我人生中最重要的日子

The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887，three months before I was seven years old.
記憶中，我一生最重要的曰子是我的老師安妮·曼斯菲爾德·莎莉文來到我身邊的那一天。回想此前和此后迥然不同的兩種生活，我驚嘆不已。這一天是1887年3月3日，當(dāng)時離我滿七周歲還差三個月。

On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me . Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle.
在那個重大日子的下午，我一聲不響地站在門廊上，滿懷著期待的心情。從母親的手勢以及屋子里全家上下匆匆忙忙走來走去的情形, 我隱約地感到一件不同尋常的事就要發(fā)生了，于是我走到門口，站在臺階上等待。午后的陽光透過遮滿門廊的忍冬叢，照在我仰起的臉上。我的手指幾乎無意識地觸摸著那些熟悉的葉片和花朵，忍冬花為迎接南方迷人的春天才剛剛開放。我不知道未來會帶給我什么奇跡或驚喜。幾個星期以來，我一直被憤怒和痛苦籠罩著，激烈的情感斗爭讓我深感疲倦。

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. "Light! give me light!"was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
你是否曾經(jīng)航行在濃霧迷漫的大海上，眼前白茫茫一片，似乎把你包裹得嚴(yán)嚴(yán)實實，大船一面用鉛錘和測深繩探測著海水的深淺，一面緊張焦急地朝岸邊摸索前行，而你的心怦怦直跳，唯恐意外發(fā)生。在開始接受教育之前，我就像這樣一條船，只是沒有羅盤，沒有測深繩，無法得知離海港有多遠(yuǎn)。"光明！給我光明！ "這是我內(nèi)心發(fā)出的無聲的呼喊，也就在這個時刻，愛的光芒照到了我的身上。

I felt approaching footsteps, I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.
我感到有腳步朝我走來，伸出手，以為是母親。不知是誰抓住了我的手，把我拉了過去，緊緊地?fù)г谒膽牙铩＞褪撬秊槲艺故玖耸篱g的各種事物，而且最重要的是，她給了我深深的愛。

The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word "d-o-l-l." I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name.
第二天早上，老師把我?guī)У剿姆块g，給了我一個玩具娃娃。這是柏金斯盲童學(xué)校的學(xué)生贈送的，勞拉·布里奇曼為娃娃縫制了衣服，這都是我后來才知道的。我拿著娃娃玩了一會兒，莎莉文小姐慢慢地在我手心里拼寫單詞"d-o-1-1"。我的心中充滿了一個孩子特有的愉快和驕傲，高興得滿臉漲得通紅。我跑下樓去告訴母親，我向她伸出手，比劃著寫出了 "d-o-l-l"這個詞。當(dāng)時我并不知道自己是在拼寫一個單詞，甚至根本不知道有文字的存在，我不過是比劃著手指，依葫蘆畫瓢似的模仿而已。在接下來的幾天里，我以這種不求甚解的方式學(xué)會了許多單詞的拼寫，其中有pin (別針）、hat (帽子）、cup (茶杯），還有幾個動詞，比如sit (坐）、stand (站）、walk (走）。老師教了我?guī)讉€星期后，我才知道原來每樣事物都有自己的名稱。