海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第29期

"My little sister will understand me now," was a thought stronger than All obstacles. I used to repeat ecstatically, "I am not dumb now." I could not be despondent while I anticipated the delight of talking to my mother and reading her responses from her lips. It astonished me to find how much easier it is to talk than to spell with the fingers, and I discarded the manual alphabet as a medium of communication on my part; but Miss Sullivan and a few friends still use it in speaking to me, for it is more convenient and more rapid than lip-reading.

“我的小妹妹將會聽懂我的話。”這個強烈的念頭已經超越了任何學習上的障礙。我常常出神地重複着一句話：“我不再啞了。”可以預見，我會同母親快樂地交談，我可以通過摸她的嘴脣來讀懂她的話，我不會再感到沮喪失望了。而且，我驚訝地發現，語言交流要比用手指拼寫來得更容易。所以，我會放棄使用手語字母的交流手段。不過蘇立文小姐和少數幾個朋友仍然用手指拼寫的方式同我講話，因爲同脣讀相比，這種方式要方便快捷得多。

Just here, perhaps, I had better explain our use of the manual alphabet, which seems to puzzle people who do not know us. One who reads or talks to me spells with his hand, using the single-hand manual alphabet generally employed by the deaf. I place my hand on the hand of the speaker so lightly as not to impede its movements. The position of the hand is as easy to feel as it is to see. I do not feel each letter any more than you see each letter separately when you read. Constant practice makes the fingers very flexible, and some of my friends spell rapidly—about as fast as an expert writes on a typewriter. The mere spelling is, of course, no more a conscious act than it is in writing.

說到這裏，我要好好解釋一下我們使用手語字母的過程，因爲這似乎令很多不瞭解我們的人感到困惑。如果一個人想爲我閱讀或者跟我講話，那麼他就會用到聾啞人使用的手拼字母法。我會把自己的手輕輕地放在講話者的手上，我的動作會輕到不妨礙對方的任何行動。而手對位置的變化很敏感，如同長了眼睛一樣。所以，當你爲我“讀”的時候，我並不會感到辨別字母的速度比你看的速度慢。長期的訓練令手指變得異常靈活。在我的朋友們當中，有些人的拼寫速度驚人——就像一個熟練使用打字機的行家裏手一樣快。當然，這種拼寫方式只是一種不得已而爲之的行爲。

When I had made speech my own, I could not wait to go home. At last the happiest of happy moments arrived. I had made my homeward journey, talking constantly to Miss Sullivan, not for the sake of talking, but determined to improve to the last minute. Almost before I knew it, the train stopped at the Tuscumbia station, and there on the platform stood the whole family. My eyes fill with tears now as I think how my mother pressed me close to her, speechless and trembling with delight, taking in every syllable that I spoke, while little Mildred seized my free hand and kissed it and danced, and my father expressed his pride and affection in a big silence. It was as if Isaiah's prophecy had been fulfilled in me, "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands!"

當我能夠開口講話的時候，我幾乎無法抑制住迫切的歸家心情。終於，最快樂的時刻到來了，我踏上了返鄉的旅程。一路上，我不停地和蘇立文小姐說話。當然，這並不是爲了單純地說話，我決心提高我的說話水平，直到最後一刻。不知不覺間，火車已經停靠在圖斯康比亞車站，全家人都站在月臺上迎接我。我的眼中噙滿淚水，我想到了母親是如何把我緊緊地摟在懷裏，激動得渾身顫抖不能言語，她仔細地聆聽我發出的每一個音節；我想到了小妹妹米爾德萊德抓住我的手又吻又跳；我想到了父親以長久的沉默來表達他的慈愛和自豪。我們相會的景象就像《以賽亞書》中應驗的預言：“大山小山必在你們面前發聲歌唱。田野的樹木也都拍掌。”