我的生活海伦凯勒摘抄 海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第2期

海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第2期  

Even in the days before my teacher came
I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges
and
guided by the sense of smell
would find the first violets and lilies. There
too
after a fit of temper
I went to find fort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass. What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers
to wander happily from spot to spot
until
ing suddenly upon a beautiful vine
I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms
and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here
also
were trailing clematis
drooping jessamine
and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies
because their fragile petals resemble butterflies' wings. But the roses—they were loveliest of all. Never have I found in the greenhouses of the North such heart-satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home. They used to hang in long festoons from our porch
filling the whole air with their fragrance
untainted by any earthysmell; and in the early morning
washed in the dew
they felt so soft
so pure
I could not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels of God's garden.
The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came
I saw
I conquered
as the first baby in the family always does. There was the usual amount of discussion as to a name for me. The first baby in the family was not to be lightly named
every one was emphatic about that. My father suggested the name of Mildred Campbell
an ancestor whom he highly esteemed
and he declined to take any further part in the discussion. My mother solved the problem by giving it as her wish that I should be called after her mother
whose maiden name was Helen Everett. But in the excitement of carrying me to church my father lost the name on the way
very naturally
since it was one in which he had declined to have a part. When the minister asked him for it
he just remembered that it had been decided to call me after my grandmother
and he gave her name as Helen Adams.
I am told that while I was still in long dresses I showed many signs of an eager
self-asserting disposition. Everything that I saw other people do I insisted upon imitating. At six months I could pipe out "How d'ye
" and one day I attracted every one's attention by saying "Tea
tea
tea" quite plainly. Even after my illness I remembered one of the words I had learned in these early months. It was the word "water
" and I continued to make some sound for that word after all other speech was lost. I ceased making the sound "wah-wah" only when I learned to spell the word.
我从家人口中得知，当我尚在襁褓中的时候，我就显示出了急躁而固执的个性。我会执意模仿别人做的每一件事情。在六个月大时，我就能咿呀说出“你——好”之类的词句。有一天，我十分清晰地说出了“茶，茶，茶”，这引起了家里每一个人的注意。即便是在我生病之后，我仍然记得在我生命最初几个月里所学到的一个词，这个词就是“水”。此后，在我所有的语言功能丧失殆尽后，我就一直模糊地发出“水”这个词的声音，只有在学习拼读的时候，我才会停止说“水——水”。
They tell me I walked the day I was a year old. My mother had just taken me out of the bath-tub and was holding me in her lap
when I was suddenly attracted by the flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor. I slipped from my mother's lap and almost ran toward them. The impulse gone
I fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms.
These happy days did not last long. One brief spring
musical with the song of robin and mocking-bird
one summer rich in fruit and roses
one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager
delighted child. Then
in the dreary month of February
came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new-born baby. They called it acute congestion of the stomach and brain. The doctor thought I could not live. Early one morning
however
the fever left me as suddenly and mysteriously as it had e. There was great rejoicing in the family that morning
but no one
not even the doctor
knew that I should never see or hear again.
I fancy I still have confused recollections of that illness. I especially remember the tenderness with which my mother tried to soothe me in my waking hours of fret and pain
and the agony and bewilderment with which I awoke after a tossing half sleep
and turned my eyes
so dry and hot
to the wall
away from the once-loved light
which came to me dim and yet more dim each day. But
except for these fleeting memories
if
indeed
they be memories
it all seems very unreal
like a nigare. Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and fot that it had ever been different
until she came—my teacher—who was to set my spirit free. But during the first nieen months of my life I had caught glimpses of broad
green fields
a luminous sky
trees and flowers which the darkness that followed could not wholly blot out. If we have once seen
"the day is ours
and what the day has shown."