海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第27期

　　第十三章

　　It was in the spring of 1890 that I learned to speak.* The impulse to utter audible sounds had always been strong within me. I used to make noises, keeping one hand on my throat while the other hand felt the movements of my lips. I was pleased with anything that made a noise and liked to feel the cat purr and the dog bark. I also liked to keep my hand on a singer’s throat, or on a piano when it was being played. Before I lost my sight and hearing, I was fast learning to talk, but after my illness it was found that I had ceased to speak because I could not hear. I used to sit in my mother’s lap all day long and keep my hands on her face because it amused me to feel the motions of her lips; and I moved my lips, too, although I had forgotten what talking was. My friends say that I laughed and cried naturally, and for awhile I made many sounds and word-elements, not because they were a means of communication, but because the need of exercising my vocal organs was imperative. There was, however, one word the meaning of which I still remembered, water. I pronounced it "wa-wa." Even this became less and less intelligible until the time when Miss Sullivan began to teach me. I stopped using it only after I had learned to spell the word on my fingers.

　　1890年的春天，我開始學(xué)習(xí)說話。對(duì)我而言，能夠發(fā)聲講話的沖動(dòng)變得日益強(qiáng)烈。我常常會(huì)發(fā)出一些雜音，我會(huì)把一只手放在自己的喉嚨上出聲，而別人則用手感知我嘴唇的移動(dòng)。我對(duì)自己發(fā)出的任何聲音都感到無比滿足，我也喜歡通過觸摸感知貓兒“咕嚕咕嚕”的哼唱，或者是狗兒歡快的吠叫。有時(shí)候，我還會(huì)把手放在一個(gè)歌唱家的喉嚨上，或者是一架正在彈奏的鋼琴上面。在我失去視覺和聽覺之前，我咿呀學(xué)語的速度很快，但是在得病之后，我就停止了講話，因?yàn)槲沂裁炊悸牪灰姟Ｓ谑?，我整天坐在母親的腿上，還把手放在她的臉上，因?yàn)樗齑降囊苿?dòng)令我興味盎然。同時(shí)，我也移動(dòng)自己的嘴唇，不過我早已忘了當(dāng)時(shí)都說了些什么。我的朋友們說，無論是笑是哭，我流露出的情緒都很自然;而且，我還會(huì)發(fā)出許多聲音和模糊的詞語。當(dāng)然，這些聲音并不包含與人交流的成分，它只是表明我練習(xí)使用發(fā)音器官的本能需求。至今我仍然記得學(xué)習(xí)“water”這個(gè)詞的過程，一開始，我總是發(fā)出“wawa”的聲音。顯然，這樣的發(fā)音是令人難以理解的。直到蘇立文小姐教我學(xué)會(huì)用手指拼寫后，我便放棄了用發(fā)音進(jìn)行交流的方式。

　　I had known for a long time that the people about me used a method of communication different from mine; and even before I knew that a deaf child could be taught to speak, I was conscious ofdissatisfaction with the means of communication I already possessed. One who is entirelydependent upon the manual alphabet has always a sense of restraint, of narrowness. This feeling began to agitate me with a vexing, forward-reaching sense of a lack that should be filled. My thoughts would often rise and beat up like birds against the wind; and I persisted in using my lips and voice. Friends tried to discourage this tendency, fearing lest it would lead todisappointment. But I persisted, and an accident soon occurred which resulted in the breaking down of this great barrier—I heard the story of Ragnhild Kaata.

　　我很早就知道，人們使用一種與眾不同的方式同我交流。我知道一個(gè)聾啞孩子是可以學(xué)會(huì)說話的，因此，我對(duì)自己已經(jīng)擁有的交流手段感到了不滿。一個(gè)完全依賴手寫字母來交流的人總會(huì)感覺到處處受限。這種挫折感既令我無比懊惱，又使我進(jìn)一步意識(shí)到，我應(yīng)該盡快彌補(bǔ)自己的交流缺陷。我的思緒日益高漲，猶如逆風(fēng)而行的飛鳥;而且，我堅(jiān)持用自己的嘴唇發(fā)音。朋友們則竭力阻止我的熱情，他們唯恐我因講話不成而更加失望。我毫不動(dòng)搖，隨后發(fā)生的一件事終于令巨大的障礙轟然倒地——我聽說了拉根希爾德·卡塔的故事。

　　In 1890 Mrs. Lamson, who had been one of Laura Bridgman’s teachers, and who had just returned from a visit to Norway and Sweden, came to see me, and told me of Ragnhild Kaata, a deaf and blind girl in Norway who had actually been taught to speak. Mrs. Lamson had scarcely finished telling me about this girl’s success before I was on fire with eagerness. I resolved that I, too, would learn to speak. I would not rest satisfied until my teacher took me, for advice andassistance, to Miss Sarah Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann School. This lovely, sweet-natured lady offered to teach me herself, and we began the twenty-sixth of March, 1890.

　　1890年，剛從挪威和瑞典訪問歸來的拉姆森夫人來看我，她也是勞拉·布里吉曼的授課教師之一。她對(duì)我講了拉根希爾德·卡塔的故事。拉根希爾德·卡塔是一個(gè)又聾又盲的挪威女孩，事實(shí)上，她已經(jīng)成功地學(xué)會(huì)了開口說話。不等拉姆森夫人把女孩的故事講完，我的希望之火就已經(jīng)燃燒起來了。我下定決心，也要學(xué)會(huì)開口講話。于是，在他人的建議和協(xié)助下，我的老師把我送到了薩拉·富勒小姐那里，她是霍勒斯·曼恩學(xué)校的校長(zhǎng)。這位和藹可親的女士決定親自為我授課，1890年3月26日是我們的開課日期。