海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第66期
O dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
哦，黑暗，黑暗，黑暗，被正午的光輝圍裹，Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
無可挽回的黑暗，遮天蔽日Without all hope of day!
將人間的所有希望摒棄！
In imagination I can hear Homer singing, as with unsteady, hesitating steps he gropes his way from camp to camp—singing of life, of love, of war, of the splendid achievements of a noble race. It was a wonderful, glorious song, and it won the blind poet an immortal crown, the admiration of all ages.
在想象當中，我能聽到荷馬的歌唱，他拖着蹣跚而躊躇的腳步在營地間逡巡——爲生命，愛情，戰爭和一個高尚民族取得的豐功偉績而吟唱。這是一首無比絢麗而輝煌的頌歌，它爲盲詩人贏得了一頂不朽的王冠，也贏得了世人的景仰讚頌。I sometimes wonder if the hand is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye. I should think the wonderful rhythmical flow of lines and curves could be more subtly felt than seen. Be this as it may, I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks in their marble gods and goddesses.
我有時也想知道，在感知雕塑品的藝術魅力方面，手是否真的比不上眼睛的敏銳。我個人認爲，相對於視覺而言，手更能夠覺察到雕塑線條的韻律感和其內在的微妙變化。總之，在一尊尊古希臘衆神的大理石雕像面前，我能夠以自己的獨特方式觸摸到他們的心跳。Another pleasure, which comes more rarely than the others, is going to the theatre. I enjoy having a play described to me while it is being acted on the stage far more than reading it, because then it seems as if I were living in the midst of stirring events. It has been my privilege to meet a few great actors and actresses who have the power of so bewitching you that you forget time and place and live again in the romantic past. I have been permitted to touch the face and costume of Miss Ellen Terry as she impersonated our ideal of a queen; and there was about her that divinity that hedges sublimest woe. Beside her stood Sir Henry Irving, wearing the symbols of kingship; and there was majesty of intellect in his every gesture and attitude and the royalty that subdues and overcomes in every line of his sensitive face. In the king's face, which he wore as a mask, there was a remoteness and inaccessibility of grief which I shall never forget.
我的另一個很特別的愛好就是去劇院看戲。大幕拉開，戲劇在舞臺上展開——真實劇情帶給我的享受遠非閱讀劇本所能企及，因爲動盪起伏的故事情節會讓你產生身臨其境的感覺。而且，我還享受到了自由會見那幾個傑出男女演員的特別待遇，他們的表演具有一種強大的魔力，它可以令你忘卻時間和空間的限制，而重新生活在過去的浪漫年代。當艾倫·泰莉小姐扮好人們理想中的王后時，我被允許觸摸她的臉和身上的裝束。我能感受到她賦予了角色一種莊嚴的神聖感，以及抑制無盡悲傷的高貴氣質。站在她身邊的是亨利·歐文爵士，他穿着象徵王權的袍服，舉手投足之間，無不流露出君王的雄才大略；而含而不露的王家威儀則銘刻在他臉部的每一個紋路上。在國王的臉上，我似乎摸到了一副面具，那種冷漠而難以解讀的憂傷令人終身難忘。I also know Mr. Jefferson. I am proud to count him among my friends. I go to see him whenever I happen to be where he is acting. The first time I saw him act was while at school in New York. He played "Rip Van Winkle." I had often read the story, but I had never felt the charm of Rip's slow, quaint, kind ways as I did in the play. Mr. Jefferson's beautiful, pathetic representation quite carried me away with delight. I have a picture of old Rip in my fingers which they will never lose. After the play Miss Sullivan took me to see him behind the scenes, and I felt of his curious garb and his flowing hair and beard. Mr. Jefferson let me touch his face so that I could imagine how he looked on waking from that strange sleep of twenty years, and he showed me how poor old Rip staggered to his feet.
我還認識了傑弗遜先生，我以結交他這樣的朋友爲榮。無論什麼時候，我去看他的時候他都有演出。我第一次看他的表演是在紐約上學的時候，當時他正在演出《裏普·梵·溫克爾》。我曾經讀過這個故事，可是我從來不覺得裏普那慢條斯理、奇特而友善的行爲方式有什麼過人之處。而傑弗遜先生那優美動人，極具悲劇意味的表演一下子就抓住了我的心。我的手指上“保留着”一幅“老裏普”的畫像，我永遠也不會失去它。演出過後，蘇立文小姐帶我來到後臺，我觸摸到了裏普那奇特的裝束，他飄拂的頭髮和臉上的鬍鬚。傑弗遜先生讓我摸他的臉，這樣我就能想象出在他沉睡了二十年之後一朝復甦的樣子；而且，他還向我演示了可憐的老裏普是如何步履蹣跚地走路的。
