OK阅读网

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

首页目录上一章下一章

Chapter XVIII	第十八章

In October, 1896, I entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, to be prepared for Radcliffe.	1896年10月，我进入剑桥女子学院学习，这也是为迈入拉德克利夫学院做准备。
When I was a little girl, I visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the announcement, "Some day I shall go to college--but I shall go to Harvard!" When asked why I would not go to Wellesley, I replied that there were only girls there. The thought of going to college took root in my heart and became an earnest desire, which impelled me to enter into competition for a degree with seeing and hearing girls, in the face of the strong opposition of many true and wise friends. When I left New York the idea had become a fixed purpose; and it was decided that I should go to Cambridge. This was the nearest approach I could get to Harvard and to the fulfillment of my childish declaration.	当我还是个小姑娘的时候，曾去韦尔斯利参观。当时，我的宣言令我的朋友们为之一惊：“将来我也会上大学——但是要上就上哈佛大学！”于是他们问我为什么不选择韦尔斯利学院，而我却回答说那所学院里只有女生。从那时起，上大学的念头就在我心里扎下了根，进而变为一种坚定不移的愿望。可以说，这种愿望激励着我迈入学位争夺战的行列，而我的对手是一些能看能听、耳目俱全的女孩子。当然，我也要面对身边那些明智而现实的朋友们的强烈反对。在我离开纽约的时候，上大学的想法已变成不可动摇的既定目标，因此我下定决心前往剑桥。可以说，这是为实现我上哈佛的童年宣言而选择的最接近目标的一条路。
At the Cambridge School the plan was to have Miss Sullivan attend the classes with me and interpret to me the instruction given.	根据剑桥女子学院的安排，苏立文小姐将同我一起上课并负责为我翻译授课的内容。
Of course my instructors had had no experience in teaching any but normal pupils, and my only means of conversing with them was reading their lips. My studies for the first year were English history, English literature, German, Latin, arithmetic, Latin composition and occasional themes. Until then I had never taken a course of study with the idea of preparing for college; but I had been well drilled in English by Miss Sullivan, and it soon became evident to my teachers that I needed no special instruction in this subject beyond a critical study of the books prescribed by the college. I had had, moreover, a good start in French, and received six months' instruction in Latin; but German was the subject with which I was most familiar.	当然，我的导师没有任何教授残疾学生的经验，所以，我与老师和同学们交流的唯一手段就是唇读。我第一学年学习的课程包括英国历史、英国文学、德语、拉丁文、算术、拉丁文写作和一些临时性课程。即便是那时，我也从来没有想过自己会为上大学做学业准备，但不管怎么说，在英语方面，我已经接受过苏立文小姐很好的训练。因此，我的学院老师很快就发现，对于那些指定课本，我并不需要特别的传授。此外，我在法语学习上的起点也很高，而德语更是我再熟悉不过的科目，所以，在最初的六个月当中，我用心学习的只有拉丁文。
In spite, however, of these advantages, there were serious drawbacks to my progress. Miss Sullivan could not spell out in my hand all that the books required, and it was very difficult to have textbooks embossed in time to be of use to me, although my friends in London and Philadelphia were willing to hasten the work. For a while, indeed, I had to copy my Latin in braille, so that I could recite with the other girls. My instructors soon became sufficiently familiar with my imperfect speech to answer my questions readily and correct mistakes. I could not make notes in class or write exercises; but I wrote all my compositions and translations at home on my typewriter.	尽管具备了这些优势，但是一些很严重的障碍仍对我的学业造成了影响。苏立文小姐不可能把所有指定的书籍在我手上拼写出来。尽管我在伦敦和费城的朋友们正在不遗余力地制作盲文书籍，但是，将这些课本转换成浮雕文字以解我的燃眉之急，这实在是一件极其困难的事。因此，我不得不将拉丁文誊写成布莱叶盲文，这样我就能和其他女孩一起背诵课文了。我的导师们很快就熟悉了我那不完美的语音，而且能迅速地解答我的问题并纠正我的错误。虽然我不在课堂上记笔记或者做练习，但是我会把所有的作文和（盲文）翻译用家里的打字机完成。
Each day Miss Sullivan went to the classes with me and spelled into my hand with infinite patience all that the teachers said. In study hours she had to look up new words for me and read and reread notes and books I did not have in raised print. The tedium of that work is hard to conceive. Frau Gr鰐e, my German teacher, and Mr. Gilman, the principal, were the only teachers in the school who learned the finger alphabet to give me instruction. No one realized more fully than dear Frau Gr鰐e how slow and inadequate her spelling was. Nevertheless, in the goodness of her heart she laboriously spelled out her instructions to me in special lessons twice a week, to give Miss Sullivan a little rest. But, though everybody was kind and ready to help us, there was only one hand that could turn drudgery into pleasure.	每天，苏立文小姐都会陪我走进课堂，她会以无限的耐心把老师们讲的所有内容在我手上拼写出来。其间，她还要帮我查找生词，并且一遍又一遍地为我读笔记和尚未译成盲文的书籍。这种冗长乏味的工作是常人难以想象的。我的德文老师弗劳·格鲁特女士和院长吉尔曼先生是学院里仅有的两位能用手语字母授课的老师。没有人能切实体会到可爱的弗劳·格鲁特女士的拼写是多么地缓慢和不熟练。尽管如此，她仍然不辞辛劳地一周两次为我拼读授课，而苏立文小姐也可以稍作喘息。可以说，每一个人都会对我们慷慨相助，但最终只有“一只手”能够把苦差变为乐事。
That year I finished arithmetic, reviewed my Latin grammar, and read three chapters of Caesar's "Gallic War." In German I read, partly with my fingers and partly with Miss Sullivan's assistance, Schiller's "Lied von der Glocke" and "Taucher," Heine's "Harzreise," Freytag's "Aus dem Staat Friedrichs des Grossen," Riehl's "Fluch Der Sch鰊heit," Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm," and Goethe's "Aus meinem Leben." I took the greatest delight in these German books, especially Schiller's wonderful lyrics, the history of Frederick the Great's magnificent achievements and the account of Goethe's life. I was sorry to finish "Die Harzreise," so full of happy witticisms and charming descriptions of vine-clad hills, streams that sing and ripple in the sunshine, and wild regions, sacred to tradition and legend, the gray sisters of a long-vanished, imaginative age--descriptions such as can be given only by those to whom nature is "a feeling, a love and an appetite."	那一年，我结束了算术课程的学习，复习了拉丁文语法，还读完了三章《高卢战记》。另外，一半靠苏立文小姐的帮助，一半靠我自己的手指，我还“阅读”了一些德文著作。席勒的《钟之歌》和《潜水者》，海涅的《哈尔茨山游记》，弗赖塔格的《从弗雷德里希大帝的国度来》，里尔的《美的诅咒》，莱辛的《明娜·冯·巴尔赫姆》，以及歌德的《诗与真》。我怀着极大的兴致阅读了这些德文名著，尤其是席勒笔下的恢弘诗篇，比如他对腓特烈大帝所取得的历史成就的赞颂，以及对歌德个人生活的描述。我怀着恋恋不舍的心情读完了《哈尔茨山游记》，这部诗集可谓妙语连珠，对醉人美景的描写随处可见——紫藤覆盖的山野，阳光下水波潋滟的溪流，蛮荒之地，神圣的仪轨和传奇，尘封已久的“灰衣姊妹”，富于想象力的年纪——只有那些对大自然怀有“真挚的感情和独特鉴赏品位”的人，才能够写出如此生动的诗句。
Mr. Gilman instructed me part of the year in English literature. We read together, "As You Like It," Burke's "Speech on Conciliation with America," and Macaulay's "Life of Samuel Johnson." Mr. Gilman's broad views of history and literature and his clever explanations made my work easier and pleasanter than it could have been had I only read notes mechanically with the necessarily brief explanations given in the classes.	那年，吉尔曼先生曾教过我一段时间的英语文学。我们一起阅读《皆大欢喜》，伯克的《与美国和解的演讲》，还有麦考雷的《塞缪尔·约翰逊的一生》。吉尔曼先生广博的历史学识和文学素养，加之其巧妙的讲解方式，使我切实体会到了学习的轻松与快乐，这完全不同于我在课堂上被灌输的那些教条性知识。
Burke's speech was more instructive than any other book on a political subject that I had ever read. My mind stirred with the stirring times, and the characters round which the life of two contending nations centred seemed to move right before me. I wondered more and more, while Burke's masterly speech rolled on in mighty surges of eloquence, how it was that King George and his ministers could have turned a deaf ear to his warning prophecy of our victory and their humiliation. Then I entered into the melancholy details of the relation in which the great statesman stood to his party and to the representatives of the people. I thought how strange it was that such precious seeds of truth and wisdom should have fallen among the tares of ignorance and corruption.	伯克的演讲比我所读过的任何一本政论书籍更具有教育意义。我心潮起伏，在我面前，两个生活在共同屋檐下的敌对民族似乎在朝着和解的道路上迈进。令我越来越不解的是，面对伯克那激昂澎湃而富于雄辩的演讲，乔治国王和他手下的众臣怎么可能充耳不闻，置我们的胜利和他们的耻辱于不顾呢？对于这位大政治家所持的党派立场和人民的立场之间的关系，我在随后的研读中进行了深入的思考。我觉得，像这样一粒如此珍贵，蕴涵着真理和智慧的种子，竟然被湮没在无知和*的稗子中，这的确是一件很奇怪的事。
In a different way Macaulay's "Life of Samuel Johnson" was interesting. My heart went out to the lonely man who ate the bread of affliction in Grub Street, and yet, in the midst of toil and cruel suffering of body and soul, always had a kind word, and lent a helping hand to the poor and despised. I rejoiced over all his successes, I shut my eyes to his faults, and wondered, not that he had them, but that they had not crushed or dwarfed his soul. But in spite of Macaulay's brilliancy and his admirable faculty of making the commonplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness wearied me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to effect kept me in a questioning attitude very unlike the attitude of reverence in which I had listened to the Demosthenes of Great Britain.	无论从哪种角度来看，麦考雷写的《塞缪尔·约翰逊的一生》都很吸引人。这位在克鲁伯街上啃着面包的落魄男人令人同情，然而，即使在身体和灵魂遭受双重磨难的情况下，他始终保持着一种友善的言行，还向贫穷无助的人伸出援手。我为他取得的成功而欢欣鼓舞，而对他的过失则视而不见——奇怪的是，尽管重压缠身，但是种种压力并没有摧垮他的意志，那些瑕疵也无损于他的人格。麦考雷以其出色的文笔化腐朽为神奇，令生动的人物跃然纸上。他的信念偶尔也会让我感到厌倦，但是他那为探寻真理而孜孜以求的精神，使我看待事物的态度变得更加理性了；同我听到“大不列颠的狄摩西尼”雄辩演说后的敬畏之情相比，这是一种完全不同的感觉。
At the Cambridge school, for the first time in my life, I enjoyed the companionship of seeing and hearing girls of my own age. I lived with several others in one of the pleasant houses connected with the school, the house where Mr. Howells used to live, and we all had the advantage of home life. I joined them in many of their games, even blind man's buff and frolics in the snow; I took long walks with them; we discussed our studies and read aloud the things that interested us. Some of the girls learned to speak to me, so that Miss Sullivan did not have to repeat their conversation.	在剑桥学习期间，我平生第一次沉浸在同学之间的友谊当中。当然，这些同学都是能看能听，和我同龄的女孩子。我和其他几个同学住在与学校相连的一幢房子里，豪厄尔斯先生曾在这里居住过，所以说，我们可能都从这所房子里得着点“仙气”。同学们的很多游戏我都参加，甚至是雪中捉迷藏；我和她们一同远足；我们还会在一起讨论功课，高声朗读我们感兴趣的文章。有些女孩学会了同我“交谈”，这样苏立文小姐就用不着为我重复她们的话了。
At Christmas, my mother and little sister spent the holidays with me, and Mr. Gilman kindly offered to let Mildred study in his school. So Mildred stayed with me in Cambridge, and for six happy months we were hardly ever apart. It makes me most happy to remember the hours we spent helping each other in study and sharing our recreation together.	那一年，我的母亲和小妹妹和我一同度过了圣诞节。其间，热心的吉尔曼先生还把米尔德莱德安排在他的学校读书。就这样，米尔德莱德和我一起待在了剑桥，差不多有六个月的时间，我们几乎形影不离。我们在一起分享快乐；我们俩互相帮助，一学就是好几个小时。那真是一段令人愉快的时光。
I took my preliminary examinations for Radcliffe from the 29th of June to the 3rd of July in 1897. The subjects I offered were Elementary and Advanced German, French, Latin, English, and Greek and Roman history, making nine hours in all. I passed in everything, and received "honours" in German and English.	1897年6月29日至7月3日，我参加了拉德克利夫学院的预科考试。我报考的科目有初级和高级德语、法语、拉丁文、英语、希腊语和古罗马史。几门考试总共用了九个小时。我不仅通过了全部考试，而且德语和英语成绩是“优等”。
Perhaps an explanation of the method that was in use when I took my examinations will not be amiss here. The student was required to pass in sixteen hours--twelve hours being called elementary and four advanced. He had to pass five hours at a time to have them counted. The examination papers were given out at nine o'clock at Harvard and brought to Radcliffe by a special messenger. Each candidate was known, not by his name, but by a number. I was No. 233, but, as I had to use a typewriter, my identity could not be concealed.	在此，将我参加考试的程序做一番介绍或许是无伤大雅之举吧。参加考试的学生应该在十六个小时内通过测试——包括十二个小时的初级考试和四个小时的高级考试。一般来说，做完这些答卷至少也要五个小时。试卷于早晨九点在哈佛启封，并且用特别邮件送到拉德克利夫。每一个应试者都被登记在册，但与其对应的不是姓名，而是一个号码。我是第233号，因为我必须要使用一台（盲文）打字机的缘故，所以我的识别号码是无法隐藏的。
It was thought advisable for me to have my examinations in a room by myself, because the noise of the typewriter might disturb the other girls. Mr. Gilman read all the papers to me by means of the manual alphabet. A man was placed on guard at the door to prevent interruption.	校方为我考虑得相当周到，我被安排在一个单独的房间考试，因为打字机的敲击声会影响到其他同学。吉尔曼先生亲自用手语拼写的方式为我读考题，为了不受打扰，房间门口还设置了一名守卫。
The first day I had German. Mr. Gilman sat beside me and read the paper through first, then sentence by sentence, while I repeated the words aloud, to make sure that I understood him perfectly. The papers were difficult, and I felt very anxious as I wrote out my answers on the typewriter. Mr. Gilman spelled to me what I had written, and I made such changes as I thought necessary, and he inserted them. I wish to say here that I have not had this advantage since in any of my examinations. At Radcliffe no one reads the papers to me after they are written, and I have no opportunity to correct errors unless I finish before the time is up. In that case I correct only such mistakes as I can recall in the few minutes allowed, and make notes of these corrections at the end of my paper. If I passed with higher credit in the preliminaries than in the finals, there are two reasons. In the finals, no one read my work over to me, and in the preliminaries I offered subjects with some of which I was in a measure familiar before my work in the Cambridge school; for at the beginning of the year I had passed examinations in English, History, French and German, which Mr. Gilman gave me from previous Harvard papers.	第一天进行的是德语考试。坐在我旁边的吉尔曼先生首先通读一遍考题，然后再一句一句分开读；与此同时，我也跟着大声重复，以表明我听清了他说的话。考题有些难度，在用打字机打出答案的同时，我的心里也感到惴惴不安。吉尔曼先生把我的答题拼给我听，如果我觉得有必要的话就做一些修改，然后他再把修改后的内容插入到答题中。我想说的是，在我以前所参加的任何一次考试当中，从来没有享受过如此待遇。在拉德克利夫，没有人会为我读试题，而且我也没有机会修改错误，除非我能提前做完答卷。也就是说，我可以利用有限的几分钟时间，根据自己的回忆修改疏漏之处，然后，再把改正后的答案写在卷子的底部。假如说我初试的成绩比复试要好的话，原因有两个，首先，复试时不会有人为我读试卷；其次，初试时的科目有相当一部分都是我在剑桥学院学过的课程，而复试就不一定了。还好，在那一年年初，我已经通过了英语、历史、法语和德语的考试，吉尔曼先生用的是哈佛以前的正规试卷。
Mr. Gilman sent my written work to the examiners with a certificate that I, candidate No. 233, had written the papers.	最后，吉尔曼先生把我的答卷送交到主考官手中，他还在试卷上附加了一纸证明：我，第233号考生，独立完成所有答题。
All the other preliminary examinations were conducted in the same manner. None of them was so difficult as the first. I remember that the day the Latin paper was brought to us, Professor Schilling came in and informed me I had passed satisfactorily in German. This encouraged me greatly, and I sped on to the end of the ordeal with a light heart and a steady hand.	所有其他科目的考试都是以这种方式进行的，不过后面的考试都不像第一门这么难。我记得在考拉丁文的那天，施灵教授来到考场告诉我说，我已经圆满地通过了德语考试。这一消息令我信心倍增，于是，我带着放松的心情完成了后面所有科目的考试。