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The Firm Helen Keller
堅強的海倫.凱勒
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，一名女嬰因發(fā)高燒差點喪命。她雖幸免于難，但發(fā)燒給她留下了后遺癥——她再也看不見、聽不見了。因為聽不見，她想講話也變得很困難。
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，這樣一個在19個月大時就既盲又聾的孩子是如何成長為享譽世界的作家和演說家的呢？
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.
高燒將她與外界隔離，使她失去了視力和聲音。她仿佛置身在黑暗的牢籠中無法擺脫。
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.
值得慶幸的是海倫并不是個輕易認輸?shù)娜恕２痪盟烷_始利用其他的感官來探知這個世界了。她跟著母親，拉著母親的衣角，形影不離。她去觸摸，去聞各種她碰到的物品。她模仿別人的動作且很快就能自己做一些事情，例如擠牛奶或揉面。她甚至學(xué)會摸別人的臉或衣服來識別對方。她還能聞不同的植物和觸摸腳下的地面，依此來辨別自己在花園的位置。
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歲的時候她發(fā)明了60多種不同的手勢，憑借這些手勢和家里人交流。比如她若想要面包，就會做出切面包和涂黃油的動作。想要冰淇淋時，她會用手裹住自己裝出發(fā)抖的樣子。
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.
海倫在這方面非同一般，她非常聰明、敏感。通過努力，她對這個陌生且迷惑的世界有了一些認識。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歲時，海倫開始意識到她自己與別人不同。她發(fā)現(xiàn)家里的其他人不用像她那樣做手勢而是用嘴交談。有時她站在兩人中間觸摸他們的嘴唇。她不知道他們在說什么，而她自己不能發(fā)出任何帶有含義的聲音。她想講話，可無論費多大的勁兒也無法讓別人明白自己。這使她異常惱火，以至于常常在屋子里亂跑亂撞，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.
隨著年齡的增長，她的挫敗感和怒氣越來越大，她變得狂野不馴。倘若她得不到想要的東西，就會大發(fā) 氣直到家人順從。她慣用的手段包括抓別人盤里的食物以及將易碎的東西猛扔在地上。有一次她甚至將母親鎖在廚房里。很顯然，得想個辦法了。于是，在快到她7歲生日時，家里雇了一名家庭教師——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.
安尼細心地教授海倫，特別是她感興趣的東西。結(jié)果，海倫變得溫和了而且很快學(xué)會了用布萊葉盲文朗讀和寫作。她又學(xué)會了觸唇意識，用手指接觸說話人的嘴唇去感受運動和震動，這種方法被稱作泰德馬，是一種很少有人能掌握的技能。她也學(xué)會了講話，這對失聰?shù)娜藖碚f是個巨大的成就。
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.
海倫證明了自己是個出色的學(xué)者，1904年她以優(yōu)異 的成績從拉德克利夫?qū)W院畢業(yè)。她有驚人的注意力和記 憶力，同時她還具有不達目的誓不罷休的毅力。上大學(xué) 時她就寫了《我的生命》。這使她取得了巨大的成功從 而有能力為自己購買了一套住房。
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.
她周游全國，不斷地舉行講座。她的事跡被許多人著書立說而且還上演了關(guān)于她的戲劇和電影。最終她聲名顯赫，應(yīng)邀出國并受到外國大學(xué)和國王授予的多項榮譽。1932年，她成為英國皇家國立盲人學(xué)院的副校長。
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，一個以她的名字命名的組織建立起來，該組織旨在與發(fā)展中國家存在的失明缺陷做斗爭。如今這所機構(gòu)——國際海倫?凱勒是海外向盲人提供幫助的最大組織之一。
