海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第55期
From "Little Lord Fauntleroy" I date the beginning of my true interest in books. During the next two years I read many books at my home and on my visits to Boston. I cannot remember what they all were, or in what order I read them; but I know that among them were "Greek Heroes," La Fontaine's "Fables," Hawthorne's "Wonder Book," "Bible Stories," Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare," "A Child's History of England" by Dickens, "The Arabian Nights," "The Swiss Family Robinson," "The Pilgrim's Progress," "Robinson Crusoe," "Little Women," and "Heidi," a beautiful little story which I afterward read in German. I read them in the intervals between study and play with an ever-deepening sense of pleasure. I did not study nor analyze them—I did not know whether they were well written or not; I never thought about style or authorship. They laid their treasures at my feet, and I accepted them as we accept the sunshine and the love of our friends. I loved "Little Women" because it gave me a sense of kinship with girls and boys who could see and hear. Circumscribed as my life was in so many ways, I had to look between the covers of books for news of the world that lay outside my own.
自從讀過《小爵爺方特勒羅伊》後，我對書籍就產生了真正的興趣。在其後的兩年間，我讀了很多書，這些書都是我在家裡以及在遊覽波士頓期間讀的。具體讀了哪些書，或者是在何種狀態下讀的，我已經記不清了；不過有一些書我是不會忘的，比如《希臘英雄傳》，拉封丹的《寓言》，霍桑的《奇書》、《聖經故事》，蘭姆的《莎士比亞故事集》，狄更斯的《英格蘭歷史兒童讀本》，《天方夜譚》，《瑞士人羅賓遜一家》，《天路歷程》，《魯濱孫漂流記》，《小婦人》，還有《海蒂》——這是個美麗的故事，我記得我看的是德文版本。這些書都是在邊學邊玩之間讀完的。當然，自始至終我都懷著強烈的求知慾。當時，我並不會對我所讀的書進行研究和分析，我不知道這些書寫得是好是壞，我也從來沒有想過它們的寫作風格和作者背景。就這樣，這些書把它們的“財寶”堆放在我的腳前，而我欣然接納了書籍的饋贈，正如我接納陽光和朋友們的友誼一樣自然而然。我喜歡讀《小婦人》，因為它讓我意識到了自己同那些能聽能看的正常孩子之間的“血緣關係”。由於我的生活受到了種種限制，因此我不得不在書籍之中尋找尚未發掘的新世界。I did not care especially for "The Pilgrim's Progress," which I think I did not finish, or for the "Fables." I read La Fontaine's "Fables" first in an English translation, and enjoyed them only after a half-hearted fashion. Later I read the book again in French, and I found that, in spite of the vivid word-pictures, and the wonderful mastery of language, I liked it no better. I do not know why it is, but stories in which animals are made to talk and act like human beings have never appealed to me very strongly. The ludicrous caricatures of the animals occupy my mind to the exclusion of the moral.
我尤其不喜歡《天路歷程》，我想我都沒有讀完這本書。《寓言》我也不喜歡，我最初讀的拉封丹的《寓言》是英文版本，當時我只是感覺這本書還說得過去。後來我又讀了法文版本，於是我發現，無論書中的文字是多麼生動，故事是多麼精彩，我還是不太喜歡。我不知道為什麼會有這種感覺，不過書中的那些像人類一樣會說話的動物從來就沒有引起過我太大的興趣。不妨說，給我留下印象的不過是一些滑稽可笑的動物，而並不是其中的道德說教。Then, again, La Fontaine seldom, if ever, appeals to our higher moral sense. The highest chords he strikes are those of reason and self-love. Through all the fables runs the thought that man's morality springs wholly from self-love, and that if that self-love is directed and restrained by reason, happiness must follow. Now, so far as I can judge, self-love is the root of all evil; but, of course, I may be wrong, for La Fontaine had greater opportunities of observing men than I am likely ever to have. I do not object so much to the cynical and satirical fables as to those in which momentous truths are taught by monkeys and foxes.
接著說拉封丹。如果說他的作品帶給了我們更高的道德感，我認為這種說法是言過其實的。事實上，其作品中最值得回味的地方就是故事的發生動機和其中蘊涵的自戀主張，所有的寓言無不傳達出這樣一種思想——人類的道德感完全來自於自戀，假如自戀的動機被壓制，那麼幸福一定會到來。而我本人的看法是，自戀是一切罪惡的根源。當然，我的判斷也許是錯的，畢竟，同我相比，拉封丹有著更加豐富的觀察人生的經驗。此外，我並不太反對寓言所具有的諷刺效果，尤其是通過猴子和狐狸的口傳授做人的至理名言。
But I love "The Jungle Book" and "Wild Animals I Have Known." I feel a genuine interest in the animals themselves, because they are real animals and not caricatures of men. One sympathizes with their loves and hatreds, laughs over their comedies, and weeps over their tragedies. And if they point a moral, it is so subtle that we are not conscious of it.
比較而言，我更喜歡讀《叢林故事》和《我所知道的野生動物》這類書。我對動物確實有著濃厚的興趣，因為它們是真正的動物而非被擬人化的笑料。當然，人們更願意把自己的喜悅、憎恨和笑聲貢獻給喜劇，而把哭泣留給悲劇。如果說這些作品表達出了一種道德觀，那麼我們也會因其過於深奧而意識不到它的存在。
