現(xiàn)出了魔法的天賦。米勒娃幫母親向馬爾科姆和小羅伯特解釋,他們不能炫耀自己的魔法能力,并且?guī)椭赣H向父親隱瞞因為偶爾的魔法事故造成的意外和尷尬。
Minerva was very close to her Muggle father, whom in temperament she resembled more than her mother. She saw with pain how much he struggled with the family’s strange situation. She sensed, too, how much of a strain it was for her mother to fit in with the all-Muggle village, and how much she missed the freedom of being with her kind, and of exercising her considerable talents. Minerva never forgot how much her mother cried, when the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Minerva’s eleventh birthday; she knew that Isobel was sobbing, not only out of pride, but also out of envy.
米勒娃和麻瓜父親的關系非常親近,在性格上她更像自己的父親。她因為目睹父親因為家庭奇怪的環(huán)境而苦苦掙扎感到難過。同樣,她也能體會母親適應全是麻瓜的村莊的生活有多么巨大的壓力,以及母親有多么想念和同類人在一起的自由和自身卓越的天賦。米勒娃一直記得,當她11歲生日收到霍格沃茨魔法學校的錄取通知書時,她的母親哭了無數(shù)次;她也知道,伊澤貝爾的眼淚不僅僅是因為自豪,同時也是因為羨慕。
School Career
學業(yè)
As is often the case where the young witch or wizard comes from a family who has struggled with its magical identity, Hogwarts was, for Minerva McGonagall, a place of joyful release and freedom.
通常情況下,年輕的男女巫師來自于一個努力尋找自己的魔法界身份的家庭,但霍格沃茨對于米勒娃來說,是一個享受自由和釋放自我的地方。
Minerva drew unusual attention to herself on her very first evening, when she was revealed to be a Hatstall. After five and a half minutes, the Sorting Hat, which had been vacillating between the houses of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, placed Minerva in the latter. (In later years, this circumstance was a subject of gentle humour between Minerva and her colleague Filius Flitwick, over whom the Sorting Hat suffered the same confusion, but reached the opposite conclusion. The two Heads of house were amused to think that they might, but for those crucial moments in their youths, have exchanged positions).
米勒娃在第一晚就因為不同尋常而被關注,因為她是一個帽棲者(注:指分院帽花了很長時間才決定去向的人。)。分院帽在5分鐘又30秒的思考中,一直在把米勒娃分在拉文克勞學院還是格蘭芬多學院中搖擺不定,但最后把米勒娃分在了格蘭芬多。(在很久以后的幾年里,這一直是米勒娃和同事菲利烏斯·弗立維之間一個幽默有趣的話題,他們給了分院帽同樣的難以抉擇,但最后卻得到了完全相反的結論。兩位院長都認為,他們也許在年輕時的關鍵點,就已經交換了位置。)
Minerva was quickly recognised as the most outstanding student of her year, with a particular talent for Transfiguration. As she progressed through the school, she demonstrated that she had inherited both her mother’s talents and her father’s cast-iron moral sense. Minerva’s school career overlapped by two years with that of Pomona Sprout, later Head of Hufflepuff House, and the two women enjoyed an excellent relationship both then, and in later years.
很快,米勒娃成為了她那一屆學生中公認的最優(yōu)秀的人,并且擁有極為罕見的變形學天賦。隨著她在學校的進步,她證明了她繼承自母親的天賦和來自父親的嚴格的道德準則。米勒娃的學習生涯和后來的赫奇帕奇院長波莫娜·斯普勞特有兩年時間重合,這兩位女士不論當時還是后來的時光中都保持著良好的關系。
By the end of her education at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall had achieved an impressive record: top grades in O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, Prefect, Head Girl, and winner of the Transfiguration Today Most Promising Newcomer award. Under the guidance of her inspirational Transfiguration teacher, Albus Dumbledore, she had managed to become an Animagus; her animal form, with its distinctive markings (tabby cat, square spectacles markings around eyes) were duly logged in the Ministry of Magic’s Animagus Registry. Minerva was also, like her mother, a gifted Quidditch player, although a nasty fall in her final year (a foul during the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game which would decide the Cup winner) left her with concussion, several broken ribs and a lifelong desire to see Slytherin crushed on the Quidditch pitch. Though she gave up Quidditch on leaving Hogwarts, the innately competitive Professor McGonagall later took a keen interest in the fortunes of her house team, and retained a keen eye for Quidditch talent.
從霍格沃茨畢業(yè)時,米勒娃·麥格取得了令人印象深刻的成績:O.W.L.s(注:Ordinary Wizarding Level普通巫師等級考試) 和 N.E.W.T.s(注:Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test高級巫師等級考試)均為最優(yōu)成績,擔任格蘭芬多女級長,擔任學生會主席,還是當代變形術最有潛力新人獎的優(yōu)勝者。在她的變形術教授阿不思·鄧布利多的指導下,她成功成為了一個阿尼瑪格斯(注:指自身能夠變成某種動物,同時又保留魔法法術的巫師);她的動物形態(tài)有獨特的紋路(虎斑貓,在眼睛周圍有一圈方形眼鏡一樣的紋路),并正式在魔法部登記為注冊阿尼瑪格斯。同樣的,像她的母親一樣,米勒娃是一位有天分的魁地奇球員,盡管她在最后一學年的比賽中嚴重摔傷(在格蘭芬多和斯萊特林的魁地奇比賽中出現(xiàn)了一個決定冠軍得主的嚴重犯規(guī)),她因此腦震蕩,摔斷了幾根肋骨,并終身希望看到斯萊特林在魁地奇球場上被擊敗。盡管離開霍格沃茨后她就放棄了魁地奇,但與生俱來的好勝心使麥格教授一直對格蘭芬多學院球隊抱有極大地興趣,并對魁地奇天賦有著精準的判斷。
Early Heartbreak
初次心碎
Upon graduation from Hogwarts, Minerva returned to the manse to enjoy one last summer with her family before setting out for London, where she had been offered a position at the Ministry of Magic (Department of Magical Law Enforcement). These months were to prove some of the most difficult of Minerva’s life, for it was then, aged only eighteen, that she proved herself truly her mother’s daughter, by falling head-over-heels in love with a Muggle boy.
從霍格沃茨畢業(yè)后,米勒娃回到家中享受最后一個和家人一起度過的暑假,而后前往倫敦,供職于魔法部(魔法法律執(zhí)行司)。這幾個月的生活是米勒娃一生中最困難的歲月,她剛滿18歲,而且有其母必有其女,她無可救藥的愛上了一個麻瓜男孩。
It was the first and only time in Minerva McGonagall’s life that she might have been said to lose her head. Dougal McGregor was the handsome, clever and funny son of a local farmer. Though less beautiful than Isobel, Minerva was clever and witty. Dougal and Minerva shared a sense of humour, argued fiercely, and suspected mysterious depths in each other. Before either of them knew it, Dougal was on one knee in a ploughed field, proposing, and Minerva was accepting him.
這是米勒娃·麥格此生第一次也是唯一一次可以被稱為失去理智的情況。道格·麥格雷戈是當?shù)匾晃挥⒖?、聰慧、幽默的農家男孩。盡管沒有伊澤貝爾美麗,但米勒娃聰明機智。道格和米勒娃都有一種幽默感,他們激烈的爭論,去探尋對方內心深處的秘密。在所有人知道之前,道格在耕地上單膝跪下求婚了,米勒娃也答應了他。
She went home, intending to tell her parents of her engagement, yet found herself unable to do so. All that night she lay awake, thinking about her future. Dougal did not know what she, Minerva, truly was, any more than her father had known the truth about Isobel before they had married. Minerva had witnessed at close quarters the kind of marriage she might have if she wed Dougal. It would be the end of all her ambitions; it would mean a wand locked away, and children taught to lie, perhaps even to their own father. She did not fool herself that Dougal McGregor would accompany her to London, while she went to work every day at the Ministry. He was looking forward to inheriting his father’s farm.
她回家了,準備告訴父母自己訂婚的事,卻發(fā)現(xiàn)自己無法說出口。她整晚沒睡,思考著自己的未來。道格不了解真相,不知道米勒娃的真實身份,就像她的父親在不知道伊澤貝爾真實身份之前就娶了伊澤貝爾。米勒娃幾乎可以預見如果她嫁給道格會發(fā)生什么。這將成為她所有抱負的終點:這意味著藏起魔杖,教孩子說謊,甚至欺騙他們的父親。她將要整天在魔法部工作,她無法欺騙自己道格·麥格雷戈將會陪著她前往倫敦。她知道道格渴望繼承父親的農場。
Early next morning, Minerva slipped from her parents’ house and went to tell Dougal that she had changed her mind, and could not marry him. Mindful of the fact that if she broke the International Statute of Secrecy she would lose the job at the Ministry for which she was giving him up, she could give him no good reason for her change of heart. She left him devastated, and set out for London three days later.
第二天一早,米勒娃悄悄離開了父母家,前去告訴道格她改變主意了,她不能嫁給他了??紤]到如果違反了《國際巫師保密法》,她就會丟失在魔法部的工作,所以她放棄了道格,她并沒有給出一個變心的好理由。道格傷心欲絕,三天后就離開了倫敦。
Ministry Career
魔法部的工作
Though undoubtedly her feelings for the Ministry of Magic were coloured by the fact that she had recently suffered an emotional crisis, Minerva McGonagall did not much enjoy her new home and workplace. Some of her co-workers had an engrained anti-Muggle bias which, given her adoration of her Muggle father, and her continuing love for Dougal McGregor, she deplored. Though a most efficient and gifted employee, and fond of her much older boss, Elphinstone Urquart, Minerva was unhappy in London, and found that she missed Scotland. Finally, after two years at the Ministry, she was offered a prestigious promotion, yet found herself turning it down. She sent an owl to Hogwarts, asking whether she might be considered for a teaching post. The owl returned within hours, offering her a job in the Transfiguration department, under Head of Department, Albus Dumbledore.
毫無疑問,經歷的這場情感危機,嚴重影響了米勒娃對于魔法部的感官,米勒娃·麥格對自己的新家和工作環(huán)境并不滿意。她一些同事是堅定的反麻瓜偏見者,這讓崇拜自己的麻瓜父親并依舊愛著道格·麥格雷戈的米勒娃感到不滿。盡管身為部門最有天賦、最具效率的優(yōu)秀員工,并很喜歡她的舊上司埃爾菲斯特·厄本,米勒娃在倫敦依然過得不開心,她無比想念蘇格蘭。最終,在魔法部工作了兩年后,她贏得了不負眾望的晉升,但是她拒絕了。米勒娃派貓頭鷹給霍格沃茨送信,詢問自己是否可以擔任某一教職。幾小時后貓頭鷹帶來回信,她可以擔任變形術的助教,協(xié)助鄧布利多教授。
Friendship with Albus Dumbledore
和阿不思·鄧布利多的友誼
The school greeted Minerva McGonagall’s return with delight. Minerva threw herself into her work, proving herself a strict but inspirational teacher. If she kept letters from Dougal McGregor locked in a box under her bed, this was (she told herself firmly) better than keeping her wand locked there. Nevertheless, it was a shock to learn from the oblivious Isobel (in the middle of a chatty letter of local news) that Dougal had married the daughter of another farmer.
學校無比歡迎米勒娃·麥格的回歸。米勒娃全身心地投入到工作中,成為了一位嚴厲而富有啟發(fā)性的老師。把道格·麥格雷戈的信鎖在床底顯然比把魔杖藏起來更適合自己(她對自己堅定的說)。盡管如此,當從健忘的伊澤貝爾口中(關于當?shù)匦迈r事的閑聊)得知道格已經娶了另一位農家女為妻時,米勒娃還是很難過。
Albus Dumbledore discovered Minerva in tears in her classroom late that evening, and she confessed the whole story to him. Albus Dumbledore offered both comfort and wisdom, and told Minerva some of his own family history, previously unknown to her. The confidences exchanged that night between two intensely private and reserved characters were to form the basis of a lasting mutual esteem and friendship.
一晚,阿不思·鄧布利多發(fā)現(xiàn)米勒娃在教室里哭泣,米勒娃告訴了他全部的事。阿不思·鄧布利多睿智的安慰了米勒娃,他告訴米勒娃自己家里的舊事,那些不為人知的過去。那天晚上,這兩個含蓄內斂的人之間的秘密交換成為了此后長久友誼中互相尊重和信任的基石。
Marriage
婚姻
Through all her early years at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall remained on terms of friendship with her old boss at the Ministry, Elphinstone Urquart. He came to visit her while on holiday to Scotland, and to her great surprise and embarrassment, proposed marriage in Madam Puddifoot’s teashop. Still in love with Dougal McGregor, Minerva turned him down.
在霍格沃茨任教的初期,米勒娃·麥格一直和之前在魔法部工作時的前上司埃爾菲斯特·厄本保持著友誼。在一次假期中,埃爾菲斯特前來蘇格蘭拜訪米勒娃,他在帕笛芙夫人茶館突然向米勒娃求婚,米勒娃非常驚訝并尷尬。因為還愛著道格·麥格雷戈,米勒娃拒絕了埃爾菲斯特。
Elphinstone, however, had never ceased to love her, nor to propose every now and then, even though she continued to refuse him. The death of Dougal McGregor, however, although traumatic, seemed to free Minerva. Shortly after Voldemort’s first defeat, Elphinstone, now white-haired, proposed again during a summertime stroll around the lake in the Hogwarts grounds. This time Minerva accepted. Elphinstone, now retired, was beside himself with joy, and purchased a small cottage in Hogsmeade for the pair of them, whence Minerva could travel easily to work every day.
然而,埃爾菲斯特一直愛著她,并時不時向她求婚,即使一直被拒絕。道格·麥格雷戈死后,雖然感到傷心,但米勒娃卻覺得自由了。不久,伏地魔第一次失敗后,在夏日繞著霍格沃茨庭院的湖泊散步時,當滿頭白發(fā)的埃爾菲斯特又一次求婚。這一次,米勒娃答應了。已經退休的埃爾菲斯特欣喜若狂,他在霍格莫德(注:霍格沃茨不遠處的巫師村莊)買了一間小別墅,這樣米勒娃每天就能輕松地走著去學校上班。
Known to successive generations of students as ‘Professor McGonagall’, Minerva – always something of a feminist – announced that she would be keeping her own name upon marriage. Traditionalists sniffed – why was Minerva refusing to accept a pure-blood name, and keeping that of her Muggle father?
作為幾代學生所熟知的“麥格教授”,米勒娃一直是女權主義者,從她在婚后保留自己的姓氏就可以看出。傳統(tǒng)主義者對她的行為嗤之以鼻:為什么米勒娃拒絕了一個純血巫師的姓氏而保留著麻瓜父親的姓?
The marriage (cut tragically short, though it was destined to be) was a very happy one. Though they had no children of their own, Minerva’s nieces and nephews (children of her brothers Malcolm and Robert) were frequent visitors to their home. This was a period of great fulfillment for Minerva.
這段婚姻(雖然一開始就注定了短暫的命運)是一段非常幸福的婚姻。雖然兩人沒有孩子,但米勒娃的侄子和侄女(她兄弟馬爾科姆和羅伯特的孩子)經常來探望他們。米勒娃為此感到非常滿足和自豪。
The accidental death of Elphinstone from a Venomous Tentacula bite, three years into their marriage, was an enormous sorrow to all who knew the couple. Minerva could not bear to remain alone in their cottage, but packed her things after Elphinstone’s funeral and returned to her sparse stone-floored bedroom in Hogwarts Castle, accessible through a concealed door in the wall of her first-floor study. Always a very brave and private person, she poured all her energies into her work, and few people – excepting perhaps Albus Dumbledore – ever realised how much she suffered.
在結婚三年后,埃爾菲斯特被毒觸手刺傷而失去生命,所有認識這對夫婦的人都陷入了悲痛中。米勒娃沒有辦法一個人生活在他們共同的小屋里,但直到埃爾菲斯特的葬禮之后,米勒娃才收拾好東西搬到了她在霍格沃茨城堡中的稀稀拉拉的石頭構建的臥室中,臥室在她一樓書房后一扇不顯眼的小門里。她是一個勇敢而內斂的人,她將一切精力投入到了工作中,幾乎沒有人——除了阿不思·鄧布利多——意識到她內心有多么痛苦。
J.K. Rowling’s thoughts
J·K·羅琳的觀點
Minerva was the Roman goddess of warriors and wisdom. William McGonagall is celebrated as the worst poet in British history. There was something irresistible to me about his name, and the idea that such a brilliant woman might be a distant relative of the buffoonish McGonagall.
米勒娃是羅馬戰(zhàn)爭和智慧女神的名字。威廉·麥格是整個英格蘭歷史中最差勁的詩人。他的名字中有些東西非常吸引我(羅琳),于是有了這樣一個想法:這個如此聰慧的女人可能是那個滑稽的麥格的遠房親戚。
A small sample of his work will give a flavour of its unintentional comedic value. The following was written as part of a poem commemorating a Victorian railway disaster:
他的一些作品會給人一種無意義的喜劇感。下文是紀念維多利亞鐵路災難寫的一首詩的一部分:
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
銀色泰河上美麗的鐵路橋!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
唉!我非常遺憾地說道
That ninety lives have been taken away
九十條鮮活的生命在此消亡
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
在1879年最后一個安息日,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.
這會被長久銘記的一天。