The Story of My Life 1. The most important day I remember in all my life is 我的生活 在我的记忆里，安妮•曼斯the one on which my 菲尔德•萨莉文老师来的那teacher, Anne Mansfield 一天，是我一生中最重要Sullivan, came to me. I am 的日子。从这一天开始，filled with wonder when I 我的生活和以前迥然不consider the immeasurable 同，一想到这一点，我就contrast between the two 感到非常兴奋。这个重要lives which it connects. It 的日子是1887年3月3日，was the third of March, 我差三个月不满七周岁。 1887, three months before I was seven years old. 2. On the afternoon of that 那天下午，我一声不响，eventful day, I stood on the 怀着期待的心情站在门廊porch, dumb, expectant. I 里。母亲给我打着手势，guessed vaguely from my 人们在屋里走来走去，我mother’s signs and from the 模模糊糊地预感到一件不hurrying to and fro in the 寻常的事情就要发生了。house unusual that was something 于是我就走到门口，站在about to 台阶上等待着。午后的阳happen, so I went to the 光透过门廊上覆盖着的厚door and waited on the 厚的一层忍冬，照在我微steps. The afternoon sun 微仰着的脸上。我几乎是penetrated the mass of 无意识地用手抚摸着我所honeysuckle that covered 熟悉的叶片和花朵，这新the porch, and fell on my 长的叶片和刚开的花朵在upturned face. My fingers 南方迎来了芬芳的春天。lingered unconsciously familiar on almost 但不知今后等待着我的是the 什么，会使我惊喜，还是and 惊骇。几个星期以来，我leaves blossoms which had just 又气又恨，感到非常苦恼，come forth to greet the 这种感情上的激烈斗争过sweet southern spring. I did 去之后，我感到浑身无力。 not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle. 3. Have you ever been at 不知你是否有过这样的经sea in a dense fog, when it 历——在海上航行遇上了seemed as if a tangible 大雾，周围一片白，好像white darkness shut you in, 着实把你关在一个黑暗的and the great ship, tense 地方，大船上的人又紧张and anxious, groped her 又着急，一面用铅锸探测way toward the shore with 深浅，一面向岸边慢慢驶plummet and sounding-line 去，你的心也怦怦直跳，and you waited with beating 生怕出事。我在开始受教heart for something to 育之前，就像这样一条船，happen? I was like that ship 只是没有罗盘，没有测深before my education began, 绳，也无法知道离海港有only I was without compass 多远。“光明！给我光明！”or sounding-line, and had 这就是发自我内心深处的no way of knowing how 无言的呼唤，也就在这时near the harbor was. “Light! 候，爱心的光芒照到了我Give me light!” was the 的身上。 wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour. 4. I felt approaching 我感觉到渐近的脚步声。footsteps. I stretched out my 我伸出手，以为过来的是hand as I supposed to my 妈妈。有个人握作了我的mother. Someone took it, 手，于是我被抱了起来，and I was caught up and 紧紧地拥在了她的怀里。held close in the arms of her 正是她来到我的身边，将who had come to reveal all 一切展现在我面前，更重things to me, and, more 要的是，是她将爱带给了than all things else, to love 我。 me. 5. The morning after my 我的老师来后的一个teacher came she led me 清晨，她把我领进了她的into her room and gave me 房间，给了我一个洋娃娃。a doll. The little blind 娃娃是彼金斯学院的盲童children at the Perkins 们送的，劳拉·布杰曼给它Institution had sent it and 缝的衣服。不过，这些情Laura Bridgmen had 况我是后来才知道的。我dressed it; but I did not 跟洋娃娃玩了会儿，然后know this until afterward. 莎莉雯老师慢慢地将单词When I had played with it a “doll”拼在我的手上。我立little while, Miss Sullivan 刻对这个手指游戏产生了slowly spelled into my hand 兴趣．并学着模仿。当我the word “d-p-l-l”. I was at 最后成功地将字母拼对once interested in this finger 时，心里充满了天真的喜play and tried to imitate it. 悦与自豪，脸涨得红红的。When I finally succeeded in 我跑下楼去找妈妈，举起making the letters correctly 手拼出“doll”这个单词。当I was flushed with childish 时我并不知自己在拼单pleasure and pride. Running 词，甚至不知道有所谓的down stairs to my mother, I “词”，我只不过像猴子模仿held up my hand and made 似地用手指比划着。接下the letters for doll. I did not 来的几天里，我在根本不know that I was spelling a 知自己在做什么的情况word or even that words 下，学会了拼好些单词，existed; I was simply 比如“Pin”、“hat”、“cup”making my fingers go in 及一些动向，像“sit”、monkey-like imitation. In “stand”和“walk”。不过，我the days that followed I 的老师同我呆在一起好几learned to spell in this 周后，我才弄明白，原来uncomprehending way a 每个事物都有自己的名great many words, among 字。 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. ... 我走出井台，渴望汲取 6. I left the well house 知识。每个事物都有名字，eager to learn Everything 每个名字都激发一个新观had a name, and each name 念。我们返回到我们住的gave birth to a new thought. 房子时，我触模到的一切As we returned to the house 物品似乎都因活力而颤every object which I 动，那是因为我正用一种touched seemed to quiver 刚刚获得的全新而奇特的with life. That was because 视角来看待一切事物。进I saw everything with the 屋时，我想起了被我弄坏strange, new sight that had 的那个娃娃。我摸索着来come to me. On entering the 到壁炉前，拾起那些碎片，door I remembered the doll 试图将它们拼接在一I had broken. I felt my way 起．却没办到。泪水充满to the hearth and picked up 了我的眼睛，因为我意识the pieces. I tried vainly to 到了刚才我都干了些什put them together. Then my 么。生平第一次，我感到eyes filled with tears; for I 难过、懊悔。 realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow. 7. I learned a great 那天我学了许多新单词。现在我记不起它们都是哪many new words that day. I 几个词了，但我记得其中do not remember what they 有“mother”、“father”、“teacher”——这些all were; but I do know that “sister”、单词使世界像花一样绽放mother, father, sister, 在我而前，就像《圣经》teacher were among them -- 上说的“亚伦的拐杖开了words that were to make the world blossom for me, 花”一样。当那感慨万千的一天就要结束时，我躺在自己的小床里，感受这一“Like Aaron’s rod, with 天带给我的那些快乐，我flowers”. It would have 觉得没有人比我更幸福been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come. 了。一生中第一次，我期盼着新一天的来临。 (from Helen Keller, The Story of My Life)
1. 注意英汉语序句式的差异。
2. guess vaguely引申译为：模模糊糊地预感到；主
语补语dumb, expectant翻译处理为汉语状语。
3. 英语长句一般属于树状结构(形和)，中间可穿插各种成分，但是汉语属于线形结构，一般按意思顺序安排句子的各种成分(意和)。本句就属于这样的例子。译文把英句中的两个介词结构from ... 放在译句前列，因为按句子的意思，它们表不原因，汉语一般是因果
有序。
4. 原后置定语从句译为前置定语。
5. “greet”，本意指人们之间的互相问侯或致意。这里使用拟人手法，描写新长的叶子和刚开的花像人一样向春天致意，表达了作者对美好大自然的热爱。 “sweet”，甜的本来是用来描述味觉的，通常情况下，人们多从视觉、听觉和嗅觉的角度来描写春天的美好，而作者海伦·凯勒在一岁半时就失去了视觉和听觉，所以她以独特的对春天的感受来描写春天。
汉语中也有这种修饰手法，称为“通感”。
本句带有一个定语从句，由于句子长，汉译时采用断句的方法，但其间用“这”又紧密地联系起来。
6. prey on sb. 折磨某人，使某人痛苦
passionate struggle 感情上的激烈斗争
anger, bitterness, a deep languor这些抽象名词在句中作主语，而受动主体作宾主，这是英语文学作品中常见的一种表达方式，主体的感受显得更强烈，表达更生动。但汉语中一般不这么说，而是要以人称
代词作主语，把抽象名词转译成谓语动词。
7. ① “white darkness”为矛盾修饰法，如译为“白色的黑暗”令人费解。“white”指白雾茫茫的；“darkness”指人的感受，像处在黑暗之中，看不到东西。此处采用分译法，译作“周围一片白，好像者实把你关在一个黑
暗的地方”。
②“tense and anxious”按汉语习攒译成“又紧张又着急”。如果直接译出两个并列的形容词，上下文不够衔接，用“又…又…”这一结构表达出来就显得既紧凑
又通俗。
③ grope her way forward摸索着向前；her指船。在英语中常用her来代指一些无生命的东西，如
河流、国家等。
④ beating heart意为跳动的心，分词作定语，根据语境判断，此时心情紧张，担心会有什么事情发生，为了忠实原文，突出重点，把这一名词性词组处
理成汉语的主谓结构，译文才会生动形象。
⑤ 英语习惯用无生命事物作主语，而汉语恰恰相反，所以译文把原文的the great ship处理成“船上
的人”。
8. 注意“before my education began”的译法。
9. approaching footsteps走近的脚步
10. I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride.
A. be flushed with: (cause to) become red in the face B. childish pleasure and pride翻译时childish词类转换成副词：孩子般地，天真地
C. 简单句转换成汉语的复句：我天真地感到无限愉快和骄傲，脸色变得通红。
11. I was simply making my finger go in monkey-like imitation.
抽象名词imitation转译为动词“模仿”；go引申为运动。
我不过是像猴子一样用手指模仿而已。
12. in this uncomprehending way以这种不理解的方式
13. every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.
quiver: make a slight trembling movement, esp. from fear or excitement. 因恐惧或兴奋而发抖。
quiver with life是一种形象的说法，描述海伦所触摸到的东西具有活力。
14. I tried vainly to put them together.
若按字面则译：我试图徒劳地把它们拼在一起。很显然这不符合原意，在翻译时应把副词vainly采用分译法，单独处理。
我想把这些碎片拼在一起，但拼不起来。
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