（个人翻译，包含一定主观意译，如有谬误望指出，仅供同好参考及学习用，如有需要可私聊获取源文件，原版权属于pottermore，无授权个人翻译）

原网页：https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/professor-mcgonagall

Professor McGonagall

麦格教授

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·麦格是家里第一个孩子，也是家中唯一的女孩，她的父亲是苏格兰长老教派牧师，母亲是一位在霍格沃茨上过学的女巫。20世纪初，米勒娃在苏格兰高地长大，并慢慢意识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.

米勒娃的父亲——罗伯特·麦格牧师——爱上了同村充满活力的少女伊泽贝尔·罗丝。像他的邻居一样，罗伯特以为伊泽贝尔是在英国一所女子寄宿学校上学。事实上，当伊泽贝尔每次离家几个月时，她是前往了霍格沃茨魔法学校上学。

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.

当伊泽贝尔意识到父母（一对巫师夫妻）对她和年轻麻瓜的关系的不满，伊泽贝尔选择隐瞒了她和罗伯特迅速发展的感情。当她18岁时，她爱上了罗伯特。不幸的是，她没有勇气告诉他自己的女巫身份。

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.

这对小夫妻私奔了，双方父母都很生气。伊泽贝尔和家人疏远了，她没有办法在幸福的蜜月期间告诉自己新丈夫她以年级第一的成绩从霍格沃茨魔法学校毕业，也不能说她在学校担任魁地奇队长的事情。伊泽贝尔和罗伯特搬到了凯斯尼斯郊区的牧师住宅，在那里，美丽的伊泽贝尔妥善的管理着丈夫微薄的薪水。

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.

这对年轻夫妻第一个孩子米勒娃的出生，既是幸福同时也是隐患。伊泽贝尔想念家人，想念她为了爱情放弃的魔法世界，她坚持用自己祖母的名字为刚出生的女儿命名，希望她成为同样天赋异禀的女巫。这个古怪的名字引起了周围居住者的在意，同时罗伯特·麦格牧师发现很难向教区居民解释清楚他妻子的选择。此外，他对妻子的喜怒无常感到震惊。朋友们告诉他，女人生完孩子后总是容易情绪波动，用不了多久，伊泽贝尔就会恢复正常。

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，伊泽贝尔变得越来越孤僻，经常和米勒娃一次独处好几天。后来伊泽贝尔告诉女儿，在刚出生几小时后，她就已经展现出了微小而不起眼的魔法迹象。玩具从架子上消失出现在她的婴儿床里。家里养的猫在她会说话之前似乎就能听懂她的指示。父亲的风笛在远处的房间奏响，远远传来的风笛声使婴儿的米勒娃咯咯笑出声。

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.

伊泽贝尔既骄傲又害怕。她知道自己必须在罗伯特目睹这一切被吓到之前，向罗伯特坦白一切真相。最终，在罗伯特的耐心询问中，伊泽贝尔哭着从床下拿出上锁的盒子，取出魔杖，向罗伯特展示了自己身为女巫的能力。

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.

尽管米勒娃当时还小，记不得那个晚上发生了什么，但是这件事的影响使得她对拥有魔法却在麻瓜世界中长大有了深刻的认识。即使罗伯特·麦格足够爱他的妻子，即使发现妻子是一个女巫，他为这件事深感震惊，因为妻子对他隐瞒了这个重大的秘密那么久。更重要的是，他一直为自己是个诚实正直的人感到骄傲，但现在却被卷入了一种与他本性完全不符的秘密生活中。伊泽贝尔哭着解释，她（以及女儿）受到《国际巫师保密法》的约束，她们必须隐瞒自己的存在，不然就要面对魔法部愤怒的官员。罗伯特还对当地人——主要是那种严肃、刻板、传统的品性——如何看待一个妻子是女巫的人担任牧师感到不安。

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.

爱依然存在，但父母之间的信任彻底崩塌，米勒娃，身为一个聪慧而细心的孩子，只能悲伤地看着这一切发生。又有两个孩子，都是男孩，出生在麦格家，都在一定年龄展现出了魔法的天赋。米勒娃帮母亲向马尔科姆和小罗伯特解释，他们不能炫耀自己的魔法能力，并且帮助母亲向父亲隐瞒因为偶尔的魔法事故造成的意外和尴尬。

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.

米勒娃和麻瓜父亲的关系非常亲近，在性格上她更像自己的父亲。她因为目睹父亲因为家庭奇怪的环境而苦苦挣扎感到难过。同样，她也能体会母亲适应全是麻瓜的村庄的生活有多么巨大的压力，以及母亲有多么想念和同类人在一起的自由和自身卓越的天赋。米勒娃一直记得，当她11岁生日收到霍格沃茨魔法学校的录取通知书时，她的母亲哭了无数次；她也知道，伊泽贝尔的眼泪不仅仅是因为自豪，同时也是因为羡慕。

School Career

学业

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.

通常情况下，年轻的男女巫师来自于一个努力寻找自己的魔法界身份的家庭，但霍格沃茨对于米勒娃来说，是一个享受自由和释放自我的地方。

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为不同寻常而被关注，因为她是一个帽栖者（注：指分院帽花了很长时间才决定去向的人。）。分院帽在5分钟又30秒的思考中，一直在把米勒娃分在拉文克劳学院还是格兰芬多学院中摇摆不定，但最后把米勒娃分在了格兰芬多。（在很久以后的几年里，这一直是米勒娃和同事菲利乌斯·弗立维之间一个幽默有趣的话题，他们给了分院帽同样的难以抉择，但最后却得到了完全相反的结论。两位院长都认为，他们也许在年轻时的关键点，就已经交换了位置。）

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，米勒娃成为了她那一届学生中公认的最优秀的人，并且拥有极为罕见的变形学天赋。随着她在学校的进步，她证明了她继承自母亲的天赋和来自父亲的严格的道德准则。米勒娃的学习生涯和后来的赫奇帕奇院长波莫娜·斯普劳特有两年时间重合，这两位女士不论当时还是后来的时光中都保持着良好的关系。

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.

从霍格沃茨毕业时，米勒娃·麦格取得了令人印象深刻的成绩：O.W.L.s（注：Ordinary Wizarding Level普通巫师等级考试） 和 N.E.W.T.s（注：Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test高级巫师等级考试）均为最优成绩，担任格兰芬多女级长，担任学生会主席，还是当代变形术最有潜力新人奖的优胜者。在她的变形术教授阿不思·邓布利多的指导下，她成功成为了一个阿尼玛格斯（注：指自身能够变成某种动物，同时又保留魔法法术的巫师）；她的动物形态有独特的纹路（虎斑猫，在眼睛周围有一圈方形眼镜一样的纹路），并正式在魔法部登记为注册阿尼玛格斯。同样的，像她的母亲一样，米勒娃是一位有天分的魁地奇球员，尽管她在最后一学年的比赛中严重摔伤（在格兰芬多和斯莱特林的魁地奇比赛中出现了一个决定冠军得主的严重犯规），她因此脑震荡，摔断了几根肋骨，并终身希望看到斯莱特林在魁地奇球场上被击败。尽管离开霍格沃茨后她就放弃了魁地奇，但与生俱来的好胜心使麦格教授一直对格兰芬多学院球队抱有极大地兴趣，并对魁地奇天赋有着精准的判断。

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.

从霍格沃茨毕业后，米勒娃回到家中享受最后一个和家人一起度过的暑假，而后前往伦敦，供职于魔法部（魔法法律执行司）。这几个月的生活是米勒娃一生中最困难的岁月，她刚满18岁，而且有其母必有其女，她无可救药的爱上了一个麻瓜男孩。

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.

这是米勒娃·麦格此生第一次也是唯一一次可以被称为失去理智的情况。道格·麦格雷戈是当地一位英俊、聪慧、幽默的农家男孩。尽管没有伊泽贝尔美丽，但米勒娃聪明机智。道格和米勒娃都有一种幽默感，他们激烈的争论，去探寻对方内心深处的秘密。在所有人知道之前，道格在耕地上单膝跪下求婚了，米勒娃也答应了他。

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，准备告诉父母自己订婚的事，却发现自己无法说出口。她整晚没睡，思考着自己的未来。道格不了解真相，不知道米勒娃的真实身份，就像她的父亲在不知道伊泽贝尔真实身份之前就娶了伊泽贝尔。米勒娃几乎可以预见如果她嫁给道格会发生什么。这将成为她所有抱负的终点：这意味着藏起魔杖，教孩子说谎，甚至欺骗他们的父亲。她将要整天在魔法部工作，她无法欺骗自己道格·麦格雷戈将会陪着她前往伦敦。她知道道格渴望继承父亲的农场。

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，米勒娃悄悄离开了父母家，前去告诉道格她改变主意了，她不能嫁给他了。考虑到如果违反了《国际巫师保密法》，她就会丢失在魔法部的工作，所以她放弃了道格，她并没有给出一个变心的好理由。道格伤心欲绝，三天后就离开了伦敦。

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.

毫无疑问，经历的这场情感危机，严重影响了米勒娃对于魔法部的感官，米勒娃·麦格对自己的新家和工作环境并不满意。她一些同事是坚定的反麻瓜偏见者，这让崇拜自己的麻瓜父亲并依旧爱着道格·麦格雷戈的米勒娃感到不满。尽管身为部门最有天赋、最具效率的优秀员工，并很喜欢她的旧上司埃尔菲斯特·厄本，米勒娃在伦敦依然过得不开心，她无比想念苏格兰。最终，在魔法部工作了两年后，她赢得了不负众望的晋升，但是她拒绝了。米勒娃派猫头鹰给霍格沃茨送信，询问自己是否可以担任某一教职。几小时后猫头鹰带来回信，她可以担任变形术的助教，协助邓布利多教授。

Friendship with Albus Dumbledore

和阿不思·邓布利多的友谊

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.

学校无比欢迎米勒娃·麦格的回归。米勒娃全身心地投入到工作中，成为了一位严厉而富有启发性的老师。把道格·麦格雷戈的信锁在床底显然比把魔杖藏起来更适合自己（她对自己坚定的说）。尽管如此，当从健忘的伊泽贝尔口中（关于当地新鲜事的闲聊）得知道格已经娶了另一位农家女为妻时，米勒娃还是很难过。

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·邓布利多发现米勒娃在教室里哭泣，米勒娃告诉了他全部的事。阿不思·邓布利多睿智的安慰了米勒娃，他告诉米勒娃自己家里的旧事，那些不为人知的过去。那天晚上，这两个含蓄内敛的人之间的秘密交换成为了此后长久友谊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·麦格一直和之前在魔法部工作时的前上司埃尔菲斯特·厄本保持着友谊。在一次假期中，埃尔菲斯特前来苏格兰拜访米勒娃，他在帕笛芙夫人茶馆突然向米勒娃求婚，米勒娃非常惊讶并尴尬。因为还爱着道格·麦格雷戈，米勒娃拒绝了埃尔菲斯特。

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，埃尔菲斯特一直爱着她，并时不时向她求婚，即使一直被拒绝。道格·麦格雷戈死后，虽然感到伤心，但米勒娃却觉得自由了。不久，伏地魔第一次失败后，在夏日绕着霍格沃茨庭院的湖泊散步时，当满头白发的埃尔菲斯特又一次求婚。这一次，米勒娃答应了。已经退休的埃尔菲斯特欣喜若狂，他在霍格莫德（注：霍格沃茨不远处的巫师村庄）买了一间小别墅，这样米勒娃每天就能轻松地走着去学校上班。

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?

作为几代学生所熟知的“麦格教授”，米勒娃一直是女权主义者，从她在婚后保留自己的姓氏就可以看出。传统主义者对她的行为嗤之以鼻：为什么米勒娃拒绝了一个纯血巫师的姓氏而保留着麻瓜父亲的姓？

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.

这段婚姻（虽然一开始就注定了短暂的命运）是一段非常幸福的婚姻。虽然两人没有孩子，但米勒娃的侄子和侄女（她兄弟马尔科姆和罗伯特的孩子）经常来探望他们。米勒娃为此感到非常满足和自豪。

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.

在结婚三年后，埃尔菲斯特被毒触手刺伤而失去生命，所有认识这对夫妇的人都陷入了悲痛中。米勒娃没有办法一个人生活在他们共同的小屋里，但直到埃尔菲斯特的葬礼之后，米勒娃才收拾好东西搬到了她在霍格沃茨城堡中的稀稀拉拉的石头构建的卧室中，卧室在她一楼书房后一扇不显眼的小门里。她是一个勇敢而内敛的人，她将一切精力投入到了工作中，几乎没有人——除了阿不思·邓布利多——意识到她内心有多么痛苦。

J.K. Rowling’s thoughts

J·K·罗琳的观点

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.

米勒娃是罗马战争和智慧女神的名字。威廉·麦格是整个英格兰历史中最差劲的诗人。他的名字中有些东西非常吸引我（罗琳），于是有了这样一个想法：这个如此聪慧的女人可能是那个滑稽的麦格的远房亲戚。

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:

他的一些作品会给人一种无意义的喜剧感。下文是纪念维多利亚铁路灾难写的一首诗的一部分：

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!

银色泰河上美丽的铁路桥！

Alas! I am very sorry to say

唉！我非常遗憾地说道

That ninety lives have been taken away

九十条鲜活的生命在此消亡

On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

在1879年最后一个安息日，

Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

这会被长久铭记的一天。