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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 IX

第九章

The next important event in my life was my visit to Boston, in May, 1888. As if it were yesterday I remember the preparations, the departure with my teacher and my mother, the journey, and finally the arrival in Boston. How different this journey was from the one I had made to Baltimore two years before! I was no longer a restless, excitable little creature, requiring the attention of everybody on the train to keep me amused. I sat quietly beside Miss Sullivan, taking in with eager interest all that she told me about what she saw out of the car window: the beautiful Tennessee River, the great cotton-fields, the hills and woods, and the crowds of laughing negroes at the stations, who waved to the people on the train and brought delicious candy and popcorn balls through the car. On the seat opposite me sat my big rag doll, Nancy, in a new gingham dress and a beruffled sunbonnet, looking at me out of two bead eyes. Sometimes, when I was not absorbed in Miss Sullivan's descriptions, I remembered Nancy's existence and took her up in my arms, but I generally calmed my conscience by making myself believe that she was asleep.

1888年5月的波士顿之旅是我生命中的又一件大事。当时的情景历历在目，仿佛就发生在昨天。总之，在苏立文小姐和妈妈的陪伴下，我最终到了波士顿。同我两年前的巴尔的摩之行相比，这次旅行迥然不同。我不再是那个兴奋好动，到处找乐，引得一车人注意的小丫头了。这一次，我安静地坐在苏立文小姐身边，聚精会神地“听”她讲述车窗外的风景：秀美的田纳西河，广袤的棉花地，群山和森林，站台上，一群有说有笑的黑人朝乘客们挥手示意，从车窗送进来美味的糖果和爆米花。我把我的大布娃娃南希放在了对面的座位上，她穿着新的花格子衣服，头戴花边遮阳软帽，用两只玻璃眼珠看着我。偶尔，当我听不大懂苏立文小姐描述的时候，我就想起了南希，我还把她抱在怀里；但是在通常情况下，我会让自己相信南希正在睡觉，所以我会变得很安静。

As I shall not have occasion to refer to Nancy again, I wish to tell here a sad experience she had soon after our arrival in Boston. She was covered with dirt--the remains of mud pies I had compelled her to eat, although she had never shown any special liking for them. The laundress at the Perkins Institution secretly carried her off to give her a bath. This was too much for poor Nancy. When I next saw her she was a formless heap of cotton, which I should not have recognized at all except for the two bead eyes which looked out at me reproachfully.

可是我再也没有机会提到南希了，在此，我愿意讲述她随我到波士顿后的不幸经历。她满身污渍——大多是被我强迫喂食的“泥巴馅饼”的剩余物，尽管她从未显露出喜欢吃这种食品的丝毫热情。帕金斯盲人学院的洗衣女工瞒着我给她洗了一个澡，这对可怜的南希来说简直是灭顶之灾。当我再见到她时，她已经变成了一个走了形的棉花团。除了那两只怒目而视的玻璃眼珠，我一点儿都认不出她了。

When the train at last pulled into the station at Boston it was as if a beautiful fairy tale had come true. The "once upon a time" was now; the "far-away country" was here.

当火车终于停靠在波士顿的站台时，一个美丽的童话故事仿佛就要变成现实了。此时变成了“在很久以前”，此地变成了“遥远的国度”。

We had scarcely arrived at the Perkins Institution for the Blind when I began to make friends with the little blind children. It delighted me inexpressibly to find that they knew the manual alphabet. What joy to talk with other children in my own language! Until then I had been like a foreigner speaking through an interpreter. In the school where Laura Bridgman was taught I was in my own country. It took me some time to appreciate the fact that my new friends were blind. I knew I could not see; but it did not seem possible that all the eager, loving children who gathered round me and joined heartily in my frolics were also blind. I remember the surprise and the pain I felt as I noticed that they placed their hands over mine when I talked to them and that they read books with their fingers. Although I had been told this before, and although I understood my own deprivations, yet I had thought vaguely that since they could hear, they must have a sort of "second sight," and I was not prepared to find one child and another and yet another deprived of the same precious gift. But they were so happy and contented that I lost all sense of pain in the pleasure of their companionship.

我们刚到帕金斯盲人学院，我就开始和这里的盲童交朋友了。我的兴奋之情溢于言表，因为我发现同伴们都懂得用手语字母交流。能用我自己的语言同其他孩子讲话真是令人开心！在这之前，我一直像个外国人一样，需要翻译才能讲话。劳拉·布里吉曼在这所学校学习的时候，我还待在自己的家乡。我花了一些时间才意识到我的新朋友们都是盲人。虽然我自己也看不见，但是当我被一群热情好客，同样看不见的伙伴们围在身边，尽情嬉戏玩耍的时候，我觉得这似乎是不可能的事情。我对伙伴们说话的时候，他们就会把他们的手放在我的手上，而且，他们还会用手指读书。当我发现这一点后，我感到既惊奇又苦恼。尽管家人在来这里之前就对我讲过，尽管我知道自己的感官缺陷，可我还是隐约地想到，因为同伴们具有听力，所以他们肯定有一种“第二视觉”功能。当然，我也没有指望要找到一个和我一样既盲又聋的孩子，我想，听觉和视觉一样，都是人类弥足珍贵的礼物。但不管怎么说，他们是如此地快乐和满足，置身在伙伴们的友谊之中，我完全忘却了忧愁烦恼。

One day spent with the blind children made me feel thoroughly at home in my new environment, and I looked eagerly from one pleasant experience to another as the days flew swiftly by. I could not quite convince myself that there was much world left, for I regarded Boston as the beginning and the end of creation.

同我的盲童朋友们待上一天后，我完全适应了新环境，感觉就像在家一样。一天过去，我就盼着又一天的到来，我渴望在每天都获得愉悦的经历。我并不想弄清楚周围是不是还有更加广阔的天地，我把波士顿当做万物的起始点和终结地。

While we were in Boston we visited Bunker Hill, and there I had my first lesson in history. The story of the brave men who had fought on the spot where we stood excited me greatly. I climbed the monument, counting the steps, and wondering as I went higher and yet higher if the soldiers had climbed this great stairway and shot at the enemy on the ground below.

在波士顿的时候，我们参观了邦克山，我在那里学到了我的第一堂历史课。我们的脚下就是勇士曾经战斗过的阵地，他们的无畏气概令我激动不已。在去山顶纪念碑凭吊的途中，我一边数着台阶，一边想象着当年的士兵爬到高坡，居高临下向敌人射击时的情景。

The next day we went to Plymouth by water. This was my first trip on the ocean and my first voyage in a steamboat. How full of life and motion it was! But the rumble of the machinery made me think it was thundering, and I began to cry, because I feared if it rained we should not be able to have our picnic out of doors. I was more interested, I think, in the great rock on which the Pilgrims landed than in anything else in Plymouth. I could touch it, and perhaps that made the coming of the Pilgrims and their toils and great deeds seem more real to me. I have often held in my hand a little model of the Plymouth Rock which a kind gentleman gave me at Pilgrim Hall, and I have fingered its curves, the split in the centre and the embossed figures "1620," and turned over in my mind all that I knew about the wonderful story of the Pilgrims.

第二天，我们经由水路前往普利茅斯，这是我第一次乘坐汽船在海上航行。真想不到汽船能装那么多人！不过这个隆隆作响的机器让我想起了雷电，我开始哭了起来，我担心一旦下雨，我们就不能去野餐了。在普利茅斯，我对清教徒登陆的巨大礁石最感兴趣。我能够触摸到这些岩石，也许这让我更真切地体会到了先民们的艰辛和伟大功绩。我经常会把一小块“普利茅斯岩”模型拿在手里，这是清教徒纪念堂中的一位友善的绅士送给我的；我能用手指摸到它弯曲的形状，中间的裂纹，以及“1620”字样的浮雕数字。当时，我满脑子里装的都是清教徒先民们开疆拓土的神奇故事。

How my childish imagination glowed with the splendour of their enterprise! I idealized them as the bravest and most generous men that ever sought a home in a strange land. I thought they desired the freedom of their fellow men as well as their own. I was keenly surprised and disappointed years later to learn of their acts of persecution that make us tingle with shame, even while we glory in the courage and energy that gave us our "Country Beautiful."

我童年的想象力是如此地多姿多彩！我理想化地把先民们视做最勇敢、最有气魄的开拓者，因为他们要在一片陌生的土地上寻找家园。我想，他们不但要为自己争取自由，还要为民族利益争取自由。多年后，我才了解到他们的出走是由于受到了*，这让我深感震惊和失望，我为人类的非理性行为感到羞愧，尤其是当我们以先辈们建立的“美丽新世界”引以为豪的时候。

Among the many friends I made in Boston were Mr. William Endicott and his daughter. Their kindness to me was the seed from which many pleasant memories have since grown. One day we visited their beautiful home at Beverly Farms. I remember with delight how I went through their rose-garden, how their dogs, big Leo and little curly-haired Fritz with long ears, came to meet me, and how Nimrod, the swiftest of the horses, poked his nose into my hands for a pat and a lump of sugar. I also remember the beach, where for the first time I played in the sand. It was hard, smooth sand, very different from the loose, sharp sand, mingled with kelp and shells, at Brewster. Mr. Endicott told me about the great ships that came sailing by from Boston, bound for Europe. I saw him many times after that, and he was always a good friend to me; indeed, I was thinking of him when I called Boston "the City of Kind Hearts."

威廉·恩迪考特先生和他的女儿也是我在波士顿结交的朋友。他们的友善如同播撒在我心底的种子，随着时光的流逝，许多美好的回忆也慢慢开花结果。有一天，我们去贝弗利农庄拜访他们美丽的家。我依然记得当时的情景：我如何兴高采烈地穿过他们家的玫瑰花园；如何遇到了他们家的大狗利奥，还有卷毛长耳小狗弗里茨；行动敏捷的大马宁录又如何伸着鼻子吃我手里的黄油和糖块。我还记得那片海滩，我就是在那里第一次玩沙子的。那是一种质地坚硬、手感爽滑的沙子，同布鲁斯特的掺杂着海藻和贝壳，松软扎手的沙子截然不同。恩迪考特先生还跟我讲了有关巨轮从波士顿起航驶往欧洲的事。后来我又见过他许多次，他一直是我的好朋友。事实上，每当我把波士顿叫做“慈爱之城”的时候，我就会想起他。