As soon as I could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters. I quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object, an act, or a quality. I had a frame in which I could arrange the words in little sentences; but before I ever put sentences in the frame I used to make them in objects. I found the slips of paper which represented, for example, “doll,” “is,” “on,” “bed’and placed each name on its object; then I put my doll on the bed with the words is, on, bed arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence of the words, and at the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves.
我刚能认识几个单词之后，沙利文老师就拿给我一些卡片，上面的单词都是凸起的。很快我就知道每张卡片都有不同的意思，或是代表某种物体，或是表示某种行为，或是形容事物的某个特征。那时候我有一个可以用来排单词卡成句的框子，但我往往先用实物把句子表达出来，然后再用卡片拼句子。比如，我找到代表着“娃娃”、“是”、“上面”、“床”这几个意思的卡片，把每一个名字放到实物上。接着，我把布娃娃放到床上，将“是”、“上面”、“床”这几个词语卡片排列在布娃娃旁边。这样，我既造出了一个由词语组成的句子，又形象地表现了句子的内容。
The next important step in my education was learning to read.
我的教育中第二个重要的步骤，就是学习阅读。
One day, Miss Sullivan tells me, I pinned the word girl on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe. On the shelf I arranged the words, is, in, wardrobe. Nothing delighted me so much as this game. My teacher and I played it for hours at a time. Often everything in the room was arranged in object sentences.
一天，沙利文老师让我把卡片“女孩”别在自己的裙子上，站到衣橱里，然后，在框子里排列“是”、“里边”、“衣橱”这几张卡片。没有什么比这种游戏更让我喜欢的了，我兴高采烈，和老师一玩就是好几个小时，屋子里几乎每一样东西都被我们造进了句子里。
For a long time I had no regular lessons. Even when I studied most earnestly it seemed more like play than work. Everything Miss Sullivan taught me she illustrated by a beautiful story or a poem. Whenever anything delighted or interested me she talked it over with me just as if she were a little girl herself. What many children think of with dread, as a painful plodding through grammar, hard sums and harder definitions, is to-day one of my most precious memories.
有很长一段时间，我没有正规的课程。即使我在认真学习，也不像是在上课，倒更像是在做游戏。沙利文小姐无论教我什么，都用一些动人的故事或者美丽的诗篇来作解释。无论何时，只要碰到我高兴或感兴趣的事，她就会和我讨论，仿佛自己也是个小姑娘。枯燥的语法、难解的运算题、艰涩的释义是孩子们感到畏惧痛苦的课程，而这些如今却已成为我最珍贵的回忆之一。
I cannot explain the peculiar sympathy Miss Sullivan had with my pleasures and desires. Perhaps it was the result of long association with the blind. Added to this she had a wonderful faculty for description. She went quickly over uninteresting details, and never nagged me with questions to see if I remembered the day-before-yesterday’s lesson. She introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, making every subject so real that I could not help remembering what she taught.
我无法解释沙利文小姐对我的喜好和要求所表现出来的特有理解，也许是由于长期和盲人接触的缘故吧。除此之外，她还有出色的描绘才能，在她的讲解下，那些枯燥无味的细节毫不令人生厌。她也从不拿问题来念我，看我是否还记得前一天所学的东西。她还能循序渐进地讲解那些枯涩难懂的科学知识，使每一个科目都真实易懂，让我不由自主地记住她教的内容。
From the printed slip it was but a step to the printed book. I took my’Reader for Beginners” and hunted for the words I knew; when I found them my joy was like that of a game of hide-and-seek. Thus I began to read. Of the time when I began to read connected stories I shall speak later.
这样的拼卡片游戏只是我进入阅读世界的跳板。不久，我就捧起了我的启蒙读本，在字里行间搜寻那些我认识的字。一旦找到自己认识的字，我就像赢得了一场捉迷藏游戏一样兴奋不已。就这样，我开始了阅读。有关我开始读连贯故事时的事，我在后面会谈到。
We read and studied out of doors, preferring the sunlit woods to the house. All my early lessons have in them the breath of the woods — the fine, resinous odour of pine needles, blended with the perfume of wild grapes. Seated in the gracious shade of a wild tulip tree, I learned to think that everything has a lesson and a suggestion. “The loveliness of things taught me all their use.” Indeed, everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom had a part in my education — noisy-throated frogs, katydids and crickets held in my hand until forgetting their embarrassment, they trilled their reedy note, little downy chickens and wildflowers, the dogwood blossoms, meadow-violets and budding fruit trees. I felt the bursting cotton-bolls and fingered their soft fiber and fuzzy seeds; I felt the low soughing of the wind through the cornstalks, the silky rustling of the long leaves, and the indignant snort of my pony, as we caught him in the pasture and put the bit in his mouth — ah me! how well I remember the spicy, clovery smell of his breath!
相比室内，我们偏爱阳光充足的树林，所以常常去户外读书学习。我早年在那里学到的一切似乎都渗透着树林的气息，似乎可以从中闻到松脂的清香混合着野葡萄的芬芳。坐在一棵野生鹅掌楸的凉荫下，我意识到世间万物都给人以启示，值得学习。“它们的魅力教会我所有的价值。”确实，能够发出嗡鸣、低吟、啼鸣声的生物和开出鲜花的植物都成了我教育的一部分：鼓噪的青蛙、合在掌心使其忘却窘困而颤动鸣叫的蟋蟀和纺织娘、毛茸茸的小鸡、野花、山茱萸花、紫罗兰和萌芽的果树。我触摸着咧嘴的棉桃，用手指拨弄柔软的纤维和覆有细绒毛的棉籽。微风拂过玉米田，纤长的玉米叶曳着风摇出微微的沙沙声响。被我们撞见在草地上吃草的小马，它那愤怒的嘶鸣以及鼻息中的青草香味，都深深烙在我脑海中。
Sometimes I rose at dawn and stole into the garden while the heavy dew lay on the grass and flowers. Few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand, or the beautiful motion of the lilies as they sway in the morning breeze. Sometimes I caught an insect in the flower I was plucking, and I felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror, as the little creature became aware of a pressure from without.
有时候，天刚刚亮，我就偷偷爬起来溜进花园里，去感受草叶和花朵上湿漉漉的露珠。谁能体会到用手轻触玫瑰花瓣的快感？又有谁能领略到百合花在徐徐晨风中摇曳的倩影？我偶尔会在采花时捉到一只隐匿在花丛中的小虫，便能感受到它轻薄脆弱的双翼因突如其来的惊恐而疾颤的细小搏动——如此幼小的生灵，也有自己的意识，也会对外部压力作出反应啊。
Another favourite haunt of mine was the orchard, where the fruit ripened early in July. The large, downy peaches would reach themselves into my hand, and as the joyous breezes flew about the trees the apples tumbled at my feet. Oh, the delight with which I gathered up the fruit in my pinafore, pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples, still warm from the sun, and skipped back to the house!
七月初熟的果园是我的另一个乐园。毛茸茸的大桃子会自己坠落在我手中，拂面的金风将树梢的苹果纷纷送到我脚边。我捡起苹果用裙子兜住，用脸颊贴着苹果光滑的外皮，上面还残留着阳光的温度，然后就这样带着一脸幸福和满足蹦蹦跳跳回家去了。
Our favourite walk was to Keller’s Landing, an old tumbledown lumber-wharf on the Tennessee River, used during the Civil War to land soldiers. There we spent many happy hours and played at learning geography. I built dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, and dug river-beds, all for fun, and never dreamed that I was learning a lesson. I listened with increasing wonder to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of the great round world with its burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice, and many other things as strange. She made raised maps in clay, so that I could feel the mountain ridges and valleys, and follow with my fingers the devious course of rivers. I liked this, too; but the division of the earth into zones and poles confused and teased my mind. The illustrative strings and the orange stick representing the poles seemed so real that even to this day the mere mention of temperate zone suggests a series of twine circles; and I believe that if anyone should set about it he could convince me that white bears actually climb the North Pole.
我们最喜欢去凯勒码头散步。那是田纳西河边一座摇摇欲坠的木码头，南北战争时为了部队登陆而修建的。我们在那里度过许多快乐的时光，一边玩一边学习地理知识。我用鹅卵石建起大堤、堆出岛屿、围湖开河，还自己动手挖出河床。我玩得不亦乐乎，从没想到过我是在上课。沙利文小姐给我描绘了我们这个又大又圆的地球，喷着火的山脉、被埋葬了的城邦、漂移的冰河以及其他许许多多奇闻轶事，我越听越有劲。沙利文小姐还用黏土给我做立体地图，让我可以用手摸到上下起伏的峰线和蜿蜒曲折的河流。这些我都很喜欢，但却总是分不清气候带和两极。沙利文小姐便用一根根线代表经纬线，用一根橘子树的树枝代表贯穿南北极的地轴，那真的非常生动。直到今天，只要有人提起气候带，我脑子里还会浮现出一连串的线圈儿。假若有人骗我说北极熊会爬上北极那根柱子[9]，我想我会信以为真的。【注：[9]North Pole中的pole有“柱子”的意思。】
Arithmetic seems to have been the only study I did not like. From the first I was not interested in the science of numbers. Miss Sullivan tried to teach me to count by stringing beads in groups, and by arranging kindergarten straws I learned to add and subtract. I never had patience to arrange more than five or six groups at a time. When I had accomplished this my conscience was at rest for the day, and I went out quickly to find my playmates.
算术是我唯一不喜欢的功课，因为我对数字从一开始就不感兴趣。沙利文小姐用线穿上珠子来教我数数儿，通过摆弄草茎来学加减法。但是，每次总是摆不了五六道题，我就不耐烦了。每天做完这五六道题目，我就会心安理得地认为自己已经结束学习，去找伙伴们玩了。
Once a gentleman, whose name I have forgotten, sent me a collection of fossils — tiny mollusk shells beautifully marked, and bits of sandstone with the print of birds’ claws, and a lovely fern in bas-relief. These were the keys which unlocked the treasures of the antediluvian world for me. With trembling fingers I listened to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of the terrible beasts, with uncouth, unpronounceable names, which once went tramping through the primeval forests, tearing down the branches of gigantic trees for food, and died in the dismal swamps of an unknown age. For a long time these strange creatures haunted my dreams, and this gloomy period formed a somber background to the joyous. Now, filled with sunshine and roses and echoing with the gentle beat of my pony’s hoof.
一次，有位我已记不清名字的先生寄给我一些化石。其中有带着美丽花纹的软体动物贝壳，有带着鸟爪印的沙岩碎块，还有一块漂亮的蕨类植物化石。这些化石为我了解上古世界打开了大门。我怯生生地倾听沙利文小姐讲述那些有着拗口怪名字的可怕怪兽，它们曾在原始森林中游荡，摧枝折叶，最后不知葬身于哪一个纪年里幽暗的沼泽中。很长一段时间，我在梦中老梦见这些奇异的生物，那阴暗的画面更加衬托出如今世界的和美——阳光普照，玫瑰遍野，田野中回荡着我家小马驹轻柔的蹄音。
In this same leisurely manner I studied zoology and botany.
动物学和植物学，我也是用这种轻松的方式学习的。
Another time a beautiful shell was given me, and with a child’s surprise and delight I learned how a tiny mollusk had built the lustrous coil for his dwelling place, and how on still nights, when there is no breeze stirring the waves, the Nautilus sails on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean in his “ship of pearl.” After I had learned a great many interesting things about the life and habits of the children of the sea — how in the midst of dashing waves the little polyps build the beautiful coral isles of the Pacific, and the foraminifera have made the chalk-hills of many a land — my teacher read me “The Chambered Nautilus,” and showed me that the shell-building process of the mollusks is symbolical of the development of the mind. Just as the wonder-working mantle of the Nautilus changes the material it absorbs from the water and makes it a part of itself, so the bits of knowledge one gathers undergo a similar change and become pearls of thought.
又有一次，有人送给我一个美丽的贝壳。带着孩童的惊喜，我学到了软体动物筑造自己美丽小巢的过程，明白了鹦鹉螺是如何在沉静的夜里乘着它的“珍珠船”泛舟在风平浪静的蓝色印度洋上的。后来，我知道了小小的珊瑚虫们是怎样趁着潮汐在大西洋建起了美丽的珊瑚礁，也知道了有孔虫如何塑造起了白垩山一般的神奇地貌。在我知道了许许多多有关海洋动物生活习惯的知识和趣闻后，老师为我读了《驮着房子的鹦鹉螺》，教我学到软体动物的造壳过程——其实就和人们思考的过程一样，如同鹦鹉螺奇妙的外膜把海水中的物质转换成身体的一部分一样，人类智慧的发展也是千锤百炼，最后才成为光彩夺目的思想的珍珠。
Again, it was the growth of a plant that furnished the text for a lesson. We bought a lily and set it in a sunny window. Very soon the green, pointed buds showed signs of opening. The slender, fingerlike leaves on the outside opened slowly, reluctant, I thought, to reveal the loveliness they hid; once having made a start, however, the opening process went on rapidly, but in order and systematically. There was always one bud larger and more beautiful than the rest, which pushed her outer, covering back with more pomp, as if the beauty in soft, silky robes knew that she was the lily-queen by right divine, while her more timid sisters doffed their green hoods shyly, until the whole plant was one nodding bough of loveliness and fragrance.
从植物的生长，我也学到了很多东西。我们曾买回一株百合花，放在阳光灿烂的窗台上。不久，一个个尖尖的嫩绿花蕾伸展出来。花蕾外包着的叶子如同纤纤的玉指缓缓地绽放，好像不愿让人窥见它们内藏的魅力。可一旦开了头，叶子张开的速度便加快了，不过依然是按部就班、有条不紊地进行。它们之中一定会有一个最大最美的蓓蕾，它蔚为壮观地褪去外壳，仿佛那隐藏在柔软光滑的外衣里面的花朵也知道自己就是神灵选定的百合皇后。等到其他腼腆的姐妹们也脱下她们绿色的面纱，整个枝头便是繁花似锦，芳香四溢。
Once there were eleven tadpoles in a glass globe set in a window full of plants. I remember the eagerness with which I made discoveries about them. It was great fun to plunge my hand into the bowl and feel the tadpoles frisk about, and to let them slip and slide between my fingers. One day a more ambitious fellow leaped beyond the edge of the bowl and fell on the floor, where I found him to all appearance more dead than alive. The only sign of life was a slight wriggling of his tail. But no sooner had he returned to his element than he darted to the bottom, swimming round and round in joyous activity. He had made his leap, he had seen the great world, and was content to stay in his pretty glass house under the big fuchsia tree until he attained the dignity of froghood. Then he went to live in the leafy pool at the end of the garden, where he made the summer nights musical with his quaint love-song.
家里的窗台上摆满了绿色植物，上面曾有一个球形玻璃鱼缸，里边住着十一只蝌蚪。我还记得自己当时渴望了解它们奥秘的心情。我把手浸入水中，感觉到蝌蚪在轻快嬉戏，让它们在手指间自由自在地游动，其乐无比。一天，一个大胆之徒竟然跳出鱼缸，落在了地板上，等我发现时它已经奄奄一息，只剩小尾巴还在微微扭动。可当我刚把它放回水里，它就嗖的一下潜入水底，又生龙活虎了起来。它曾经跳出鱼缸，见识过世面，却甘愿屈居在金银花下的美丽玻璃屋里，直到成为漂亮的青蛙为止。那时，它会跃入花园角落里绿影茵茵的池塘，用它那奇异的情歌把夏夜变成音乐的世界。
Thus I learned from life itself. At the beginning I was only a little mass of possibilities. It was my teacher who unfolded and developed them. When she came, everything about me breathed of love and joy and was full of meaning. She has never since let pass an opportunity to point out the beauty that is in everything, nor has she ceased trying in thought and action and example to make my life sweet and useful.
就这样，我从生活本身学习知识。起初，我只是一个充满可能的孩子，是沙利文老师发现并发展了这些潜能。她的到来使我无忧无虑地生活在爱与喜悦之中，让我生命中的一切都充满了意义。她从不放过任何一个机会，让我体会万物的美好；每时每刻，她都设法用思想、行为和实例来使我的生活变得甜美有益。
Any teacher can take a child to the classroom, but not every teacher can make him learn. He will not work joyously unless he feels that liberty is his, whether he is busy or at rest; he must feel the flush of victory and the heart-sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will the tasks distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way bravely through a dull routine of textbooks.
每个老师都能把孩子领进教室，但并不是每个老师都能使孩子开始学习。无论是否能让孩子开始忙碌，若不能让他觉得自在随心，他不会觉得学习快乐。只有真正尝到了胜利的喜悦与失败的揪心，他方能学会自我约束，心甘情愿地完成并不喜欢的任务，在枯燥的学习中苦中求乐。
It was my teacher’s genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me. She realized that a child’s mind is like a shallow brook which ripples and dances merrily over the stony course of its education and reflects here a flower, there a bush, yonder a fleecy cloud; and she attempted to guide my mind on its way, knowing that like a brook it should be fed by mountain streams and hidden springs, until it broadened out into a deep river, capable of reflecting in its placid surface, billowy hills, the luminous shadows of trees and the blue heavens, as well as the sweet face of a little flower.
正是有了老师的超常智慧、善解人意以及充满爱意的策略，我的早期教育生活才会如此美妙；正因为她抓住了传授知识的最佳时机，我才觉得知识是如此让人愉快而又容易接受。她认识到孩子的心思就像沿着河床轻快回转的清清溪水，时而映出一朵鲜花，时而映出一丛灌木，时而映出朵朵白云。她用尽心思来引导我的思维，因为她明白，孩子的心灵和小溪一样，需要山上的涧流和潜藏的泉水来补充滋养，直到汇成深深的河流，在那平静如镜的河面上映出连绵起伏的山峰，映出粼粼的树影蓝天与美丽的花朵。
My teacher is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from her. How much of my delight in all beautiful things is innate, and how much is due to her influence, I can never tell. I feel that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her — there is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by her loving touch.
我的老师与我形影不离，我从未想到过离开她。我永远也说不清，自己对那些美好事物的喜爱究竟有多少是自己内心固有的，有多少是她赐予我的。我觉得，她与我的生活已成为一体，她的脚步在引导我一点点向前进。我生命里最美好的事物无不属于她，我的天赋、我的远见乃至于我衷心的喜悦，无不由她深深的关爱塑造而成。
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