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The Most Important Day in My Life

我人生中最重要的日子

The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887，three months before I was seven years old.

记忆中，我一生最重要的曰子是我的老师安妮·曼斯菲尔德·莎莉文来到我身边的那一天。回想此前和此后迥然不同的两种生活，我惊叹不已。这一天是1887年3月3日，当时离我满七周岁还差三个月。

On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely¹ from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated² the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth³ to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel⁴ or surprise for me . Anger and bitterness had preyed⁵ upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor⁶ had succeeded this passionate⁷ struggle.

在那个重大日子的下午，我一声不响地站在门廊上，满怀着期待的心情。从母亲的手势以及屋子里全家上下匆匆忙忙走来走去的情形,我隐约地感到一件不同寻常的事就要发生了，于是我走到门口，站在台阶上等待。午后的阳光透过遮满门廊的忍冬丛，照在我仰起的脸上。我的手指几乎无意识地触摸着那些熟悉的叶片和花朵，忍冬花为迎接南方迷人的春天才刚刚开放。我不知道未来会带给我什么奇迹或惊喜。几个星期以来，我一直被愤怒和痛苦笼罩着，激烈的情感斗争让我深感疲倦。

Have you ever been at sea in a dense⁸ fog, when it seemed as if a tangible⁹ white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet¹⁰ and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen?I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. “Light! give me light!”was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.

你是否曾经航行在浓雾迷漫的大海上，眼前白茫茫一片，似乎把你包裹得严严实实，大船一面用铅锤和测深绳探测着海水的深浅，一面紧张焦急地朝岸边摸索前行，而你的心怦怦直跳，唯恐意外发生。在开始接受教育之前，我就像这样一条船，只是没有罗盘，没有测深绳，无法得知离海港有多远。“光明！给我光明！ ”这是我内心发出的无声的呼喊，也就在这个时刻，爱的光芒照到了我的身上。

I felt approaching footsteps, I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.

我感到有脚步朝我走来，伸出手，以为是母亲。不知是谁抓住了我的手，把我拉了过去，紧紧地搂在她的怀里。就是她为我展示了世间的各种事物，而且最重要的是，她给了我深深的爱。

The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it; but I did not know this until afterward¹¹. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word “d-o-l-l." I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup and a few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name.

第二天早上，老师把我带到她的房间，给了我一个玩具娃娃。这是柏金斯盲童学校的学生赠送的，劳拉·布里奇曼为娃娃缝制了衣服，这都是我后来才知道的。我拿着娃娃玩了一会儿，莎莉文小姐慢慢地在我手心里拼写单词“d-o-1-1”，我立即对这种手指游戏产生了兴趣，并试着模仿起来。当我终于成功地把这几个字母写对时，心中充满了一个孩子特有的愉快和骄傲，高兴得满脸涨得通红。我跑下楼去告诉母亲，我向她伸出手，比划着写出了 “d-o-l-l”这个词。当时我并不知道自己是在拼写一个单词，甚至根本不知道有文字的存在，我不过是比划着手指，依葫芦画瓢似的模仿而已。在接下来的几天里，我以这种不求甚解的方式学会了许多单词的拼写，其中有pin (别针）、hat (帽子）、cup (茶杯），还有几个动词，比如sit (坐）、stand (站）、walk (走）。老师教了我几个星期后，我才知道原来每样事物都有自己的名称。