海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第17期

　　第八章

　　The first Christmas after Miss Sullivan came to Tuscumbia was a great event. Every one in the family prepared surprises for me, but what pleased me most, Miss Sullivan and I prepared surprises for everybody else. The mystery that surrounded the gifts was my greatest delight andamusement. My friends did all they could to excite my curiosity by hints and half-spelled sentences which they pretended to break off in the nick of time. Miss Sullivan and I kept up a game of guessing which taught me more about the use of language than any set lessons could have done. Every evening, seated round a glowing wood fire, we played our guessing game, which grew more and more exciting as Christmas approached.

　　對(duì)于我們家來(lái)說(shuō)，蘇立文小姐在圖斯康比亞過(guò)第一個(gè)圣誕節(jié)可是件大事。家里每一個(gè)人都籌劃著讓我大吃一驚，但是最令我興奮的是，我和蘇立文小姐也籌劃著讓別人大吃一驚。對(duì)于那些神秘的禮物，我心里充滿了巨大的喜悅感和好奇心。我的朋友們極盡所能，通過(guò)種種暗示和故意拼寫(xiě)了一半的句子來(lái)吊我的胃口。而我和蘇立文小姐則繼續(xù)玩猜謎游戲，同課堂所學(xué)的知識(shí)相比，這種寓教于樂(lè)的方式讓我掌握了更多的語(yǔ)言技巧。每天晚上，我們坐在燃燒的爐火旁玩猜謎游戲。隨著圣誕節(jié)的日益臨近，我的心情也變得越來(lái)越興奮。

　　On Christmas Eve the Tuscumbia schoolchildren had their tree, to which they invited me. In the centre of the schoolroom stood a beautiful tree ablaze and shimmering in the soft light, its branches loaded with strange, wonderful fruit. It was a moment of supreme happiness. I danced and capered round the tree in an ecstasy. When I learned that there was a gift for each child, I was delighted, and the kind people who had prepared the tree permitted me to hand the presents to the children. In the pleasure of doing this, I did not stop to look at my own gifts; but when I was ready for them, my impatience for the real Christmas to begin almost got beyond control. I knew the gifts I already had were not those of which friends had thrown out such tantalizing hints, and my teacher said the presents I was to have would be even nicer than these. I was persuaded, however, to content myself with the gifts from the tree and leave the others until morning.

　　圣誕前夜，圖斯康比亞的學(xué)童們也有自己的圣誕樹(shù)，他們邀請(qǐng)我去參加慶祝活動(dòng)。在教室中間，矗立著一棵美麗的圣誕樹(shù)，在柔和的光線下，它閃爍著晶瑩的微光，它的枝椏上綴滿了奇特的果實(shí)。這的確是一個(gè)普天同慶的歡樂(lè)時(shí)刻，我忘乎所以地繞著圣誕樹(shù)又蹦又跳。當(dāng)我得知每一個(gè)孩子都會(huì)得到一件禮物時(shí)，我更高興了。那些裝飾圣誕樹(shù)的熱心人允許我把禮物分發(fā)給別的孩子。在派發(fā)禮物的同時(shí)，我也忍不住在想著自己的那一份兒。其實(shí)我早就做好準(zhǔn)備了，我激動(dòng)得難以自抑，一心盼著盡快見(jiàn)到自己的禮物。我知道我的禮物不會(huì)是像朋友們暗示的那些東西，我的老師告訴我，我得到的禮物要比傳言中的東西好得多。終于，到快天亮的時(shí)候，我心滿意足地得到了圣誕樹(shù)上的禮物。