海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第17期

　　第八章

　　The first Christmas after Miss Sullivan came to Tuscumbia was a great event. Every one in the family prepared surprises for me, but what pleased me most, Miss Sullivan and I prepared surprises for everybody else. The mystery that surrounded the gifts was my greatest delight andamusement. My friends did all they could to excite my curiosity by hints and half-spelled sentences which they pretended to break off in the nick of time. Miss Sullivan and I kept up a game of guessing which taught me more about the use of language than any set lessons could have done. Every evening, seated round a glowing wood fire, we played our guessing game, which grew more and more exciting as Christmas approached.

　　對于我們家來說，蘇立文小姐在圖斯康比亞過第一個圣誕節(jié)可是件大事。家里每一個人都籌劃著讓我大吃一驚，但是最令我興奮的是，我和蘇立文小姐也籌劃著讓別人大吃一驚。對于那些神秘的禮物，我心里充滿了巨大的喜悅感和好奇心。我的朋友們極盡所能，通過種種暗示和故意拼寫了一半的句子來吊我的胃口。而我和蘇立文小姐則繼續(xù)玩猜謎游戲，同課堂所學的知識相比，這種寓教于樂的方式讓我掌握了更多的語言技巧。每天晚上，我們坐在燃燒的爐火旁玩猜謎游戲。隨著圣誕節(jié)的日益臨近，我的心情也變得越來越興奮。

　　On Christmas Eve the Tuscumbia schoolchildren had their tree, to which they invited me. In the centre of the schoolroom stood a beautiful tree ablaze and shimmering in the soft light, its branches loaded with strange, wonderful fruit. It was a moment of supreme happiness. I danced and capered round the tree in an ecstasy. When I learned that there was a gift for each child, I was delighted, and the kind people who had prepared the tree permitted me to hand the presents to the children. In the pleasure of doing this, I did not stop to look at my own gifts; but when I was ready for them, my impatience for the real Christmas to begin almost got beyond control. I knew the gifts I already had were not those of which friends had thrown out such tantalizing hints, and my teacher said the presents I was to have would be even nicer than these. I was persuaded, however, to content myself with the gifts from the tree and leave the others until morning.

　　圣誕前夜，圖斯康比亞的學童們也有自己的圣誕樹，他們邀請我去參加慶祝活動。在教室中間，矗立著一棵美麗的圣誕樹，在柔和的光線下，它閃爍著晶瑩的微光，它的枝椏上綴滿了奇特的果實。這的確是一個普天同慶的歡樂時刻，我忘乎所以地繞著圣誕樹又蹦又跳。當我得知每一個孩子都會得到一件禮物時，我更高興了。那些裝飾圣誕樹的熱心人允許我把禮物分發(fā)給別的孩子。在派發(fā)禮物的同時，我也忍不住在想著自己的那一份兒。其實我早就做好準備了，我激動得難以自抑，一心盼著盡快見到自己的禮物。我知道我的禮物不會是像朋友們暗示的那些東西，我的老師告訴我，我得到的禮物要比傳言中的東西好得多。終于，到快天亮的時候，我心滿意足地得到了圣誕樹上的禮物。