At the Cambridge School the plan was to have Miss Sullivan attend the classes with me and interpret to me the instruction given.
在剑桥女子学校，我让沙利文小姐同我一起上课，为我解释授课内容。
When I was a little girl, I visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the announcement, “Some day I shall go to college — but I shall go to Harvard!” When asked why I would not go to Wellesley, I replied that there were only girls there. The thought of going to college took root in my heart and became an earnest desire, which impelled me to enter into competition for a degree with seeing and hearing girls, in the face of the strong opposition of many true and wise friends. When I left New York the idea had become a fixed purpose; and it was decided that I should go to Cambridge. This was the nearest approach I could get to Harvard and to the fulfillment of my childish declaration.
当我还是个小姑娘的时候，曾去韦尔斯利大学[24]参观。当时，我的宣言令朋友们为之一惊：“将来我要上大学，不过，我要上哈佛大学！”他们问我为什么不想上韦尔斯利大学，我回答说那里只有女生。上大学的念头在我心里扎下了根，变为一种坚定不移的愿望，激励着我不顾那些真诚而明智的朋友们的强烈反对，开始与耳聪目明的女生争夺学位。我离开纽约时，上大学的想法已变成既定目标，我决定前往剑桥女校。这是实现我上哈佛的童年宣言最近的一条路。【注：[24]又名韦尔斯利女子学院，坐落在波士顿外围十三英里远的韦尔斯利镇。】
Of course my instructors had had no experience in teaching any but normal pupils, and my only means of conversing with them was reading their lips. My studies for the first year were English history, English literature, German, Latin, arithmetic, Latin composition and occasional themes. Until then I had never taken a course of study with the idea of preparing for college; but I had been well drilled in English by Miss Sullivan, and it soon became evident to my teachers that I needed no special instruction in this subject beyond a critical study of the books prescribed by the college. I had had, moreover, a good start in French, and received six months’ instruction in Latin; but German was the subject with which I was most familiar.
当然，授课老师只有教授正常学生的经验，而我与他们交流的唯一途径就是唇读。我第一年学习的课程包括英国历史、英国文学、德语、拉丁语、算术、拉丁语写作和一些应时习作。此前，我从来没有为自己上大学而上过课，但在英语方面，我接受过沙利文小姐良好的训练。老师们很快就发现，除了大学指定课本要研读外，这门课程我并不需要专门上课。此外，我在法语学习上起点很高，还学过六个月拉丁语，而德语更是我再熟悉不过的科目。
In October, 1896, I entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, to be prepared for Radcliffe.
1896年10月，我进入剑桥女子学校学习，为迈入拉德克利夫学院[23]作准备。【注：[23]拉德克利夫学院曾是位于美国马萨诸塞州剑桥的一个女子文理学院，创建于1879年，为美国七姐妹学院之一。1963年始授予其毕业生哈佛—拉德克利夫联合文凭；1977年与哈佛签署正式合并协议；1999年全面整合到哈佛大学。】
Each day Miss Sullivan went to the classes with me and spelled into my hand with infinite patience all that the teachers said. In study hours she had to look up new words for me and read and reread notes and books I did not have in raised print. The tedium of that work is hard to conceive. Frau Grote, my German teacher, and Mr. Gilman, the principal, were the only teachers in the school who learned the finger alphabet to give me instruction. No one realized more fully than dear Frau Grote how slow and inadequate her spelling was. Nevertheless, in the goodness of her heart she laboriously spelled out her instructions to me in special lessons twice a week, to give Miss Sullivan a little rest. But, though everybody was kind and ready to help us, there was only one hand that could turn drudgery into pleasure.
每天，沙利文小姐陪我走进课堂，无比耐心地把老师们讲的所有内容在我手上拼写出来。其间，她还要帮我查找生词，并且一遍又一遍地为我读笔记和尚未转成盲文的书籍。这种冗长乏味的工作是常人难以想象的。我的德语老师格罗特女士和校长吉尔曼先生是学校里仅有的两位能用手语字母授课的老师。没有人比敬爱的格罗特女士更能体会到她的拼写是多么缓慢，多么不熟练。尽管如此，她仍然善良而不辞辛劳地一周两次为我拼读授课，让沙利文小姐可以稍作喘息。不过，虽然每个人对我们都很友善，乐意相助，但只有一个人能够把苦差变为乐事。
In spite, however, of these advantages, there were serious drawbacks to my progress. Miss Sullivan could not spell out in my hand all that the books required, and it was very difficult to have textbooks embossed in time to be of use to me, although my friends in London and Philadelphia were willing to hasten the work. For a while, indeed, I had to copy my Latin in braille, so that I could recite with the other girls. My instructors soon became sufficiently familiar with my imperfect speech to answer my questions readily and correct mistakes. I could not make notes in class or write exercises; but I wrote all my compositions and translations at home on my typewriter.
然而，尽管具备了这些优势，我的学习过程中还有很严重的障碍。沙利文小姐不可能把我需要读的所有书籍在我手上拼写出来。尽管我在伦敦和费城的朋友们乐意加快速度，但是，将这些课本及时转换成凹凸文字以解我的燃眉之急，实在是一件极其困难的事。我暂时只能将拉丁文誊写成盲文，这样我就能和其他女孩一起背诵。老师们很快就熟悉了我那不完美的语音，而且能毫无困难地解答我的问题并纠正我的错误。我无法在课堂上记笔记或者做练习，但是，我会把所有的作文和翻译用家里的打字机完成。
That year I finished arithmetic, reviewed my Latin grammar, and read three chapters of Caesar’s “Gallic War.” In German I read, partly with my fingers and partly with Miss Sullivan’s assistance, Schiller’s “Lied von der Glocke” and “Taucher,” Heine’s “Harzreise,” Freytag’s “Aus dem Staat Friedrichs des Grossen,” Riehl’s “Fluch Der Schonheit,” Lessing’s’Minna von Barnhelm,” and Goethe’s “Aus meinem Leben.” I took the greatest delight in these German books, especially Schiller’s wonderful lyrics, the history of Frederick the Great’s magnificent achievements and the account of Goethe’s life. I was sorry to finish “Die Harzreise,”so full of happy witticisms and charming descriptions of vine-clad hills, streams that sing and ripple in the sunshine, and wild regions, sacred to tradition and legend, the gray sisters of a long-vanished, imaginative age — descriptions such as can be given only by those to whom nature is “a feeling, a love and an appetite.”
那一年，我结束了算术课程的学习，复习了拉丁语语法，还读完了三章《高卢战记》。另外，一半靠沙利文小姐的帮助，一半靠我自己的手指，我还“阅读”了一些德语著作，席勒的《钟之歌》和《潜水者》、海涅[25]的《哈尔茨山游记》、弗赖塔格[26]的《从弗雷德里希大帝的国度来》、里尔[27]的《美的诅咒》、莱辛[28]的《明娜·冯·巴尔赫姆》，以及歌德[29]的《诗与真》。我兴致勃勃地阅读这些德语名著，尤其是席勒的绝妙抒情诗篇、弗雷德里希大帝的丰功伟绩，以及对歌德的生平记叙。我依依不舍地读完了《哈尔茨山游记》，这部散文集妙语连珠，随处可见引人入胜的美景描写——紫藤覆盖的山冈，阳光下水波潋滟、水声潺潺的溪流，富于传奇色彩的蛮荒之地，产生于想象力丰富的年代却尘封已久的那些灰姑娘——只有那些“尊重、热爱、渴望”大自然的人，才能够写出如此生动的篇章。【注：[25]1797—1856，德国著名抒情诗人。代表作有《德国，一个冬天的童话》等。[26]1816—1895，德国小说家。代表作有《新闻记者》、《祖先》等。[27]1823—1897，德国记者、小说家。[28]1729—1781，德国启蒙运动时期剧作家、美学家。代表作有《拉奥孔》等。[29]1749—1832，德国剧作家、诗人、思想家。代表作有《少年维特的烦恼》、《浮士德》等。】
Mr. Gilman instructed me part of the year in English literature. We read together, “As You Like It,” Burke’s “Speech on Conciliation with America,” and Macaulay’s “Life of Samuel Johnson.” Mr. Gilman’s broad views of history and literature and his clever explanations made my work easier and pleasanter than it could have been had I only read notes mechanically with the necessarily brief explanations given in the classes.
那一年，吉尔曼先生教过我一段时间的英国文学。我们一起阅读《皆大欢喜》[30]、伯克[31]的《与美国和解的演说》，还有麦考利[32]的《塞缪尔·约翰逊传》。吉尔曼先生对历史和文学博学多闻，讲解精妙，使我感到学习轻松快乐，比单纯地阅读课堂上带有简要注解的讲义要好很多。【注：[30]莎士比亚喜剧。[31]1729—1797，爱尔兰政治家、作家、演说家，经常被视为英美保守主义的奠基者。[32]托马斯·麦考利（1800—1859），英国政治家、诗人、历史学家。】
In a different way Macaulay’s “Life of Samuel Johnson” was interesting. My heart went out to the lonely man who ate the bread of affliction in Grub Street, and yet, in the midst of toil and cruel suffering of body and soul, always had a kind word, and lent a helping hand to the poor and despised. I rejoiced over all his successes, I shut my eyes to his faults, and wondered, not that he had them, but that they had not crushed or dwarfed his soul. But in spite of Macaulay’s brilliancy and his admirable faculty of making the commonplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness wearied me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to effect kept me in a questioning attitude very unlike the attitude of reverence in which I had listened to the Demosthenes of Great Britain.
麦考利的《塞缪尔·约翰逊传》情趣不同。我同情这位在格拉布街上啃面包的孤独男人，然而，他在身心遭受双重磨难时，始终对贫困的人和地位低下的人给予慰藉，伸出援手。我为他的所有成功而欢欣，对他的过失则视而不见。我感到惊愕的不是瑕疵的存在，而是这些瑕疵竟没有能够摧垮或矮化他的精神。尽管麦考利才华横溢，具有令人钦佩的化腐朽为神奇的能力，但是，他的自负有时让我感到厌倦，对于他常常牺牲真理、迁就实用的做法，我一直持有怀疑态度，这种态度与我在听过这位“英国的德摩斯梯尼[33]”演说后的崇敬之情相比，是一种全然不同的感觉。【注：[33]德摩斯梯尼（前384—前322），古雅典雄辩家、民主派政治家。】
Burke’s speech was more instructive than any other book on a political subject that I had ever read. My mind stirred with the stirring times, and the characters round which the life of two contending nations centred seemed to move right before me. I wondered more and more, while Burke’s masterly speech rolled on in mighty surges of eloquence, how it was that King George and his ministers could have turned a deaf ear to his warning prophecy of our victory and their humiliation. Then I entered into the melancholy details of the relation in which the great statesman stood to his party and to the representatives of the people. I thought how strange it was that such precious seeds of truth and wisdom should have fallen among the tares of ignorance and corruption.
伯克的演说比我所读过的任何一本政论书籍都更具启发意义。我的心潮随着那动荡的时代而起伏，两个对抗的民族生活中的许多人物似乎都展现在我的面前。令我越来越不解的是，面对伯克激昂雄辩的演说，乔治国王及其众臣怎能对其警示性预言充耳不闻，置我们的胜利和他们的耻辱于不顾呢？对于这位大政治家的党派立场和人民立场之间的关系细节，我随后进行了深思。我认为，像这样珍贵的真理与智慧种子，竟会落入无知和腐败的稗子里，确是一件怪事。
I took my preliminary examinations for Radcliffe from the 29th of June to the 3rd of July in 1897. The subjects I offered were Elementary and Advanced German, French, Latin, English, and Greek and Roman history, making nine hours in all. I passed in everything, and received’honours” in German and English.
1897年6月29日至7月3日，我参加了拉德克利夫学院的入学初试。我报考的科目有初级和高级德语、法语、拉丁语、英语、希腊罗马史。考试时间总共九个小时。我门门及格，德语和英语为“优等”。
At Christmas, my mother and little sister spent the holidays with me, and Mr. Gilman kindly offered to let Mildred study in his school. So Mildred stayed with me in Cambridge, and for six happy months we were hardly ever apart. It makes me most happy to remember the hours we spent helping each other in study and sharing our recreation together.
圣诞节我与母亲、小妹一同度过。热心的吉尔曼先生还安排米尔德丽德在他的学校读书。这样，她就和我一起在剑桥待了六个月时间，我们愉快地生活在一起，几乎形影不离。回忆起我俩在学习上互相帮助、一起消遣的日子，真是令人陶醉。
At the Cambridge school, for the first time in my life, I enjoyed the companionship of seeing and hearing girls of my own age. I lived with several others in one of the pleasant houses connected with the school, the house where Mr. Howells used to live, and we all had the advantage of home life. I joined them in many of their games, even blind man’s buff and frolics in the snow; I took long walks with them; we discussed our studies and read aloud the things that interested us. Some of the girls learned to speak to me, so that Miss Sullivan did not have to repeat their conversation.
在剑桥女校学习期间，我平生第一次享受到与那些年龄相仿、耳聪目明的女生生活在一起的乐趣。我和几个同学住在一所与学校相连的房子里，豪威尔斯[34]先生曾在这里住过。我们住在这里，仿佛在家一样。我参与了她们的很多游戏，甚至是捉迷藏和打雪仗。我与她们一道散步，走得很远，还在一起讨论功课，高声朗诵我们感兴趣的文章。有些女孩学会了同我交谈，用不着沙利文小姐为我重复她们的话。【注：[34]豪威尔斯（1837—1920），美国小说家、评论家。他写了近四十部长篇小说，代表作是《塞拉斯·拉帕姆的发迹》。】
Perhaps an explanation of the method that was in use when I took my examinations will not be amiss here. The student was required to pass in sixteen hours — twelve hours being called elementary and four advanced. He had to pass five hours at a time to have them counted. The examination papers were given out at nine o’clock at Harvard and brought to Radcliffe by a special messenger. Each candidate was known, not by his name, but by a number. I was No. 233, but, as I had to use a typewriter, my identity could not be concealed.
对我参加考试的方法作一番解释或许并无不妥之处。考试要求学生在十六个小时内完成，包括十二个小时初级考试和四个小时高级考试。一次考试至少要五个小时才有效。试卷于早晨九点在哈佛发出，由专人送到拉德克利夫。每个考生不用姓名，而用代号。我是233号，因我需用打字机，我的身份是公开的。
It was thought advisable for me to have my examinations in a room by myself, because the noise of the typewriter might disturb the other girls. Mr. Gilman read all the papers to me by means of the manual alphabet. A man was placed on guard at the door to prevent interruption.
因为打字机的敲击声会影响到其他女生，校方认为明智的办法是让我在一个单独的房间里考试。吉尔曼先生用手语字母为我读所有考题，房门口设置了一名守卫以防干扰。
The first day I had German. Mr. Gilman sat beside me and read the paper through first, then sentence by sentence, while I repeated the words aloud, to make sure that I understood him perfectly. The papers were difficult, and I felt very anxious as I wrote out my answers on the typewriter. Mr. Gilman spelled to me what I had written, and I made such changes as I thought necessary, and he inserted them. I wish to say here that I have not had this advantage since in any of my examinations. At Radcliffe no one reads the papers to me after they are written, and I have no opportunity to correct errors unless I finish before the time is up. In that case I correct only such mistakes as I can recall in the few minutes allowed, and make notes of these corrections at the end of my paper. If I passed with higher credit in the preliminaries than in the finals, there are two reasons. In the finals, no one read my work over to me, and in the preliminaries I offered subjects with some of which I was in a measure familiar before my work in the Cambridge school; for at the beginning of the year I had passed examinations in English, History, French and German, which Mr. Gilman gave me from previous Harvard papers.
第一天考的是德语。吉尔曼先生坐在我身旁，先通读一遍试题，然后一句一句分开读。我大声复述，确保我完全听懂了他的话。试题有难度，我用打字机打出答案时，心里紧张不安。吉尔曼先生把我写出的答案拼给我，如果我觉得有必要修改就由他把修改内容插进去。我想在这里说的是，我以后的考试再也没有享受过如此便利。在拉德克利夫学院，我答完题后没有人为我读卷，我没有机会改正错误，除非我提前做完试卷。在那种情况下，我只能在可能有的几分钟时间内修改能够想起的疏漏之处，把更正后的答案写在试卷末尾。假如说我初试成绩比复试好的话，原因有两个：一是复试时没有人为我读答卷；二是初试时有些科目是在我进入剑桥女校前就有一点基础的，因为年初我已通过英语、历史、法语和德语考试，而吉尔曼先生用的正是哈佛以前的试卷。
All the other preliminary examinations were conducted in the same manner. None of them was so difficult as the first. I remember that the day the Latin paper was brought to us, Professor Schilling came in and informed me I had passed satisfactorily in German. This encouraged me greatly, and I sped on to the end of the ordeal with a light heart and a steady hand.
其他初试科目的考试以同样方式进行，但都没有第一场考试那样难。我记得，那天发给我们拉丁语试卷时，席林教授走进来告诉我，我的德语考试已获通过，并且成绩很好。这使我信心大增，心情轻松、挥洒自如地完成了余下的考试。
Mr. Gilman sent my written work to the examiners with a certificate that I, candidate No. 233, had written the papers.
吉尔曼先生把我的答卷交给主考，并写了一个证明，说明我（233号考生）书写了这些答卷。
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