海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第70期

　　I remember well the first time I saw Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. He had invited Miss Sullivan and me to call on him one Sunday afternoon. It was early in the spring, just after I had learned to speak. We were shown at once to his library where we found him seated in a big armchair by an open fire which glowed and crackled on the hearth, thinking, he said, of other days.

　　我很清楚地記得第一次見到奧利佛·溫代爾·霍爾姆斯博士時的情景。那是在一個星期天的下午，他邀請我和蘇立文小姐去他家做客。當時正值初春季節(jié)，那時我剛剛學(xué)會了開口講話。我們立刻被人帶到了他的圖書館，他坐在一張大扶手椅里，壁爐里的炭火噼噼啪啪地?zé)谜?，他說他在想著往日的時光。

　　"And listening to the murmur of the River Charles," I suggested.

　　“還在傾聽查爾斯河的潺潺流水。”我試探著說道。

　　"Yes," he replied, "the Charles has many dear associations for me." There was an odour of print and leather in the room which told me that it was full of books, and I stretched out my hand instinctively to find them. My fingers lighted upon a beautiful volume of Tennyson’s poems, and when Miss Sullivan told me what it was I began to recite:

　　“不錯，”他回答道，“我同查爾斯河的關(guān)系可是親密無間呢。”房子里面有一股油墨和皮革的味道，這里顯然到處都是書，于是我不由自主地伸手摸索起來。我的指尖無意中落在了丁尼生的一部詩集上，當蘇立文小姐把詩集的名字告訴我以后，我就開始背誦：

　　Break, break, break

　　斷裂，斷裂，徹底斷裂吧

　　On thy cold gray stones, O sea!

　　在你那冰冷的灰石頭上，哦，浪濤!

　　But I stopped suddenly. I felt tears on my hand. I had made my beloved poet weep, and I was greatly distressed. He made me sit in his armchair, while he brought different interesting things for me to examine, and at his request I recited "The Chambered Nautilus," which was then my favorite poem. After that I saw Dr. Holmes many times and learned to love the man as well as the poet.

　　突然間，我停止了背誦。我感覺到我的手上浸滿了淚水，我已經(jīng)令我所鐘愛的詩人落淚。為此，我也感到了巨大的憂傷。他讓我坐在他的扶手椅上，同時，他還拿出了很多有趣的東西讓我查驗。在他的請求下，我還背誦了《背負房間的鸚鵡螺》，這是我當時最喜歡的一首詩。后來，我又多次見到過霍爾姆斯博士，我從他身上不但學(xué)到了詩，也學(xué)到了愛。

　　One beautiful summer day, not long after my meeting with Dr. Holmes, Miss Sullivan and I visited Whittier in his quiet home on the Merrimac. His gentle courtesy and quaint speech won my heart. He had a book of his poems in raised print from which I read "In School Days." He was delighted that I could pronounce the words so well, and said that he had no difficulty in understanding me. Then I asked many questions about the poem, and read his answers by placing my fingers on his lips. He said he was the little boy in the poem, and that the girl’s name was Sally, and more which I have forgotten. I also recited "Laus Deo," and as I spoke the concluding verses, he placed in my hands a statue of a slave from whose crouching figure the fetters were falling, even as they fell from Peter’s limbs when the angel led him forth out of prison. Afterward we went into his study, and he wrote his autograph* for my teacher and expressed his admiration of her work, saying to me, "She is thy spiritual liberator." Then he ledme to the gate and kissed me tenderly on my forehead. I promised to visit him again the following summer; but he died before the promise was fulfilled.

　　在會見霍爾姆斯博士不久之后的一個陽光明媚的夏日，我和蘇立文小姐在“梅里麥克”號上拜訪了惠蒂爾先生。他溫文爾雅的舉止和不俗的談吐贏得了我的好感。他曾出版過一本凸版印刷的詩集，我選讀了其中的一首《校園時光》。他驚訝于我的讀音是如此地準確，還說理解起來毫無困難。隨后我又問了他很多關(guān)于詩歌的問題。我把手指放在他的嘴唇上，這樣就可以“讀出”他的回答。他說他自己就是詩中的那個小男孩，而那個女孩的名字叫薩莉，他當然不只說了這些，但是我大都不記得了。我還為他背誦了《洛斯迪奧》，當我吟誦到最后的詩句時，他把一個奴隸的雕像放在了我的手中，奴隸身體蜷曲，腳踝拴著腳鐐，就像剛被天使從監(jiān)獄中解救出來的樣子——奴隸一下子癱倒在彼得的翅膀之下。后來，我們走進了他的書房，他不但為我的老師親筆簽名，還向她表達了欽佩之意。他對我說：“她是你靈魂的拯救者。”最后，他領(lǐng)我來到門口，并且輕柔地吻了吻我的額頭。我答應(yīng)他來年夏天還去拜訪他，可是不等我履行諾言，他便去世了。