By J.K. Rowling

来自J.K罗琳

Originally published on 

on Aug 10th 2015

原载于2015年8月15日

The famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat gives an account of its own genesis in a series of songs sung at the beginning of each school year. Legend has it that the hat once belonged to one of the four founders, Godric Gryffindor, and that it was jointly enchanted by all four founders to ensure that students would be sorted into their eponymous houses, which would be selected according to each founder’s particular preferences in students.

著名的霍格沃茨的分院帽在每学年开始时唱的一系列歌曲中讲述了它自己的起源。传说这顶帽子曾经属于四位创始人之一的戈德里克·格兰芬多，四位创始人共同设计了这所学校，以确保学生们能被分到与他们改进的学院里，根据每个创始人对学生的特殊偏好进行挑选。

The Sorting Hat is one of the cleverest enchanted objects most witches and wizards will ever meet. It literally contains the intelligence of the four founders, can speak (through a rip near its brim) and is skilled at Legilimency, which enables it to look into the wearer’s head and divine his or her capabilities or mood. It can even respond to the thoughts of the wearer.

分院帽是大多数巫师遇到的最聪明的魔法物品之一。它实际上包含了四个创始人的智慧，会说话（通过边缘的裂口），并且擅长于施展魔法法，这使得它能够看到佩戴者的大脑，类似读心术，并预测他或她的能力或情绪。它甚至可以也响应佩戴者的想法。

The Sorting Hat is notorious for refusing to admit it has made a mistake in its sorting of a student. On those occasions when Slytherins behave altruistically or selflessly, when Ravenclaws flunk all their exams, when Hufflepuffs prove lazy yet academically gifted and when Gryffindors exhibit cowardice, the Hat steadfastly backs its original decision. On balance, however, the Hat has made remarkably few errors of judgement over the many centuries it has been at work.

分类帽因拒绝承认在分类学生时犯了错误而臭名昭著。当斯莱特林表现得无私时，当拉文克劳考试不及格时，当赫奇帕奇被证明是懒惰，但在学术上有天时，当格兰芬多表现出怯懦，帽子坚定地支持其最初的决定。然而，总的来说，在过去的几个世纪里，“分院帽子”在判断上很少犯错误。

J.K. Rowling’s thoughts

J.K.罗琳的想法

The Sorting Hat does not appear in my earliest plans for Hogwarts. I debated several different methods for sorting students (because I knew from early on that there would be four houses, all with very different qualities). The first was an elaborate, Heath Robinson-ish machine that did all kinds of magical things before reaching a decision, but I did not like it: it felt at once too complicated, and too easy. Next I placed four statues of the four founders in the Entrance Hall, which came alive and selected students from the throng in front of them while the school watched. This was better, but still not quite right. Finally, I wrote a list of the ways in which people can be chosen: eeny meeny miny mo, short straws, chosen by team captains, names out of a hat – names out of a talking hat – putting on a hat – the Sorting Hat.

分院帽并没有出现在我最初的关于霍格沃茨设想中。我盘算了几种不同的分类学生的方法（因为我很早就知道会有四个学院，都有非常不同的品德）。第一个是一个被精心设计的、希思·罗宾逊式的机器，在做出决定之前做了各种神奇的事情，但我不喜欢它：感觉太复杂，也太容易了。接下来，我在入口大厅放置了四尊四位创始人的雕像，这些雕像栩栩如生，从人群中选出学生站在他们面前，而学校则在一旁观看。这是更好的，但仍不完全正确。最后，我写了一张清单，列出了选人的方法：开始抽签，短吸管，由队长挑选，从帽子里取名字——从会说话的帽子中取名字，戴上帽子——分院帽。