我的生活海伦凯勒摘抄 海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第20期

海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第20期  

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.
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.
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 ing 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“普利茅斯巖”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."
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."