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我的生活海伦·凯勒自传
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

英文中文双语对照双语交替

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Chapter XVII

第十七章

In the summer of 1894, I attended the meeting at Chautauqua of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. There it was arranged that I should go to the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. I went there in October, 1894, accompanied by Miss Sullivan. This school was chosen especially for the purpose of obtaining the highest advantages in vocal culture and training in lip-reading. In addition to my work in these subjects, I studied, during the two years I was in the school, arithmetic, physical geography, French and German.

1894年夏天，我参加了美国聋哑人语言教育促进协会在肖陶扩湖举办的文化讲习班。根据安排，我应该前往纽约市的赖特休梅森聋哑人学校。在苏立文小姐的陪伴下，我于1894年10月到了那里。这是一所专门为发展高级有声文化和唇读训练而兴建的学校。除去必修的科目，在这所学校学习的两年之中，我还要学习算术、自然地理学、法语和德语课程。

Miss Reamy, my German teacher, could use the manual alphabet, and after I had acquired a small vocabulary, we talked together in German whenever we had a chance, and in a few months I could understand almost everything she said. Before the end of the first year I read "Wilhelm Tell" with the greatest delight. Indeed, I think I made more progress in German than in any of my other studies. I found French much more difficult. I studied it with Madame Olivier, a French lady who did not know the manual alphabet, and who was obliged to give her instruction orally. I could not read her lips easily; so my progress was much slower than in German. I managed, however, to read "Le M閐ecin Malgr?Lui" again. It was very amusing but I did not like it nearly so well as "Wilhelm Tell."

瑞米小姐是我的德语老师，她能用手语字母同我交流，在我掌握了少量词汇后，我们就利用每一次机会用德语谈话。几个月之后，我几乎能听懂她所说的任何事。在第一年快结束的时候，我怀着极大的兴致阅读了《威廉·退尔》。事实上，我认为我在德文学习上取得的进步要远远胜过其他学科。我发现法语相当难学。我跟随奥里维埃夫人学习法语，这位法国女士不懂手语字母，因此她只能口述授课，而读懂她的唇语实属不易，所以同德语相比，我学习法语的速度要慢得多。尽管如此，我仍设法重读了《屈打成医》，这本书确实非常有趣，但是两相比较，我更喜欢《威廉·退尔》。

My progress in lip-reading and speech was not what my teachers and I had hoped and expected it would be. It was my ambition to speak like other people, and my teachers believed that this could be accomplished; but, although we worked hard and faithfully, yet we did not quite reach our goal. I suppose we aimed too high, and disappointment was therefore inevitable. I still regarded arithmetic as a system of pitfalls. I hung about the dangerous frontier of "guess," avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason. When I was not guessing, I was jumping at conclusions, and this fault, in addition to my dullness, aggravated my difficulties more than was right or necessary.

我在唇读和讲话方面取得的进步同老师们的授课并没有直接关系，我的动力只有一个，我希望能像其他人一样开口说话。而我的老师们也相信这个目标一定能够实现，但是，尽管我们同心协力携手向前，我们仍然没有达到理想目标。我想，或许是目标定得太高，因此失望也就在所难免了。我依然把算术当做一门充满陷阱的学科，我徘徊在竖立着“猜想”标牌的危险边境，还要避免给自己，以及身在宽阔幽谷中的人们惹一身麻烦。当我不再猜想时，我便欣然接受各种结论，而这样做的结果只能是错上加错。另外，我感官上的迟钝更加剧了我的理解困难。

But although these disappointments caused me great depression at times, I pursued my other studies with unflagging interest, especially physical geography. It was a joy to learn the secrets of nature: how--in the picturesque language of the Old Testament--the winds are made to blow from the four corners of the heavens, how the vapours ascend from the ends of the earth, how rivers are cut out among the rocks, and mountains overturned by the roots, and in what ways man may overcome many forces mightier than himself. The two years in New York were happy ones, and I look back to them with genuine pleasure.

虽然种种失望令我一度消沉沮丧，但是我对其他科目的学习兴趣依旧未减，尤其是自然地理学。了解自然界的奥秘是一种乐趣：比如风如何——就像《圣经·旧约》中所描绘的那样——自天堂的四个角落遍吹四方，水蒸气如何从大地的尽头飘升至天空，河流如何在巉岩峭壁间劈风斩浪，群山如何被大地所倾覆，人类又是以何种方式战胜比自己强大得多的自然之力的。在纽约的这两年是一段令人愉快的时光，每每想起，我都会感到由衷地开心。

I remember especially the walks we all took together every day in Central Park, the only part of the city that was congenial to me. I never lost a jot of my delight in this great park. I loved to have it described every time I entered it; for it was beautiful in all its aspects, and these aspects were so many that it was beautiful in a different way each day of the nine months I spent in New York.

我尤其记得我们每天在中央公园的集体散步，对我而言，这是这个城市唯一令我感到称心如意的所在。我从未在这个大公园里遗漏掉半点快乐。我喜欢对每一次的公园漫步进行描述，因为这里的美无处不在，我在纽约的九个月中，每天都可以感受到多姿多彩的盛景佳境。

In the spring we made excursions to various places of interest. We sailed on the Hudson River and wandered about on its green banks, of which Bryant loved to sing. I liked the simple, wild grandeur of the palisades. Among the places I visited were West Point, Tarrytown, the home of Washington Irving, where I walked through "Sleepy Hollow."

春天，我们会到各种有趣的地方旅行。我们驾船航行在哈德逊河上，徜徉在布莱恩特所吟唱的芳草依依的岸边。我喜欢河边断崖朴素雄浑的野性之美。沿河而行，我们参观了西点军校，游览了华盛顿·欧文的家乡泰瑞镇，我还在“睡谷”中走了一遭。

The teachers at the Wright-Humason School were always planning how they might give the pupils every advantage that those who hear enjoy--how they might make much of few tendencies and passive memories in the cases of the little ones--and lead them out of the cramping circumstances in which their lives were set.

赖特休梅森学校的老师们始终为学生的利益着想，他们会以学生的兴趣作为教学出发点，他们很少对年幼的学生做强行灌输，而且，他们会引领这些身患残疾的孩子走出蹇涩的生存环境。

Before I left New York, these bright days were darkened by the greatest sorrow that I have ever borne, except the death of my father. Mr. John P. Spaulding, of Boston, died in February, 1896. Only those who knew and loved him best can understand what his friendship meant to me. He, who made every one happy in a beautiful, unobtrusive way, was most kind and tender to Miss Sullivan and me. So long as we felt his loving presence and knew that he took a watchful interest in our work, fraught with so many difficulties, we could not be discouraged. His going away left a vacancy in our lives that has never been filled.

在我即将离开纽约的时候，快乐的时光已经被伤感的阴云所笼罩；除了父亲的去世，我从未承受过如此巨大的悲伤。1896年2月，波士顿的约翰·P.斯鲍尔丁先生去世了。只有那些认识他并对他最为敬重的人，才会理解我们之间的友谊是多么深厚。他以其谦逊而优雅的态度把愉悦带给身边的每一个人，他给予了我和苏立文小姐最慷慨无私的关怀。每当想到他的慈爱，我们眼前就会立刻浮现出他那关注的神情，所以，无论我们在生活学习中遇到了多么大的困难，我们都不会感到气馁无助。斯鲍尔丁先生的去世给我们的生命留下了无法弥补的巨大空白。