In the summer of 1894, I attended the meeting at Chautauqua of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. There it was arranged that I should go to the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. I went there in October, 1894, accompanied by Miss Sullivan. This school was chosen especially for the purpose of obtaining the highest advantages in vocal culture and training in lip-reading. In addition to my work in these subjects, I studied, during the two years I was in the school, arithmetic, physical geography, French and German.
1894年夏天，我出席了美国聋人语言教学促进会在肖托夸举办的会议。根据安排，我该去纽约市赖特赫马森聋人学校。在沙利文小姐的陪伴下，我于1894年10月到了那里。专门选择这所学校是为了在发声和唇读方面得到最好的训练。除去这些科目外，我在这所学校的两年之中，还学习了算术、自然地理、法语和德语课程。
Miss Reamy, my German teacher, could use the manual alphabet, and after I had acquired a small vocabulary, we talked together in German whenever we had a chance, and in a few months I could understand almost everything she said. Before the end of the first year I read “Wilhelm Tell” with the greatest delight. Indeed, I think I made more progress in German than in any of my other studies. I found French much more difficult. I studied it with Madame Olivier, a French lady who did not know the manual alphabet, and who was obliged to give her instruction orally. I could not read her lips easily; so my progress was much slower than in German. I managed, however, to read “Le Medecin Malgre Lui’again. It was very amusing but I did not like it nearly so well as “Wilhelm Tell.”
我的德语老师瑞米小姐会手语字母。在我掌握了少量德语词汇后，我们一有机会就在一起用德语交谈。几个月之后，我几乎能听懂她所说的任何话。在第一年快结束时，我怀着极大的兴致阅读了《威廉·退尔》[20]。事实上，我认为我在德语学习上取得的进步要远远超过其他学科。我发现法语相当难学。我跟随奥利维尔夫人学习法语，这位法国女士不懂手语字母，因此她只能口述授课，而读懂她的唇语实属不易，所以同德语相比，我学习法语的速度要慢得多。尽管如此，我仍设法重读了《屈打成医》。这本书确实非常有趣，但是两相比较，我更喜欢《威廉·退尔》。【注：[20]德国诗人席勒（1759—1805）的剧作，以13世纪瑞士农民团结起来反抗奥地利暴政的故事为题材。】
But although these disappointments caused me great depression at times, I pursued my other studies with unflagging interest, especially physical geography. It was a joy to learn the secrets of nature: how — in the picturesque language of the Old Testament — the winds are made to blow from the four corners of the heavens, how the vapours ascend from the ends of the earth, how rivers are cut out among the rocks, and mountains overturned by the roots, and in what ways man may overcome many forces mightier than himself. The two years in New York were happy ones, and I look back to them with genuine pleasure.
虽然种种失望令我一度消沉沮丧，但是我对其他科目的学习兴趣丝毫未减，尤其是自然地理。了解自然界的奥秘是一种乐趣，比如风如何——就像《旧约全书》中生动的语言描绘的那样——自天堂的四个角落遍吹四方，水蒸气如何从大地的尽头飘升，河流如何在巉岩间奔腾，群山如何被倾覆，人类以何种方式战胜比自己强的自然之力。我在纽约的两年是愉快的，每每想起，我都会感到由衷的开心。
My progress in lip-reading and speech was not what my teachers and I had hoped and expected it would be. It was my ambition to speak like other people, and my teachers believed that this could be accomplished; but, although we worked hard and faithfully, yet we did not quite reach our goal. I suppose we aimed too high, and disappointment was therefore inevitable. I still regarded arithmetic as a system of pitfalls. I hung about the dangerous frontier of “guess,” avoiding with infinite trouble to myself and others the broad valley of reason. When I was not guessing, I was jumping at conclusions, and this fault, in addition to my dullness, aggravated my difficulties more than was right or necessary.
我在唇读和讲话方面取得的进步，没有达到自己和老师们的预期目标。我指望能像其他人一样开口说话，老师们也相信这个目标能实现。但是，尽管我们一心一意共同努力，却仍然没有完全实现理想。我认为，原先目标定得太高，因此失望在所难免。我依然把算术当作一门充满陷阱的学科，我避开宽阔的推理领域，徘徊在危险的猜测地带，不仅给自己而且给他人带来无尽的烦恼。没在猜测时，我就会乱下结论。这种毛病加上感官迟钝，增大了我的困难，这既不应该也无必要。
I remember especially the walks we all took together every day in Central Park, the only part of the city that was congenial to me. I never lost a jot of my delight in this great park. I loved to have it described every time I entered it; for it was beautiful in all its aspects, and these aspects were so many that it was beautiful in a different way each day of the nine months I spent in New York.
我尤其记得我们每天在中央公园集体散步。对我而言，这是纽约唯一令人舒适的所在。我从未在这个大公园里遗漏掉半点快乐。每一次走进公园漫步，我都喜欢听别人描述它的景色，因为这里的美无处不在。我在纽约的九个月中，每天都可以感受到不同的美景。
In the spring we made excursions to various places of interest. We sailed on the Hudson River and wandered about on its green banks, of which Bryant loved to sing. I liked the simple, wild grandeur of the palisades. Among the places I visited were West Point, Tarrytown, the home of Washington Irving, where I walked through “Sleepy Hollow.”
春天，我们游览了许多风景名胜。我们驾船航行在哈德逊河上，徜徉在布莱恩特 [21]所吟唱的芳草茵茵的岸边。我喜欢河边断崖朴素雄浑的野性之美。我们还参观了西点军校，游览了华盛顿·欧文的家乡塔里敦，我还在“睡谷”[22]中走了一遭。【注：[21]1794—1878，美国浪漫主义诗人，擅长自然描写。[22]出自华盛顿·欧文的小说《睡谷的传说》。】
The teachers at the Wright-Humason School were always planning how they might give the pupils every advantage that those who hear enjoy — how they might make much of few tendencies and passive memories in the cases of the little ones — and lead them out of the cramping circumstances in which their lives were set.
赖特赫马森学校的老师们始终为学生着想，设法让他们享有与听力正常的孩子相同的机会，很少对年幼学生强行灌输知识，极少要求他们死记硬背，从而引领这些孩子走出他们蹇涩的生存环境。
Before I left New York, these bright days were darkened by the greatest sorrow that I have ever borne, except the death of my father. Mr. John P. Spaulding, of Boston, died in February, 1896. Only those who knew and loved him best can understand what his friendship meant to me. He, who made every one happy in a beautiful, unobtrusive way, was most kind and tender to Miss Sullivan and me. So long as we felt his loving presence and knew that he took a watchful interest in our work, fraught with so many difficulties, we could not be discouraged. His going away left a vacancy in our lives that has never been filled.
在我离开纽约前，快乐的时光蒙上了阴云。除了父亲的去世，我从未承受过如此巨大的悲伤。1896年2月，波士顿的约翰·P。斯波尔丁先生去世了。只有那些最了解、最爱戴他的人，才会理解我们之间的友谊是多么深厚。他谦逊而优雅地把愉悦带给每一个人，给予我和沙利文小姐最宽厚仁慈的关怀。只要想到他的慈爱，领悟到他对我们困难重重的工作的关注神情，我们就不会感到气馁无助。斯波尔丁先生的去世给我们的生活留下了无法弥补的巨大空白。
0 条评论