出生18个月后，海伦·凯勒就失去了视力和听力。还没学会说话的凯勒，陷入了她所说的“新生儿般的无意识状态”，就像一个与外界隔绝、看不到出路的牢笼。但直到1968年6月1日以87岁的高龄去世之前，凯勒一直在坚持与命运共舞。她用文字重塑生命，用顽强不屈的精神带给全世界激励和希望。
Three Days to See
假如给我三天光明
All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year, sometimes as short as 24 hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed hero chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited.
我们都读过震撼人心的故事，故事中的主人公只给再活一段很有限的时光，有时长达一年，有时却短至一日。但我们总是想要知道，注定将要离世的人会选择如何度过自己最后的时光。当然，我说的是那些有选择权利的自由人，而不是那些活动范围受到严格限定的死囚。
Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings, what regrets?
这样的故事让我们思考，在类似的处境下，我们该做些什么呢？作为终有一死的人，在临终的几个小时内我们该做什么事、经历些什么或做哪些联想？回忆往昔，什么使我们开心快乐？什么又使我们悔恨不已？
Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with gentleness, vigor and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the Epicurean motto of “Eat, drink, and be merry”. But most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending death.
有时候我想，把每天都当作生命中的最后一天来过，也不失为一个极好的生活法则。这种态度会使人格外重视生命的价值。我们每天都应该以优雅的姿态、充沛的精力、抱着感恩之心来生活。但当时间以无休止的日、月和年在我们面前流逝时，我们却常常没有了这种感觉。当然，也有人奉行“吃、喝、享受”的享乐主义信条，但绝大多数人还是会受到即将到来的死亡的惩罚。
In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow sweetness to everything they do.
在故事中，将死的主人公通常都在最后一刻因突降的幸运而获救，但他的价值观通常都会改变，他变的更加理解生命的意义及永恒的精神价值。我们常常注意到，那些生活在或曾经生活在死亡阴影下的人无论做什么都会感到幸福。
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
然而，我们中的大多数人都把生命看作是理所当然的。我们知道有一天我们必将面对死亡，但总认为那一天还在遥远的将来。当我们身强体健之时，死亡简直不可想象，我们很少会考虑到它。日子多的好像没有尽头。因此我们一味忙于琐事，几乎意识不到我们对待生活的冷漠态度。
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
我担心同样的冷漠也存在于我们对自己官能和意思地运用上。只有听力障碍的人才理解听力的重要，只有盲人才明白视觉的可贵。这尤其适用于那些成年后才失去视力和听力的人。但是那些从未受过丧失视力或听力之苦的人很少充分利用这些高贵的能力。他们的眼睛和耳朵模糊地感受着周围的景物与声音，心不在焉，也无所感激。这正如我们只有在失去时才懂得珍惜一样，我们只有在生病后才意识到健康的可贵。
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
我经常想，如果每个人在年轻的时候都有几天失明失聪，也不失为一件幸事。黑暗将使他更加感激光明，寂静将告诉他声音的美妙。
海伦亲述: 冲破黑暗逆境，寻求光明!
In this room sits a remarkable woman. She's Miss Helen Keller. She does not see the room, or the book she's reading. She sees nothing. She doesn't hear the rustling of the curtains behind her. She hears nothing...
在这个房间里坐着一位了不起的女人，她就是海伦·凯勒女士。她看不见这个房间，也看不见正在阅读的书籍。她的眼前一片漆黑，就连身后窗帘发出的窸窣响声，她也完全听不见。她什么也听不见...
She is deaf. Deaf and blind. But if you enter a room she will know it. Your lightest foot fall will tell her you are coming. It will even tell her who you are, if she knows you as she knows her old friend Polly Thomson.
她没有听觉，她生活在无声无光的世界中。但倘若你一进门，她便会立即察觉。即便是再轻微的脚步声，她也能感知你的到来。如果你俩认识，她甚至能通过脚步声分辨出来你是谁。正如她此刻所知，老朋友波列·汤姆逊来看她了。
Polly has been with Helen Keller forty years. For nearly half of these, she has been Helen's only companion. Helen's eyes and ears upon the world. She talks to Helen by a finger system in which each letter has a sign...like this.
波列小姐与海伦相知相处已有四十余载。在近20年的光阴里，只有她一人终日伴随海伦左右，她就是海伦的眼与耳，将海伦与整个世界连接。她通过手语与海伦交流，每个英文字母都会用不同的手势表示，就像这样。
In reaching out beyond her dark and silent night. Helen depends most on touch. Two other senses remain. There is taste and there is smell. Scent... the scent of objects and places and people tells Helen much that we learn with eyes and ears.
为了解这个黑暗无声的混沌世界以外的一切，海伦更多是依靠触觉去感知，可她也有另外两种感官的帮助，即味觉和嗅觉。首先是气味，不同物品、场地和人们身上的气味，让海伦得以感知，我们通过眼睛耳朵才能知晓的一切。
But her hand is her chief link with the outer world with Polly, with Anne the part time helper. With everyone she encounters. With her hand she reads Anne's lips. She answers with her voice. It is an un-natural voice and is her great sorrow.
不过，海伦更多还是依靠双手与外部世界交流，与波列小姐交流，与兼职老师安妮交流，也与她遇到的每个人交流。海伦能用手指辨认安妮的唇语。之后，海伦会用自己的声音做出回应。可是她发出的声音并不自然，这也让她的内心极为悲伤。
For all her years of effort Helen has never learned to speak clearly. This isn't strange for since she was a baby she has not heard a word spoken nor seen lips forming one. But let Helen, with Polly's help, tell you...
尽管付出多年的努力，海伦始终未能学会用清晰的声音讲话，而这并不奇怪。因为自打出生以来，她就从未听过他人说话的声音，也未曾见过人们说话时嘴唇的动作，所幸有波列女士的帮助让海伦亲口告诉你...
It is not blindness or deafness that bring me my darkest hours. It is the acute disappointment in not being able to speak normally. Longingly I feel how much more good I may have done if I had acquired normal speech.
将我囚禁在黑暗寂寞世界中的并不是失明和失聪，而是无法用正常语言交流才让我陷入深深的失落。长久以来我一直渴望，倘若我能拥有正常说话的能力，我便能为这世界做出更多善举。
But out of this sorrowful experience, I understand more clearly...all human striving thwarted ambitions and infinite capacity of hope.
而如今，在拥有这些悲苦的人生经历后。我才更深刻地体会到...人类所有的拼搏奋进，越挫越勇的壮志豪情，以及无限的光明希望。
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