海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第14期
Chapter VII
第七章The next important step in my education was learning to read.
在我接受教育的過程之中，下一步的學習重點是“閱讀”。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.
每當我拼寫單詞的時候，我的老師就會拿給我一些卡片，這些卡片上面印着凸起的字母。我學得很快，我知道每一個詞語都代表着一種物體，一種行爲，或者是一種特質。我有一個拼寫板，最初，我能在上面拼湊出一些短句。我發現了那些卡片所代表的含義，比如“doll”，“is”，“on”，“bed”這幾個詞，每一個詞都有其自身對應的物體和形式。於是，我就用“is on bed”表示把洋娃娃放在牀上。在造句的同時，我也掌握了句子本身的意義和結構。
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 in object sentences.
有一天，蘇立文小姐對我說，如果我把“girl”的卡片別在我的圍裙上，然後站在衣櫥裏，這句話該怎麼說？於是，我就在拼寫板上用“is in wardrobe”表示出來。再沒有什麼比這種遊戲更讓我開心的了。我和老師每次都一連玩好幾個小時，屋子裏的每一樣東西都被我們當做練習造句用的道具。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.
逐漸地，我從認字卡片上的字過渡到了看書，我把自己看做一個“初級讀者”。在書中，我如飢似渴地搜尋着那些我認識的字。一旦發現了這些字，我高興得就像玩了一場捉迷藏遊戲。就這樣，我開始了閱讀生涯。那時候，我開始讀一些系列故事，後來，我還能把這些故事講出來。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.
有很長一段時間，我並沒有系統地學習某些課程。所以，當我滿懷熱忱地認真學習時，更像是在玩耍娛樂。蘇立文小姐會把教給我的每一樣東西用一個故事或者一首詩表達出來。無論何時，只要碰到令人高興或者是有趣的事，她都會事無鉅細地講給我聽，她彷彿把自己也變成了一個小姑娘。在求知的過程中，發生在許多小孩子身上的畏懼心理並沒有對我造成影響，比如像枯燥乏味的文法，艱澀的算術題和更難的名詞解釋，正相反，這些都成了我最珍視的回憶。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 for description. 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.
對於蘇立文小姐所給予我的特殊的關愛之心，我無法做出解釋，我想，這也許是長期失明造成的後果。除了愛心，老師還具有極其出色的描述才能，她能迅速地掠過那些乏味的細節，而且從來不嘮嘮叨叨地問我前天都學了哪些東西之類的問題。她總是一點一點地給我講解枯燥的科學原理，她講得無比生動，以至於我常常不由自主地想起她教給我的東西。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 the perfume 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 bit in his mouth—ah me! how well I remember the spicy, clovery smell of his breath!
我們通常都會到戶外閱讀和學習，沐浴在陽光搖曳的樹林裏要比待在房子裏好得多。我最初學習的所有課程都是在林木成蔭的室外進行的，空氣中瀰漫着松針的清香，還夾雜着野葡萄的果香。愜意地坐在野生鵝掌楸的樹蔭下，我學會了思考。對於一個學生而言，我認爲每一件事物都是一堂課，都有一種裨益。可以說，“萬事萬物讓我領悟到了它們的魅力和功用”。事實上，所有能嗡嗡鳴叫，或者默默開花的東西都是我學習的對象——我把聒噪的青蛙、蟈蟈兒和蟋蟀抓在手裏，直到忽略了它們的存在。昆蟲振翅鳴叫，毛茸茸的小雞和野花在手指間劃過，山茱萸競相綻放，草地上的紫羅蘭和發芽的果樹散發着芳香，我已經同自然融爲一體。我感覺到了綻開的棉莢，我用手指觸摸着它那柔軟的纖維和覆有絨毛的種子；我感覺到了微風吹過玉米稈的沙沙低鳴，還有我的小馬煩躁地打響鼻的氣息——我們在牧場裏抓住它，而且給它戴上了馬嚼子——哈，看我有多棒！至今我還清楚地記得小馬駒呼出的那種濃烈的三葉草味道。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 sudden terror, as the little creature became aware of a pressure from without.
有時候，我會在黎明時分就爬起來，然後偷偷地溜到花園裏。草叢和花朵上綴滿露水，很少有人能體會到把玫瑰花輕輕捧在手裏的，也很少有人能見到百合花在清晨的微風中搖曳的倩影。我偶爾會在*的時候抓到一隻昆蟲，我能感受到它因驚恐而摩擦翅膀的微弱震顫。我想，即便是如此微小的生物，也會有自己的意識，也會對突如其來的壓力做出反應。
