海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第56期
My mind opened naturally and joyously to a conception of antiquity. Greece, ancient Greece, exercised a mysterious fascination over me. In my fancy the pagan gods and goddesses still walked on earth and talked face to face with men, and in my heart I secretly built shrines to those I loved best. I knew and loved the whole tribe of nymphs and heroes and demigods—no, not quite all, for the cruelty and greed of Medea and Jason were too monstrous to be forgiven, and I used to wonder why the gods permitted them to do wrong and then punished them for their wickedness. And the mystery is still unsolved. I often wonder how...
我對古代的思想心儀久矣，古希臘的歷史把我帶入了一個神祕的境界。在我的幻想中，異教徒的神祇依舊行走在世間，而且還同人類面對面地交談；在心裏，我悄悄地爲我愛戴的親人們建造一座座聖殿。我知曉而且喜愛所有部族的女神和英雄，以及半神半人怪——不，並不能說是所有的神，對於殘忍而貪婪的美狄亞和伊阿宋我就不喜歡，他們的邪惡是不可饒恕的。我一直很奇怪爲什麼天神會允許他們行不義之事，可最後又對他們的惡行進行懲罰。這個祕密仍未解開，我常常驚訝於如何……God can dumbness keep
神是如此地緘默無語While Sin creeps grinning through His house of Time.
當罪愆訕笑着悄悄爬過“光陰的殿堂”。
It was the Iliad that made Greece my paradise. I was familiar with the story of Troy before I read it in the original, and consequently I had little difficulty in making the Greek words surrender their treasures after I had passed the borderland of grammar. Great poetry, whether written in Greek or in English, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make the great works of the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious comments might learn this simple truth! It is not necessary that one should be able to define every word and give it its principal parts and its grammatical position in the sentence in order to understand and appreciate a fine poem. I know my learned professors have found greater riches in the Iliad than I shall ever find; but I am not avaricious. I am content that others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide and comprehensive knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that splendid epic, nor can I. When I read thefinest passages of the Iliad, I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten—my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!
可以說，正是《伊利亞特》把古希臘變成了我心目中的天堂。在沒有讀原著之前，我就已經熟悉了特洛伊的故事。雖然當時我已經穿越了語法的邊境線，但是在迫使希臘詞語交出它們的“財寶”時，我還遇到了少許的困難。偉大的詩篇，無論用希臘文還是英文寫就，它需要的不是講解員，而是一顆敏感的心。難道不正是有那麼一羣好事之徒，通過他們所謂的分析而令偉大的詩歌變得面目可憎嗎？所以，那些強加於人和艱深晦澀的評論的炮製者，真應該好好學一學這條樸素的真理！事實上，理解和欣賞一部傑出的詩篇，並不需要你去對每一個詞的作用，或者是它在句子中的語法結構進行解釋。我很清楚，博學的教授們從《伊利亞特》中發掘的財富要遠勝於我。我並不是個貪婪的人，我甘願接受別人比我更聰明的現實。但是即使擁有了淵博的知識，他們卻無法揣摩出恢弘史詩所蘊涵的激情。當然，我也揣摩不出來。而當我讀了《伊利亞特》中最精彩的篇章以後，我纔有了靈魂昇華的感覺——我狹隘逼仄的生命得以釋放，而身體的侷限也已被我淡忘。我的世界也在上升，它浩瀚無邊，橫掃過重重天際！My admiration for the Aeneid is not so great, but it is none the less real. I read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary, and I always like to translate the episodes that please me especially. The word-painting of Virgil is wonderful sometimes; but his gods and men move through the scenes of passion and strife and pity and love like the graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask, whereas in the Iliad they give three leaps and go on singing. Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight with the wind in his hair.
我並不十分讚賞《埃涅阿斯紀》這部史詩，但它的真實依然令人動容。在閱讀這部作品的時候，我儘量不去借助字典或註釋的幫忙，而且，我總是喜歡把我特別喜歡的章節翻譯出來。維吉爾的文筆有時的確精彩，但是他筆下的諸神和人類無不遊走在激情、衝突、憐憫和情愛之間，就如同伊麗莎白時代化裝舞會中的才子佳人。然而，《伊利亞特》中的神祇和人類則歡呼雀躍，縱情歌唱。維吉爾具有沉靜而迷人的氣質，如同月光之下的一尊阿波羅雕像；而荷馬恰如頭頂烈日、迎風而立的英武青年。
