海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第14期
Chapter VII第七章
The next important step in my education was learning to read.在我接受教育的过程之中，下一步的学习重点是“阅读”。
As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act, or a quality. I had a frame in which I could arrange the words in little sentences; but before I ever put sentences in the frame I used to make them in objects. I found the slips of paper which represented, for example, "doll," "is," "on," "bed" and placed each name on its object; then I put my doll on the bed with the words is, on, bed arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence of the words, and at the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves.每当我拼写单词的时候，我的老师就会拿给我一些卡片，这些卡片上面印着凸起的字母。我学得很快，我知道每一个词语都代表着一种物体，一种行为，或者是一种特质。我有一个拼写板，最初，我能在上面拼凑出一些短句。我发现了那些卡片所代表的含义，比如“doll”，“is”，“on”，“bed”这几个词，每一个词都有其自身对应的物体和形式。于是，我就用“is on bed”表示把洋娃娃放在床上。在造句的同时，我也掌握了句子本身的意义和结构。
One day, Miss Sullivan tells me, I pinned the word girl on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe. On the shelf I arranged the words, is, in, wardrobe. Nothing delighted me so much as this game. My teacher and I played it for hours at a time. Often everything in the room was arranged inobject sentences.有一天，苏立文小姐对我说，如果我把“girl”的卡片别在我的围裙上，然后站在衣橱里，这句话该怎么说？于是，我就在拼写板上用“is in wardrobe”表示出来。再没有什么比这种游戏更让我开心的了。我和老师每次都一连玩好几个小时，屋子里的每一样东西都被我们当做练习造句用的道具。
From the printed slip it was but a step to the printed book. I took my "Reader for Beginners" and hunted for the words I knew; when I found them my joy was like that of a game of hide-and-seek. Thus I began to read. Of the time when I began to read connected stories I shall speak later.逐渐地，我从认字卡片上的字过渡到了看书，我把自己看做一个“初级读者”。在书中，我如饥似渴地搜寻着那些我认识的字。一旦发现了这些字，我高兴得就像玩了一场捉迷藏游戏。就这样，我开始了阅读生涯。那时候，我开始读一些系列故事，后来，我还能把这些故事讲出来。
For a long time I had no regular lessons. Even when I studied most earnestly it seemed more like play than work. Everything Miss Sullivan taught me she illustrated by a beautiful story or a poem. Whenever anything delighted or interested me she talked it over with me just as if she were a little girl herself. What many children think of with dread, as a painful plodding through grammar, hard sums and harder definitions, is to-day one of my most precious memories.有很长一段时间，我并没有系统地学习某些课程。所以，当我满怀热忱地认真学习时，更像是在玩耍娱乐。苏立文小姐会把教给我的每一样东西用一个故事或者一首诗表达出来。无论何时，只要碰到令人高兴或者是有趣的事，她都会事无巨细地讲给我听，她仿佛把自己也变成了一个小姑娘。在求知的过程中，发生在许多小孩子身上的畏惧心理并没有对我造成影响，比如像枯燥乏味的文法，艰涩的算术题和更难的名词解释，正相反，这些都成了我最珍视的回忆。
I cannot explain the peculiar sympathy Miss Sullivan had with my pleasures and desires. Perhaps it was the result of long association with the blind. Added to this she had a wonderful faculty fordescription. She went quickly over uninteresting details, and never nagged me with questions to see if I remembered the day-before-yesterday's lesson. She introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, making every subject so real that I could not help remembering what she taught.对于苏立文小姐所给予我的特殊的关爱之心，我无法做出解释，我想，这也许是长期失明造成的后果。除了爱心，老师还具有极其出色的描述才能，她能迅速地掠过那些乏味的细节，而且从来不唠唠叨叨地问我前天都学了哪些东西之类的问题。她总是一点一点地给我讲解枯燥的科学原理，她讲得无比生动，以至于我常常不由自主地想起她教给我的东西。
We read and studied out of doors, preferring the sunlit woods to the house. All my early lessons have in them the breath of the woods—the fine, resinous odour of pine needles, blended with theperfume of wild grapes. Seated in the gracious shade of a wild tulip tree, I learned to think that everything has a lesson and a suggestion. "The loveliness of things taught me all their use." Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education—noisy-throated frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until, forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their reedy note, little downy chickens and wildflowers, the dogwood blossoms, meadow-violets and budding fruit trees. I felt the bursting cotton-bolls and fingered their soft fiber and fuzzy seeds; I felt the low soughing of the wind through the cornstalks, the silky rustling of the long leaves, and the indignant snort of my pony, as we caught him in the pasture and put the bitin his mouth—ah me! how well I remember the spicy, clovery smell of his breath!我们通常都会到户外阅读和学习，沐浴在阳光摇曳的树林里要比待在房子里好得多。我最初学习的所有课程都是在林木成荫的室外进行的，空气中弥漫着松针的清香，还夹杂着野葡萄的果香。惬意地坐在野生鹅掌楸的树荫下，我学会了思考。对于一个学生而言，我认为每一件事物都是一堂课，都有一种裨益。可以说，“万事万物让我领悟到了它们的魅力和功用”。事实上，所有能嗡嗡鸣叫，或者默默开花的东西都是我学习的对象——我把聒噪的青蛙、蝈蝈儿和蟋蟀抓在手里，直到忽略了它们的存在。昆虫振翅鸣叫，毛茸茸的小鸡和野花在手指间划过，山茱萸竞相绽放，草地上的紫罗兰和发芽的果树散发着芳香，我已经同自然融为一体。我感觉到了绽开的棉荚，我用手指触摸着它那柔软的纤维和覆有绒毛的种子；我感觉到了微风吹过玉米秆的沙沙低鸣，还有我的小马烦躁地打响鼻的气息——我们在牧场里抓住它，而且给它戴上了马嚼子——哈，看我有多棒！至今我还清楚地记得小马驹呼出的那种浓烈的三叶草味道。
Sometimes I rose at dawn and stole into the garden while the heavy dew lay on the grass and flowers. Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a suddenterror, as the little creature became aware of a pressure from without.有时候，我会在黎明时分就爬起来，然后偷偷地溜到花园里。草丛和花朵上缀满露水，很少有人能体会到把玫瑰花轻轻捧在手里的，也很少有人能见到百合花在清晨的微风中摇曳的倩影。我偶尔会在*的时候抓到一只昆虫，我能感受到它因惊恐而摩擦翅膀的微弱震颤。我想，即便是如此微小的生物，也会有自己的意识，也会对突如其来的压力做出反应。
海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第15期
Another favourite haunt of mine was the orchard, where the fruit ripened early in July. The large, downy peaches would reach themselves into my hand, and as the joyous breezes flew about the trees the apples tumbled at my feet. Oh, the delight with which I gathered up the fruit in my pinafore, pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples, still warm from the sun, and skipped back to the house!果园是另一个我经常光顾的去处，那里的果实在7月初就成熟了。硕大饱满，覆盖着绒毛的桃子触手可得，和煦的微风穿过树丛，苹果在我的脚下滚来滚去。哦，把果实收集到围裙里的感觉真是妙不可言。我把脸贴在光滑温热的苹果上，感受着阳光照射的余温。然后，我蹦蹦跳跳地满载而归。
Our favourite walk was to Keller's Landing, an old tumbledown lumber-wharf on the Tennessee River, used during the Civil War to land soldiers. There we spent many happy hours and played at learning geography. I built dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, and dug river-beds, all for fun, and never dreamed that I was learning a lesson. I listened with increasing wonder to Miss Sullivan's descriptions of the great round world with its burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice, and many other things as strange. She made raised maps in clay, so that I could feel the mountain ridges and valleys, and follow with my fingers the devious course of rivers. I liked this, too; but the division of the earth into zones and poles confused and teased my mind. Theillustrative strings and the orange stick representing the poles seemed so real that even to this day the mere mention of temperate zone suggests a series of twine circles; and I believe that if any one should set about it he could convince me that white bears actually climb the North Pole.散步时，我们最喜欢去的地方是“老凯勒码头”，这是田纳西河边一个破败不堪的木制码头。南北战争期间，这里被当做运输军队的专用码头。我们在这里学习地理知识，度过了一段令人回味的美好时光。我用小石子搭建水坝，建造岛屿和湖泊，还挖掘河床，这一切都是为了好玩儿，我从来没有意识到我正在上课学习。我满怀好奇地“听”苏立文小姐描述世界的博大精深——燃烧的山脉，被埋葬的城市，移动的冰河，以及众多奇妙的自然现象。老师会用黏土制作立体地图，这样我就能感觉到山脊和峡谷的形态，我的手指也会触摸到河流曲折的流向。我喜欢这种生动的讲解，但是把地球划分成地带和极点还是让我有些糊涂。用来说明的细线和代表极点的橘树枝似乎是最形象的比喻了，即使在今天，人们讲解地球气候带时，仍会用一串串的绳圈来说明。我想，假如有谁采用了这种方法，那么他一定会让我相信，白熊实际上是在攀登北极。
Arithmetic seems to have been the only study I did not like. From the first I was not interested in the science of numbers. Miss Sullivan tried to teach me to count by stringing beads in groups, and by arranging kindergarten straws I learned to add and subtract. I never had patience to arrangemore than five or six groups at a time. When I had accomplished this my conscience was at rest for the day, and I went out quickly to find my playmates.算术似乎是我唯一不喜欢学习的课程。从一开始我就对有关数字的科学不感兴趣。苏立文小姐试图用串珠子的方式教我计算，她还通过排列麦秆教我学习加减法。我很没有耐心，每次最多排列五六组而已。完成了课业，我的心思马上就转移到了别处，我会立刻跑出去寻找我的玩伴。
In this same leisurely manner I studied zoology and botany.以同样轻松悠闲的方式，我还学习了有关动物学和植物学的知识。
Once a gentleman, whose name I have forgotten, sent me a collection of fossils—tiny mollusk shells beautifully marked, and bits of sandstone with the print of birds' claws, and a lovely fern in bas-relief. These were the keys which unlocked the treasures of the antediluvian world for me. With trembling fingers I listened to Miss Sullivan's descriptions of the terrible beasts, with uncouth, unpronounceable names, which once went tramping through the primeval forests, tearing down the branches of gigantic trees for food, and died in the dismal swamps of anunknown age. For a long time these strange creatures haunted my dreams, and this gloomyperiod formed a somber background to the joyous Now, filled with sunshine and roses and echoing with the gentle beat of my pony's hoof.以前我遇到过一位绅士，他的名字我已经忘记了，他曾送给我一套化石收藏标本——微小的软体壳类动物形成精美的印痕，一块块砂岩上凸显出飞鸟的爪子，可爱的蕨类植物也在石头上呈现出浅浅的浮雕。对我而言，这些知识犹如开启上古世界宝藏的一把把钥匙。伴随着颤抖的手指，我“听”苏立文小姐讲述猛兽的故事。这些凶残、叫不出名字的野兽，曾经穿梭在广袤的原始森林里，它们折断巨树的枝桠用来果腹。最终，在一个古老的未知年代，这些猛兽消亡在昏暗的沼泽之中。当时，这些古怪的生物常常萦绕在我的梦境里。如今，我的世界充满了阳光和盛开的玫瑰，小马驹的蹄子发出轻柔的节拍声，同快乐的生活相比，这段阴郁的记忆变成了留在心底的前尘往事。
Another time a beautiful shell was given me, and with a child's surprise and delight I learned how a tiny mollusk had built the lustrous coil for his dwelling place, and how on still nights, when there is no breeze stirring the waves, the Nautilus sails on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean in his "ship of pearl." After I had learned a great many interesting things about the life and habits of the children of the sea—how in the midst of dashing waves the little polyps build the beautiful coral isles of the Pacific, and the foraminifera have made the chalkhills of many a land—my teacher read me "The Chambered Nautilus," and showed me that the shell-building process of the mollusks is symbolical of the development of the mind. Just as the wonder-working mantle of the Nautilus changes the material it absorbs from the water and makes it a part of itself, so the bits of knowledge one gathers undergo a similar change and become pearls of thought.还有一次，有人给了我一个美丽的螺壳，伴随着一个小孩子的惊喜和好奇，我了解到了一个微小的软体动物是如何在它们的栖息地建造环形洞穴的。我还知道了它们在晚上活动的情形，夜间，不会有风卷起波浪，在“珍珠船”的搭载下，鹦鹉螺会航行在印度洋的蓝色海面上。我学习了很多关于海洋生物习性的知识，这些知识趣味无穷。比如，在涌动的波浪之中，微小的珊瑚虫是如何在太平洋上建造美丽的珊瑚岛的；有孔虫类又是如何形成陆地上的石灰岩山体的。我的老师为我读《背着房间的鹦鹉螺》，并且告诉我，可以把软体动物外壳的形成过程，视做一种心智发展的象征。就是说，鹦鹉螺身上的罩子是神奇工作的结果，它把从海水中吸收的物质转化成了它身体的一部分。同样，人类汲取知识也要经过类似的转化过程，直至知识变成“思想的珍珠”。
海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第16期
Again, it was the growth of a plant that furnished the text for a lesson. We bought a lily and set it in a sunny window. Very soon the green, pointed buds showed signs of opening. The slender, fingerlike leaves on the outside opened slowly, reluctant, I thought, to reveal the loveliness they hid; once having made a start, however, the opening process went on rapidly, but in order and systematically. There was always one bud larger and more beautiful than the rest, which pushed her outer, covering back with more pomp, as if the beauty in soft, silky robes knew that she was the lily-queen by right divine, while her more timid sisters doffed their green hoods shyly, until the whole plant was one nodding bough of loveliness and fragrance.这样的例子还有不少，比如，植物的生长过程就是我学习的“课本”。我们买来了一盆百合花，然后把它放在阳光通透的窗台上。没过多久，嫩绿挺拔的花蕾便显露出了开放的征兆。最初，纤巧得如同手指一样粗细的叶子慢慢向外张开。我想，它可能不太情愿向人展示其内在的魅力。接着，它再一次启动了开放进程，这个过程显得迅速而有条不紊；而且，总是有一个花蕾鹤立鸡群，同其余的花苞相比更大更美丽。于是，群芳就将这个最出众的花蕾推到了舞台上，而这个披着纤巧柔美外衣的蓓蕾似乎也知晓自己就是神圣的“百合花女王”；与此同时，她的那些羞怯的姊妹也纷纷摘下了绿色的头巾，直到整盆百合变成了一个争奇斗艳、芬芳四溢的花中翘楚。
Once there were eleven tadpoles in a glass globe set in a window full of plants. I remember the eagerness with which I made discoveries about them. It was great fun to plunge my hand into thebowl and feel the tadpoles frisk about, and to let them slip and slide between my fingers. One day a more ambitious fellow leaped beyond the edge of the bowl and fell on the floor, where I found him to all appearance more dead than alive. The only sign of life was a slight wriggling of his tail. But no sooner had he returned to his element than he darted to the bottom, swimming round and round in joyous activity. He had made his leap, he had seen the great world, and wascontent to stay in his pretty glass house under the big fuchsia tree until he attained the dignityof froghood. Then he went to live in the leafy pool at the end of the garden, where he made the summer nights musical with his quaint love-song.有一次，在种满了各类花草的窗户边，不知是谁放了一个球形玻璃鱼缸，里面还游动着十一只蝌蚪。至今，我仍然记得对这些蝌蚪进行探索时的强烈好奇心。我把手伸进鱼缸里，让蝌蚪在手指间穿梭游动，这带给了我巨大的快乐。一天，蝌蚪里有一只雄心勃勃的家伙蹦出了鱼缸落到地上。待我摸到时，我发现它已经半死不活了，唯一的生命迹象就是它轻轻蠕动的尾巴。但是我很快把它放回了鱼缸，于是，这只蝌蚪一头扎进水底，欢快地在鱼缸里游来游去。不管怎么说，它的奋力一跃使它看到了更加广阔的世界。如今，它心满意足地回到了它那美丽的玻璃房子里，在那棵灯笼海棠树的庇护下，它最终会长成一只威风凛凛的青蛙。那时，它就会生活在花园尽头草木茂盛的池塘里，为夏夜吟唱出它奇特的爱之赞歌。
Thus I learned from life itself. At the beginning I was only a little mass of possibilities. It was my teacher who unfolded and developed them. When she came, everything about me breathed of love and joy and was full of meaning. She has never since let pass an opportunity to point out the beauty that is in everything, nor has she ceased trying in thought and action and example to make my life sweet and useful.我就是这样了解生命的意义的。起初，我只是一知半解，但是老师为我揭示了生命的奥秘。正是老师的到来，我的生命才充满了爱和欢乐的气息，才变得不同凡响。她从来不放过任何一次向我展示万物之美的机会，她也从不放弃努力，以她的思想和言行引导我成为一个生活充实，于社会有益的人。
It was my teacher's genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me. She realized that a child's mind is like a shallowbrook which ripples and dances merrily over the stony course of its education and reflects here a flower, there a bush, yonder a fleecy cloud; and she attempted to guide my mind on its way, knowing that like a brook it should be fed by mountain streams and hidden springs, until it broadened out into a deep river, capable of reflecting in its placid surface, billowy hills, theluminous shadows of trees and the blue heavens, as well as the sweet face of a little flower.正是由于老师的聪明才智，她强烈的同情心，以及她的亲手传授，我所接受的早期教育才变得如此地丰富多彩。她总是能抓住恰当的时机，使我能够愉快地接纳她所传授的知识。她知道，在接受教育的过程中，一个小孩子的思想就像一条浅浅的小溪，这条浪花涌动的小溪欢快地流过卵石密布的河道，水面上通常会反射出一枝花，一株小树，或者是一朵浮云的倒影。她试图引导我走的正是这样一条路——一条小溪应当被山川的溪流和地下的泉水所哺育，直到它成长为一条宽广深远的大河，这条大河平静的水面能够反射出连绵的山脉，明亮的树影和蓝天，以及一朵小花的甜蜜笑脸。
Any teacher can take a child to the classroom, but not every teacher can make him learn. He will not work joyously unless he feels that liberty is his, whether he is busy or at rest; he must feel the flush of victory and the heart-sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will the tasks distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way bravely through a dull routine of textbooks.任何一个老师都能把一个小孩领进课堂，但并不是每一个老师都能让他学到东西的。他不会愉快地去学习，除非他觉得自己是自由身。无论他是忙是闲，他必须要感受到胜利的曙光和小小的缺憾，然后才能勇敢地面对那些枯燥单调的书本，并且愿意去解决眼前的问题。
My teacher is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from her. How much of mydelight in all beautiful things is innate, and how much is due to her influence, I can never tell. I feel that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her—there is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by her loving touch.我的老师离我是那么近，以至于我想象不出离开她会是什么样子。我是天生就具有沉醉于美好事物的本能，还是源于老师的引导？我从来都无法说清。我只是觉得她同我是一个不可分割的整体，我的生命足迹也是她的生活轨迹。我生命中最精彩的乐章都归功于她——我的才能，我的志向，或者我内心的快乐，无一不是被她那充满慈爱的一触所唤醒。
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