海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第38期

Chapter XVI

第十六章

Before October, 1893, I had studied various subjects by myself in a more or less desultory manner. I read the histories of Greece, Rome and the United States. I had a French grammar in raised print, and as I already knew some French, I often amused myself by composing in my head short exercises, using the new words as I came across them, and ignoring rules and other technicalities as much as possible. I even tried, without aid, to master the French pronunciation, as I found all the letters and sounds described in the book. Of course this was tasking slender powers for great ends; but it gave me something to do on a rainy day, and I acquired a sufficient knowledge of French to read with pleasure La Fontaine's "Fables," "Le Medecin Malgr?Lui" and passages from "Athalie."

到1893年10月之前，我已經斷斷續續地自學了多種類型的科目。我閱讀了希臘、羅馬和美國的歷史。我有一本盲文法語語法書，而且已經學習了幾句法語。爲了自娛自樂，我經常默默地在腦海裏做一些小練習。我用隨意想到的新單詞造句，而且不太理會語法規則和其他的技術性問題。在無人幫助的情況下，我甚至嘗試掌握法語發音，因爲我在這本書裏發現了所有字母和音節的發音講解。當然，對於宏大的目標而言，這種努力是遠遠不夠的；但是不管怎麼說，在淫雨霏霏的日子裏，我總可以有事可幹。就這樣，我所掌握的法語知識足夠使我閱讀有趣的拉封丹的寓言，莫里哀的《屈打成醫》，以及拉辛的《阿達莉》中的段落。

I also gave considerable time to the improvement of my speech. I read aloud to Miss Sullivan and recited passages from my favourite poets, which I had committed to memory; she corrected my pronunciation and helped me to phrase and inflect. It was not, however, until October, 1893, after I had recovered from the fatigue and excitement of my visit to the World's Fair, that I began to have lessons in special subjects at fixed hours.

我也用相當多的時間來提高我的說話能力。我大聲地爲蘇立文小姐朗讀課文，背誦我喜愛的詩歌章節；她則糾正我的發音並幫我斷句和改變詞形。總之，直到1893年10月，也就是在我從參觀世界博覽會的疲勞和興奮狀態中恢復平靜之後，我纔開始在固定時間內學習一些特殊的課程。