OK阅读网

我的生活海伦·凯勒自传
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

英文中文双语对照双语交替

首页目录上一章下一章

Chapter VI

第六章

I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it. Children who hear acquire language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others' lips they catch on the wing, as it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful process. But whatever the process, the result is wonderful. Gradually from naming an object we advance step by step until we have traversed the vast distance between our first stammered syllable and the sweep of thought in a line of Shakespeare.

如今，我已经掌握了学习所有语言的关键，而且我渴望学以致用。对那些正常的孩子而言，他们学习语言并不需要特别的努力，就能够领会从别人唇间吐出的词汇，这是一个令人欣喜的过程。而对于一个聋哑小孩而言，掌握语言必须要经过一番缓慢而痛苦的学习过程。但无论是哪一种过程，其结果都会令人无比愉悦。渐渐地，我们从说出一种物体的名字，一步步发展到在更广阔的疆域里自由驰骋——从第一次发出结结巴巴的音节，到在莎士比亚的诗行间沉思，我们穿越了遥远的征途。

At first, when my teacher told me about a new thing I asked very few questions. My ideas were vague, and my vocabulary was inadequate; but as my knowledge of things grew, and I learned more and more words, my field of inquiry broadened, and I would return again and again to the same subject, eager for further information. Sometimes a new word revived an image that some earlier experience had engraved on my brain.

起初，当我的老师讲解一件新事物时，我几乎问不出什么问题。我的意识是模糊的，我的词汇也是贫乏的，但是随着接触事物的增加，我学会的词汇也越来越多。我问询的范围变宽广了，我一次又一次地周旋于同一个主题，我渴望深入了解事物的方方面面。有时候，一个新词会勾起我对早期经历的一些记忆。

I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word, "love." This was before I knew many words. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my teacher. She tried to kiss me; but at that time I did not like to have any one kiss me except my mother. Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, "I love Helen."

我记得有一天早上，我第一次询问“爱”这个词的含义，这是我早就知道的一个词。当时，我在花园里发现了几株刚刚开放的紫罗兰，于是我把花朵带给了我的老师。老师试图吻我，但是在那个时候，除了母亲，我不喜欢被任何人亲吻。苏立文小姐轻轻地用胳膊揽着我，并且在我手上拼写“我爱海伦”。

"What is love?" I asked.

“爱是什么？”我“问”道。

She drew me closer to her and said, "It is here," pointing to my heart, whose beats I was conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then understand anything unless I touched it.

她把我拉到她身边，对我“说”：“爱就在这里”，然后就指着我的心。这是我第一次意识到了它的跳动。老师的话令我迷惑不解，因为那时候我还不能理解无形的东西，除非我能用手摸到它。

I smelt the violets in her hand and asked, half in words, half in signs, a question which meant, "Is love the sweetness of flowers?"

我闻着老师手里的紫罗兰，一边拼写单词，一边用手势比画，我想问的问题是：“爱是这些可爱的花朵吗？”

"No," said my teacher.

“不。”我的老师对我说。

Again I thought. The warm sun was shining on us.

于是我再次揣摩这个词。暖洋洋的阳光照在我和老师身上。

"Is this not love?" I asked, pointing in the direction from which the heat came. "Is this not love?"

“这个是爱吗？”我指着发出热量的方向“问”老师，“这个不是爱吗？”

It seemed to me that there could be nothing more beautiful than the sun, whose warmth makes all things grow. But Miss Sullivan shook her head, and I was greatly puzzled and disappointed. I thought it strange that my teacher could not show me love.

在我看来，世界上再也没有什么比太阳更美丽的东西了，它发出的光和热令万物生生不息。可是苏立文小姐仍然摇着头，我陷入了深深的困惑和失望之中。真是奇怪，为什么老师不能把“爱”展示给我看呢？

A day or two afterward I was stringing beads of different sizes in symmetrical groups--two large beads, three small ones, and so on. I had made many mistakes, and Miss Sullivan had pointed them out again and again with gentle patience. Finally I noticed a very obvious error in the sequence and for an instant I concentrated my attention on the lesson and tried to think how I should have arranged the beads. Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and spelled with decided emphasis, "Think."

记得大约在一两天之后，我正把不同大小的珠子均匀地串在一起——先串两个大的，再串三个小的，以次类推。可我总是搞错，苏立文小姐十分耐心地把串错的珠子一一指出来。终于，我注意到了一个很明显的次序错误，就在那一瞬间，我把自己的注意力完全集中在了手工课上，我该如何解决珠子的顺序问题呢？苏立文小姐摸着我的额头，很有力地拼写出“think”这个词。

In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea.

刹那间，我明白了这个词语就是我头脑运行过程的产物，这是我对一个抽象概念的初次认识。

For a long time I was still--I was not thinking of the beads in my lap, but trying to find a meaning for "love" in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had been brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendour.

有很长时间，我并没有把心思放在腿上的珠子上。随着新念头的迸发，我试图找到“爱”的含义。当时，太阳已经被云层遮盖，随后还下了一阵雨，可是顷刻之间，南方的太阳便喷薄出它那特有的光芒。

Again I asked my teacher, "Is this not love?"

我又一次问我的老师：“这个是爱吗？”

"Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," she replied. Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she explained: "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play."

“在太阳出来之前，爱有点像天上的云彩。”老师回答道。显然，如此简单的回答还是使我无法理解。老师继续解释道：“要知道，你无法摸到云彩，可是你能感知雨水的降落；你也知道，在经历了整天的酷热后，那些花儿和干旱的土地是多么渴望雨露的滋润。虽然你不能触摸到爱，但是你能感觉到雨水滋养万物的美好。所以说，如果没有爱，你一定不会快乐，也没有心思玩耍了。”

The beautiful truth burst upon my mind--I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.

真理之美蓦然出现在我的头脑里——在我的灵魂和其他人的灵魂之间，延伸出一条条看不见的连线。

From the beginning of my education Miss Sullivan made it a practice to speak to me as she would speak to any hearing child; the only difference was that she spelled the sentences into my hand instead of speaking them. If I did not know the words and idioms necessary to express my thoughts she supplied them, even suggesting conversation when I was unable to keep up my end of the dialogue.

从我接受教育的第一天开始，苏立文小姐就像对待那些具有听力的孩子那样跟我讲话，唯一的不同是，她在我手上拼写句子，而不是直接说出来。假如我理解不了她给我的那些词汇和成语，乃至于无法进行对话的时候，我甚至想同老师直接交谈。

This process was continued for several years; for the deaf child does not learn in a month, or even in two or three years, the numberless idioms and expressions used in the simplest daily intercourse. The little hearing child learns these from constant repetition and imitation. The conversation he hears in his home stimulates his mind and suggests topics and calls forth the spontaneous expression of his own thoughts. This natural exchange of ideas is denied to the deaf child. My teacher, realizing this, determined to supply the kinds of stimulus I lacked. This she did by repeating to me as far as possible, verbatim, what she heard, and by showing me how I could take part in the conversation. But it was a long time before I ventured to take the initiative, and still longer before I could find something appropriate to say at the right time.

这种过程持续了好几年之久。对于那些失聪儿童来说，在日常交流中使用的最简单的成语和表达方式真是难以计数，你根本无法在短短一个月，乃至两三年的时间里掌握它们。那些有听力的孩子可以从不断的重复和模仿中学习这些语言。他们在家里听到大人们的交谈，这些谈话无形中刺激了他们思维的发展，而交谈的话题也是他们感兴趣的，因此无须刻意学习，他们自然而然地就会表达出自己的思想。这种天生的交流思想的方式在失聪儿童那里是行不通的。我的老师意识到了这一点，于是她决心弥补我身上缺失的这部分本能。她逐字逐句，反反复复地教我，告诉我怎样参与同人们的对话。这是一个漫长的过程，后来我终于能主动同人交谈了；又过了很长时间，我才掌握了在恰当的时间说出恰当的话。

The deaf and the blind find it very difficult to acquire the amenities of conversation. How much more this difficulty must be augmented in the case of those who are both deaf and blind! They cannot distinguish the tone of the voice or, without assistance, go up and down the gamut of tones that give significance to words; nor can they watch the expression of the speaker's face, and a look is often the very soul of what one says.

对于一个盲人或者聋人而言，掌握对话的技艺确实很难。而对于那些既盲又聋的人而言，其遭遇的阻碍可谓难上加难！他们不能辨别语气的快慢、声调的高低，也无法观察讲话者的面部表情，而一个眼神通常能展示出讲话者的内心世界。