海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第1期
Chapter 1
第1章It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I shall try to present in a series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the Most interesting and important.
我是懷着惴惴不安的心情書寫我生活的歷史的。在我整個的童年時代，生活猶如籠罩在我身邊的一團金色霧靄。冥冥之中，我是懵懂而遲疑地揭開生活的迷帳的。每當我試圖分辨孩童時期記憶的時候，我就會發現，往昔的時光美好而真實，它如同一條紐帶，同此時此刻的我緊緊相連。女人們通常會以富於想象力的方式來描述自己的童年經歷。雖然，那些鮮活而生動的記憶來自我生命的最初時光，但是，“牢房一般的陰暗將伴隨着我的餘生”。此外，童年時代的歡樂和悲傷大都成爲往事前塵，它們已然失去了當時的鋒芒；在我接受早期教育過程中的那些重大事件，已經隨着更加激動人心的偉大發現而被淡忘。因此，從這個意義上來說，將我生活中那些至關重要的章節做一個全盤性的勾勒，於我倒並不是一件枯燥乏味的工作。I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.
我於1880年6月27日出生在亞拉巴馬州北部的一個叫做圖斯康比亞的小鎮。
The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education—rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
我父親家的先人是來自瑞士的卡斯帕·凱勒家族，他們最初定居在馬里蘭州。在我的瑞士祖先中，有一個人曾是蘇黎世聾啞學校的首位教師，他曾寫過一本有關教學生涯的書——這似乎具有某種一脈相承的偶然性；儘管在他的祖先中沒有王者，也不曾豢養過一個奴隸，而且，在早期先民之中，也沒有奴隸曾隸屬於一位王者。My grandfather, Caspar Keller's son, "entered" large tracts of land in Alabama and finally settled there. I have been told that once a year he went from Tuscumbia to Philadelphia on horseback to purchase supplies for the plantation, and my aunt has in her possession many of the letters to his family, which give charming and vivid accounts of these trips.
我的祖父，卡斯帕·凱勒家族之子，“進入”了亞拉巴馬州這片廣袤的土地並最終在此定居。我後來得知，曾經有那麼一年，祖父騎馬從圖斯康比亞前往費城，爲的是給種植園添置一些耕作用具。在我姑媽寄來的許多家信中，曾對祖父的這些旅行有過生動而清晰的記述。My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette's aides, Alexander Moore, and granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also second cousin to Robert E. Lee.
我的祖母凱勒是一個侍從武官的女兒，那名軍官叫亞歷山大·穆爾；祖母也是亞歷山大·斯鮑茨伍德的孫女，這位斯鮑茨伍德先生曾是弗吉尼亞州最早的殖民總督。此外，祖母也是羅伯特·E.李將軍的二表妹。My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil War broke out, he fought on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy Helen Everett, who belonged to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
我的父親，亞瑟·H.凱勒是聯邦軍隊中的一個上尉，而我的母親凱特·亞當斯是他的第二個妻子，兩人年齡相差懸殊。母親的祖父是本傑明·亞當斯，他娶了蘇姍娜·E.古德休爲妻，他們在馬薩諸塞州的紐伯裏住了很多年。他們的兒子查爾斯·亞當斯就出生在馬薩諸塞州的紐伯裏波特，後來他搬到了阿肯色州的海倫娜。當時正值南北戰爭爆發，他代表南軍參戰，後來官至准將軍銜。他娶了露西·海倫·埃弗裏特爲妻，露西同愛德華·埃弗裏特和愛德華·埃弗裏特·黑爾博士同宗同門。戰爭結束後，夫妻倆搬到了田納西州的孟菲斯。I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept. It is a custom in the South to build a small house near the homestead as an annex to be used on occasion. Such a house my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles. From the garden it looked like an arbour. The little porch was hidden from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax. It was the favourite haunt of humming-birds and bees.
我一直住在一個狹小的房子裏面，直到疾病令我喪失了視覺和聽覺。當時的家園是由一個巨大的四方形房間和一個小房間構成的，僕人們都睡在那個小房間裏。這源自南方人的習俗，挨着宅第建一座附屬的小房子，以備不時之需。宅第是我父親在內戰結束後建造的，在娶了我母親後，他們就在此定居了。房子完全被葡萄藤、攀爬的薔薇和金銀花覆蓋了，從花園望去，那裏就像一個巨大的涼亭。而那個小門廊則被滿眼的黃玫瑰和南方天冬草所遮蔽。因此這裏就變成了蜂雀和蜜蜂最常出沒的地方。The Keller homestead, where the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was called "Ivy Green" because the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with beautiful English ivy. Its old-fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood.
凱勒家的宅第距我們家的玫瑰小涼亭只有幾步之遙。這裏也被叫做“常春藤綠地”，因爲房子和周圍的樹叢及籬笆被美麗的英格蘭常春藤所纏繞覆蓋。這個老式的花園正是我童年時代的天堂。
