海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第14期

　　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(xué)習(xí)重點(diǎn)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(dāng)我拼寫單詞的時(shí)候，我的老師就會拿給我一些卡片，這些卡片上面印著凸起的字母。我學(xué)得很快，我知道每一個(gè)詞語都代表著一種物體，一種行為，或者是一種特質(zhì)。我有一個(gè)拼寫板，最初，我能在上面拼湊出一些短句。我發(fā)現(xiàn)了那些卡片所代表的含義，比如“doll”，“is”，“on”，“bed”這幾個(gè)詞，每一個(gè)詞都有其自身對應(yīng)的物體和形式。于是，我就用“is on bed”表示把洋娃娃放在床上。在造句的同時(shí)，我也掌握了句子本身的意義和結(jié)構(gòu)。

　　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 inobject 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，然后站在衣櫥里，這句話該怎么說?于是，我就在拼寫板上用“is in wardrobe”表示出來。再沒有什么比這種游戲更讓我開心的了。我和老師每次都一連玩好幾個(gè)小時(shí)，屋子里的每一樣?xùn)|西都被我們當(dāng)做練習(xí)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(rèn)字卡片上的字過渡到了看書，我把自己看做一個(gè)“初級讀者”。在書中，我如饑似渴地搜尋著那些我認(rèn)識的字。一旦發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些字，我高興得就像玩了一場捉迷藏游戲。就這樣，我開始了閱讀生涯。那時(shí)候，我開始讀一些系列故事，后來，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(shí)間，我并沒有系統(tǒng)地學(xué)習(xí)某些課程。所以，當(dāng)我滿懷熱忱地認(rèn)真學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)，更像是在玩耍娛樂。蘇立文小姐會把教給我的每一樣?xùn)|西用一個(gè)故事或者一首詩表達(dá)出來。無論何時(shí)，只要碰到令人高興或者是有趣的事，她都會事無巨細(xì)地講給我聽，她仿佛把自己也變成了一個(gè)小姑娘。在求知的過程中，發(fā)生在許多小孩子身上的畏懼心理并沒有對我造成影響，比如像枯燥乏味的文法，艱澀的算術(shù)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 fordescription. 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.

　　對于蘇立文小姐所給予我的特殊的關(guān)愛之心，我無法做出解釋，我想，這也許是長期失明造成的后果。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(xì)節(jié)，而且從來不嘮嘮叨叨地問我前天都學(xué)了哪些東西之類的問題。她總是一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)地給我講解枯燥的科學(xué)原理，她講得無比生動，以至于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 theperfume 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 bitin 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(xué)習(xí)，沐浴在陽光搖曳的樹林里要比待在房子里好得多。我最初學(xué)習(xí)的所有課程都是在林木成蔭的室外進(jìn)行的，空氣中彌漫著松針的清香，還夾雜著野葡萄的果香。愜意地坐在野生鵝掌楸的樹蔭下，我學(xué)會了思考。對于一個(gè)學(xué)生而言，我認(rèn)為每一件事物都是一堂課，都有一種裨益?？梢哉f，“萬事萬物讓我領(lǐng)悟到了它們的魅力和功用”。事實(shí)上，所有能嗡嗡鳴叫，或者默默開花的東西都是我學(xué)習(xí)的對象——我把聒噪的青蛙、蟈蟈兒和蟋蟀抓在手里，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(fā)芽的果樹散發(fā)著芳香，我已經(jīng)同自然融為一體。我感覺到了綻開的棉莢，我用手指觸摸著它那柔軟的纖維和覆有絨毛的種子;我感覺到了微風(fēng)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——我們在牧場里抓住它，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 suddenterror, as the little creature became aware of a pressure from without.

　　有時(shí)候，我會在黎明時(shí)分就爬起來，然后偷偷地溜到花園里。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里的，也很少有人能見到百合花在清晨的微風(fēng)中搖曳的倩影。我偶爾會在*的時(shí)候抓到一只昆蟲，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(yīng)。