海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第53期

　　第二十一章

　　I have thus far sketched the events of my life, but I have not shown how much I have depended on books not only for pleasure and for the wisdom they bring to all who read, but also for that knowledge which comes to others through their eyes and their ears. Indeed, books have meant so much more in my education than in that of others, that I shall go back to the time when I began to read.

　　至此，我已經把生活中所發(fā)生的事件做了簡要描述，可是我并沒有向人們展示我對書籍的依賴度有多么大——這不僅僅是因為書籍帶給人們愉悅和智慧，而且，它還能使人們通過自身的眼睛和耳朵獲得知識。事實上，在我接受教育的過程中，書籍的功效要遠遠大過其他求知方式，所以，我要從最初的閱讀經歷開始講起。

　　I read my first connected story in May, 1887, when I was seven years old, and from that day to this I have devoured everything in the shape of a printed page that has come within the reach of my hungry finger tips. As I have said, I did not study regularly during the early years of my education; nor did I read according to rule.

　　我第一次閱讀故事的時間是在1887年5月，那時我七歲。自此以后，我便如饑似渴地攫取任何印有文字的紙張，凡是在我“饑餓的指尖”所觸及的范圍之內，我都不會放過。但是正如我說過的那樣，在我接受教育的早期階段，我并沒有進行有規(guī)律的學習，也沒有依照任何原則來閱讀。

　　At first I had only a few books in raised print—"readers" for beginners, a collection of stories for children, and a book about the earth called "Our World." I think that was all; but I read them over and over, until the words were so worn and pressed I could scarcely make them out. Sometimes Miss Sullivan read to me, spelling into my hand little stories and poems that she knew I should understand; but I preferred reading myself to being read to, because I liked to read again and again the things that pleased me.

　　最初，我手頭只有很少幾本凸版(盲文)書籍——幾冊啟蒙讀物，一本兒童故事集，還有一本有關地球知識的書，叫做《我們的世界》。我想這就是我全部的家當，盡管如此，我還是把這些書翻來覆去地讀了又讀，直到那些文字被磨損得幾乎無法辨認。有時候，蘇立文小姐會把一些我能聽懂的小故事和詩歌拼寫在我的手上，但是我更愿意獨自沉浸在閱讀之中，我喜歡一遍又一遍地讀我喜歡的那些故事。

　　It was during my first visit to Boston that I really began to read in good earnest. I was permitted to spend a part of each day in the Institution library, and to wander from bookcase to bookcase, and take down whatever book my fingers lighted upon. And read I did, whether I understood one word in ten or two words on a page. The words themselves fascinated me; but I took no conscious account of what I read. My mind must, however, have been very impressionable at that period, for it retained many words and whole sentences, to the meaning of which I had not the faintest clue; and afterward, when I began to talk and write, these words and sentences would flash out quite naturally, so that my friends wondered at the richness of my vocabulary. I must have read parts of many books (in those early days I think I never read any one book through) and a great deal of poetry in this uncomprehending way, until I discovered "Little Lord Fauntleroy," which was the first book of any consequence I read understandingly.

　　在我第一次游覽波士頓期間，我才真正開始了閱讀生涯。那時，我被允許每天在學院圖書館里消磨一段時間。于是，我徘徊在一個個書架之間，也不管碰到了什么樣的書，我拿起來就讀。當然，也許在每一頁里我只認識一兩個詞。可以說，令我著迷的正是那些詞語本身，而書的內容反倒不在我的考慮之列。即使這樣，我對知識的感知能力卻十分強大，因為我的很多詞匯和句式都是在那時掌握的。雖然對那些詞句的含義不甚明了，但是在后來，當我開始學習說話和寫字的時候，這些詞句竟然自然而然地脫口而出，以至于朋友們對我豐富的詞匯量大為驚訝。正是以這種不知不覺的方式，我閱讀了大量的書籍(當然，在早期的閱讀中，我從來沒有把一本書完整地讀完)和詩歌，直到我發(fā)現《小爵爺方特勒羅伊》——這是我完全讀懂的第一本書——我的閱讀生涯才算正式開始。