名人小故事 文人骚客 1：The Firm Helen Keller 坚强的海伦?凯勒

The Firm Helen Keller

坚强的海伦•凯勒

In 1882 a baby girl caught a fever that was so fierce that she nearly died. She survived but the fever left its mark —she could no longer see or hear. Because she could not hear she also found it very difficult to speak.

1882年，一名女婴因发高烧差点丧命。她虽幸免于 难，但发烧给她留下了后遗症——她再也看不见、听不 见了。因为听不见，她想讲话也变得很困难。

So how did this child, blinded and deafened at 19 months old, grow up to become a world-famous author and public speaker?

那么，这样一个在19个月大时就既盲又聋的孩子 是如何成长为享誉世界的作家和演说家的呢？

The fever cut her off from the outside world, depriving her of sight and sound. It was as if she had been thrown into a dark prison cell from which there could be no release.

高烧将她与外界隔离，使她失去了视力和声音。她 枋佛置身在黑暗的牢笼中无法摆脱。

Luckily Helen was not someone who gave up easily. Soon she began to explore the world by using her other senses. She followed her mother wherever she went, hanging onto her shirts. She touched and smelled everything she came across. She copied their actions and was soon able to do certain jobs herself, like milking the cows or kneading dough. She even learnt to recognize people by feeling their faces or their clothes. She could also tell where she was in the garden by the smell of the different plants and the feel of the ground under her feet.

值得庆幸的是海伦并不是个轻易认输的人。不久 她就开始利用其他的感官来探知这个世界了。她跟着母 亲，拉着母亲的衣角，形影不离。她去触摸，去唉各种 她碰到的物品。她模仿别人的动作且很快就能自己做一 些事情，例如挤牛奶或揉面。她甚至学会摸别人的脸或 衣服来识别对方。她还能闻不同的植物和触摸脚下的地 面，依此来辨别自己在花园的位置。

By the age of seven she had invented over 60 different signs by which she could talk to her family. If she wanted bread for example, she would pretend to cut a loaf and butter the slices. If she wanted ice cream she wrapped her arms around herself and pretended to shiver.

7岁的时候她发明了 60多种不同的手势，凭借这 些手势和家里人交流。比如她若想要面包，就会做出 切面包和涂黄油的动作。想要冰其淋时，她会用手裹 住自己装出发抖的样子。

Helen was unusual in that she was extremely intelligent and also remarkably sensitive. By her own efforts she had managed to make some sense of an alien and confusing world. But even so she had limitations.

海伦在这方面非同一般，她非常聪明、敏感。通过 努力，她对这个陌生且迷惑的世界有了一些认识。但她 仍有一些不足。

At the age of five Helen began to realize she was different from other people. She noticed that her family did not use signs like she did but talked with their mouths. Sometimes she stood between two people and touched their lips. She could not understand what they said and she could not make any meaningful sounds herself. She wanted to talk but no matter how she tried she could not make herself understood. This makes her so angry that she used to hurl herself around the room, kicking and screaming in frustration.

5岁时，海伦开始意识到她自己与别人不同。她发 现家里的其他人不用像她那样做手势而是用嘴交谈。有 时她站在两人中间触摸他们的嘴唇。她不知道他们在说 什么，而她自己不能发出任何带有含义的声音。她想讲 话，可无论费多大的劲儿也无法让别人明白自己。这使 她异常恼火，以至于常常在屋子里乱跑乱撞，灰心地又 踢又喊。

As she got older her frustration grew and her rages became worse and worse. She became wild and unruly. If she didn’t get what she wanted she would throw tantrums until her family gave in. Her favorite tricks included grabbing other people’s food from their plates and hurling fragile objects to the floor. Once she even managed to lock her mother into the pantry. Eventually it became clear that something had to be done. So, just before her seventh birthday, the family hired a private tutor — Anne Sullivan.

随着年龄的增长，她的挫败感和怒气越来越大，她 变得狂野不驯。倘若她得不到想要的东西，就会大发脾 气直到家人顺从。她惯用的手段包括抓别人盘里的食物 以及将易碎的东西猛扔在地上。有一次她甚至将母亲锁 在厨房里。很显然，得想个办法了。于是，在快到她7 岁生日时，家里雇了 一名家庭教师——安尼•沙利文。

Anne was careful to teach Helen especially those subjects in which she was interested. As a result Helen became gentler and she soon learnt to read and write in Braille. She also learnt to read people’s lips by pressing her finger-tips against them and feeling the movement and vibrations. This method is called Tadoma and it is a skill that very, very few people manage to acquire. She also learnt to speak, a major achievement for someone who could not hear at all.

安尼细心地教授海伦，特别是她感兴趣的东西。结 果，海伦变得温和了而且很快学会了用布莱叶盲文朗读 和写作。她又学会了触唇意识，用手指接触说话人的 嘴唇去感受运动和震动，这种方法被称作泰德马，是 一种很少有人能掌握的技能。她也学会了讲话，这对 失聪的人来说是个巨大的成就。

Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar, graduating with honors from Radcliffe College in 1904. She had phenomenal powers of concentration and memory, as well as a dogged determination to succeed. While she was still at college she wrote The Story of My Life. This was an immediate success and earned her enough money to buy her own house.

海伦证明了自己是个出色的学者，1904年她以优异 的成绩从拉德克利夫学院毕业。她有惊人的注意力和记 忆力，同时她还具有不达目的誓不罢休的毅力。上大学 时她就写了《我的生命》。这使她取得了巨大的成功从 而有能力为自己购买了一套住房。

She toured the country, giving lecture after lecture. Many books were written about her and several plays and films were made about her life. Eventually she became so famous that she was invited abroad and received many honors from foreign universities and monarchs. In 1932 she became a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.

她周游全国，不断地举行讲座。她的事迹被许多人 著书立说而且还上演了关于她的戏剧和电影。最终她声 名显赫，应邀出国并受到外国大学和国王授予的多项荣 誉。1932年，她成为英国皇家国立盲人学院的副校长。

After her death in 1968 an organization was set up in her name to combat blindness in the developing world. Today that agency, Helen Keller International, is one of the biggest organizations working with blind people overseas.

1968年她去世后，一个以她的名字命名的组织建 立起来，该组织旨在与发展中国家存在的失明缺陷做斗 争。如今这所机构——国际海伦•凯勒是海外向盲人提 供帮助的最大组织之一。