Everything had budded and blossomed. I was happy. “The Frost King” was forgotten.
万物复苏，鲜花怒放。我非常高兴。《霜王》事件被我抛到了脑后。
The summer and winter following the “Frost King” incident I spent with my family in Alabama. I recall with delight that home-going.
《霜王》风波平息之后的那年夏天和冬天，我与家人在亚拉巴马州度过。我愉快地回想起那次回家经历。
I was still excessively scrupulous about everything I wrote. The thought that what I wrote might not be absolutely my own tormented me. No one knew of these fears except my teacher. A strange sensitiveness prevented me from referring to the “Frost King”; and often when an idea flashed out in the course of conversation I would spell softly to her, “I am not sure it is mine.” At other times, in the midst of a paragraph I was writing, I said to myself, “Suppose it should be found that all this was written by some one long ago!” An impish fear clutched my hand, so that I could not write any more that day. And even now I sometimes feel the same uneasiness and disquietude. Miss Sullivan consoled and helped me in every way she could think of; but the terrible experience I had passed through left a lasting impression on my mind, the significance of which I am only just beginning to understand. It was with the hope of restoring my self-confidence that she persuaded me to write for the Youth’s Companion a brief account of my life. I was then twelve years old. As I look back on my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed.
当时，我对自己写的任何东西仍然过分怀疑，害怕所写的东西不完全是自己的思考所得。除了沙利文小姐，没有人知道我内心是多么惶恐不安。这种神经过敏的古怪心理使我根本不能谈及《霜王》这个话题。有时候，在和老师谈话的过程中灵感突现，我便会轻轻地一字一顿地对她说：“我不肯定这是我自己的。”有时候，我写着写着，会自言自语地说：“这些东西可能早就有人写过了。”我的手被恶作剧般的恐惧牢牢束缚，以至于那一整天我再也没法写下去。甚至现在，我还时常感受到这样的焦虑与不安。沙利文小姐总是千方百计地安慰我，帮助我，但是，那次可怕的经历给我留下了难以磨灭的印记，其影响我至今才开始理解。沙利文小姐为了使我重拾自信，便鼓励我为《青年之友》写一篇回忆我生活经历的小文章。当时我才十二岁。在回顾自己写那篇小故事所作的努力时，我觉得自己一定是预料到了会从创作中得到慰藉，否则我肯定是写不出来的。
When the ground was strewn with the crimson and golden leaves of autumn, and the musk-scented grapes that covered the arbour at the end of the garden were turning golden brown in the sunshine, I began to write a sketch of my life — a year after I had written “The Frost King.”
当大地上洒满了深红色和金黄色的落叶，花园尽头的藤架上麝香葡萄硕果累累，在阳光之下透出红褐色，我开始创作有关我生活的文章，这离我写《霜王》已经有一年的时间。
The chief events of the year 1893 were my trip to Washington during the inauguration of President Cleveland, and visits to Niagara and the World’s Fair. Under such circumstances my studies were constantly interrupted and often put aside for many weeks, so that it is impossible for me to give a connected account of them.
1893年，我生活中有这样几件大事：在克利夫兰总统就职典礼期间去华盛顿，参观尼亚加拉大瀑布与世界博览会。在这样的情况下，我的学习常常中断，有时一连中断好几个星期。因此，我不可能给出连贯的讲述。
We went to Niagara in March, 1893. It is difficult to describe my emotions when I stood on the point which overhangs the American Falls and felt the air vibrate and the earth tremble.
我们是在三月份去尼亚加拉的。站在美洲大瀑布边的悬崖之上，感受着空气的震颤和大地的摇晃，我的心情无比激动，真是难以言表。
It seems strange to many people that I should be impressed by the wonders and beauties of Niagara. They are always asking: “What does this beauty or that music mean to you? You cannot see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar. What do they mean to you?” In the most evident sense they mean everything. I cannot fathom or define their meaning any more than I can fathom or define love or religion or goodness.
也许大家会觉得奇怪，像我这样的人怎样去感受大瀑布的壮美呢？他们总会问我：“这种美景或那种音乐对你意味着什么？你看不见波浪汹涌上岸，听不到波浪的怒吼咆哮。它们对你意味着什么？”答案非常明显，它们于我代表了一切。正如博爱、宗教、善良等不能定义衡量一样，它们的意义也是无法估量的。
I wrote timidly, fearfully, but resolutely, urged on by my teacher, who knew that if I persevered, I should find my mental foothold again and get a grip on my faculties. Up to the time of the “Frost King” episode, I had lived the unconscious life of a little child; now my thoughts were turned inward, and I beheld things invisible. Gradually I emerged from the penumbra of that experience with a mind made clearer by trial and with a truer knowledge of life.
在老师的鼓励下，我战战兢兢、诚惶诚恐但却坚定不移地写着。沙利文老师知道，只要我坚持，就一定能重新找回自信，掌握写作技巧。在《霜王》事件之前，我还是个懵懂无知的孩子。其后，我转向内省，思考抽象的哲理。渐渐地，我从那段经历的阴影中走了出来。经过磨练，我的头脑比以前清醒多了，对生命的意义有了更深刻的认识。
During the summer of 1893, Miss Sullivan and I visited the World’s Fair with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. I recall with unmixed delight those days when a thousand childish fancies became beautiful realities. Every day in imagination I made a trip round the world, and I saw many wonders from the uttermost parts of the earth — marvels of invention, treasuries of industry and skill and all the activities of human life actually passed under my finger tips.
这年夏天，我和沙利文小姐以及亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔博士一道，参观了世界博览会。那一段时光在我心中留下了纯粹的欢悦，小时候许多天真的幻想在这里成为美妙的现实。我似乎每天都在梦里周游世界，看见许多地球另一边的人们创造的奇迹——我用手触摸每一件展品，感受人类勤劳智慧创造的财富以及多姿多彩的生活。
I liked to visit the Midway Plaisance. It seemed like the “Arabian Nights,” it was crammed so full of novelty and interest. Here was the India of my books in the curious bazaar with its Shivas and elephant-gods; there was the land of the Pyramids concentrated in a model Cairo with its mosques and its long processions of camels; yonder were the lagoons of Venice, where we sailed every evening when the city and the fountains were illuminated. I also went on board a Viking ship which lay a short distance from the little craft. I had been on a man-of-war before, in Boston, and it interested me to see, on this Viking ship, how the seaman was once all in all — how he sailed and took storm and calm alike with undaunted heart, and gave chase to whosoever reechoed his cry, “We are of the sea!” and fought with brains and sinews, self-reliant, self-sufficient, instead of being thrust into the background by unintelligent machinery, as Jack is to-day. So it always is –“man only is interesting to man.”
我喜欢去参观大道乐园。这里就像《天方夜谭》[13]里一般充满了各种各样新奇有趣的事物：有我书中记载的印度——供有湿婆神和象神的神秘东方市场；有开罗城的模型，里面有金字塔和清真寺，还有列队而行的骆驼；再过去是威尼斯的水道，我们每晚都在那里划船，在灯光璀璨的城市与喷泉间游弋。我还登上一只放在这个小船不远处的北欧海盗船。在波士顿的时候，我曾经登上过一艘军舰。我饶有兴趣地发现，在这只海盗船上，水手掌管着一切，无论是狂风暴雨还是风平浪静，他都百折不挠，勇往直前。他高喊“我们属于大海”，追逐着回应者。他没有像如今的水手那样被愚钝的机械所取代，而是独立自主地奋力与大海搏斗。这正应验了“人只会对人感兴趣”这句老话。【注：[13]又名《一千零一夜》，阿拉伯民间故事集。】
At the Cape of Good Hope exhibit, I learned much about the processes of mining diamonds. Whenever it was possible, I touched the machinery while it was in motion, so as to get a clearer idea how the stones were weighed, cut, and polished. I searched in the washings for a diamond and found it myself — the only true diamond, they said, that was ever found in the United States.
在好望角展厅，我了解到钻石开采的过程。一有机会，我便用手摸摸正在运转的机器，以便清楚地了解人们如何称量矿石，如何将它们切割抛光。我在淘洗槽中还摸索到了一颗钻石呢，人们都说这是美国唯一一颗货真价实的钻石。
Mr. Higinbotham, President of the World’s Fair, kindly gave me permission to touch the exhibits, and with an eagerness as insatiable as that with which Pizarro seized the treasures of Peru, I took in the glories of the Fair with my fingers. It was a sort of tangible kaleidoscope, this white city of the West. Everything fascinated me, especially the French bronzes. They were so lifelike, I thought they were angel visions which the artist had caught and bound in earthly forms.
世博会主席希金博特姆先生非常仁慈，特许我触摸展品。我贪婪而急迫地用手感触博览会的珍品，犹如当年皮萨罗 [14]劫掠秘鲁的宝藏一般。整个博览会就好像触手可及的万花筒，是西方的纯净之都。每一件展品都让我入迷，特别是那些法国的青铜雕像，栩栩如生的形象让人怀疑是天使下凡，被艺术家们捕捉并还以人形。【注：[14]约1475—1541，西班牙早期殖民者，开启了西班牙征服南美洲的时代。】
At a little distance from this ship there was a model of the Santa Maria, which I also examined. The captain showed me Columbus’s cabin and the desk with an hour-glass on it. This small instrument impressed me most because it made me think how weary the heroic navigator must have felt as he saw the sand dropping grain by grain while desperate men were plotting against his life.
在离海盗船不远处，还有一艘圣玛丽亚号帆船的模型。船长领着我参观了当年哥伦布住的船舱，桌子上放着一个沙漏。这个精巧的器具给我的印象最深，因为它让我想到，绝望的船员们图谋他的性命之时，这位英勇的航海家凝望着沙粒丝丝落下，该是多么困乏啊。
Dr. Bell went everywhere with us and in his own delightful way described to me the objects of greatest interest. In the electrical building we examined the telephones, autophones, phonographs, and other inventions, and he made me understand how it is possible to send a message on wires that mock space and outrun time, and, like Prometheus, to draw fire from the sky. We also visited the anthropological department, and I was much interested in the relics of ancient Mexico, in the rude stone implements that are so often the only record of an age — the simple monuments of nature’s unlettered children (so I thought as I fingered them) that seem bound to last while the memorials of kings and sages crumble in dust away — and in the Egyptian mummies, which I shrank from touching. From these relics I learned more about the progress of man than I have heard or read since.
贝尔博士一直陪着我们，兴致勃勃地将有趣的展品一件件向我描述。在电子展览大厅，我们仔细观察了电话机、对讲机以及留声机等发明。贝尔博士详细地向我解释了信息是如何突破空间和时间的羁绊，在电线上传递的，这种发明就好像普罗米修斯从神界取火一般伟大。我们还参观了人类学展区，我对墨西哥的古代文物产生了浓厚的兴趣。粗糙的石器往往是那个时代留下的唯一见证，也是大自然未开化的子孙树立的碑石（这是我用手指摸出来的）。它们将千秋万代地流传下去，而那些帝王、圣贤的纪念碑则早已化为尘土，随风飘散。我对埃及的木乃伊敬而远之，碰都不敢碰一下。这些古代遗物让我更多地了解了人类文明造化过程中的知识，其中许多都是我闻所未闻的。
All these experiences added a great many new terms to my vocabulary, and in the three weeks I spent at the Fair I took a long leap from the little child’s interest in fairy tales and toys to the appreciation of the real and the earnest in the workaday world.
所有这些经历大大丰富了我的词汇，在世博会度过的三个星期，让我从一个沉溺于童话世界与玩具之中的孩子有了飞跃，成长为懂得欣赏平凡世界中真实事物的大人。
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