海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第13期

　　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.

　　有很長時間，我并沒有把心思放在腿上的珠子上。隨著新念頭的迸發(fā)，我試圖找到“愛”的含義。當時，太陽已經(jīng)被云層遮蓋，隨后還下了一陣雨，可是頃刻之間，南方的太陽便噴薄出它那特有的光芒。

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

　　我又一次問我的老師：“這個是愛嗎?”

　　"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."

　　“在太陽出來之前，愛有點像天上的云彩。”老師回答道。顯然，如此簡單的回答還是使我無法理解。老師繼續(xù)解釋道：“要知道，你無法摸到云彩，可是你能感知雨水的降落;你也知道，在經(jīng)歷了整天的酷熱后，那些花兒和干旱的土地是多么渴望雨露的滋潤。雖然你不能觸摸到愛，但是你能感覺到雨水滋養(yǎng)萬物的美好。所以說，如果沒有愛，你一定不會快樂，也沒有心思玩耍了。”

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

　　真理之美驀然出現(xiàn)在我的頭腦里——在我的靈魂和其他人的靈魂之間，延伸出一條條看不見的連線。

　　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.

　　從我接受教育的第一天開始，蘇立文小姐就像對待那些具有聽力的孩子那樣跟我講話，唯一的不同是，她在我手上拼寫句子，而不是直接說出來。假如我理解不了她給我的那些詞匯和成語，乃至于無法進行對話的時候，我甚至想同老師直接交談。

　　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. Theconversation he hears in his home stimulates his mind and suggests topics and calls forth thespontaneous 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.

　　這種過程持續(xù)了好幾年之久。對于那些失聰兒童來說，在日常交流中使用的最簡單的成語和表達方式真是難以計數(shù)，你根本無法在短短一個月，乃至兩三年的時間里掌握它們。那些有聽力的孩子可以從不斷的重復(fù)和模仿中學(xué)習(xí)這些語言。他們在家里聽到大人們的交談，這些談話無形中刺激了他們思維的發(fā)展，而交談的話題也是他們感興趣的，因此無須刻意學(xué)習(xí)，他們自然而然地就會表達出自己的思想。這種天生的交流思想的方式在失聰兒童那里是行不通的。我的老師意識到了這一點，于是她決心彌補我身上缺失的這部分本能。她逐字逐句，反反復(fù)復(fù)地教我，告訴我怎樣參與同人們的對話。這是一個漫長的過程，后來我終于能主動同人交談了;又過了很長時間，我才掌握了在恰當?shù)臅r間說出恰當?shù)脑挕?/p>

　　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.

　　對于一個盲人或者聾人而言，掌握對話的技藝確實很難。而對于那些既盲又聾的人而言，其遭遇的阻礙可謂難上加難!他們不能辨別語氣的快慢、聲調(diào)的高低，也無法觀察講話者的面部表情，而一個眼神通常能展示出講話者的內(nèi)心世界。