第十三章

　　It was in the spring of 1890 that I learned to speak.* The impulse to utter audible sounds had always been strong within me. I used to make noises, keeping one hand on my throat while the other hand felt the movements of my lips. I was pleased with anything that made a noise and liked to feel the cat purr and the dog bark. I also liked to keep my hand on a singer’s throat, or on a piano when it was being played. Before I lost my sight and hearing, I was fast learning to talk, but after my illness it was found that I had ceased to speak because I could not hear. I used to sit in my mother’s lap all day long and keep my hands on her face because it amused me to feel the motions of her lips; and I moved my lips, too, although I had forgotten what talking was. My friends say that I laughed and cried naturally, and for awhile I made many sounds and word-elements, not because they were a means of communication, but because the need of exercising my vocal organs was imperative. There was, however, one word the meaning of which I still remembered, water. I pronounced it "wa-wa." Even this became less and less intelligible until the time when Miss Sullivan began to teach me. I stopped using it only after I had learned to spell the word on my fingers.

　　1890年的春天，我开始学习说话。对我而言，能够发声讲话的冲动变得日益强烈。我常常会发出一些杂音，我会把一只手放在自己的喉咙上出声，而别人则用手感知我嘴唇的移动。我对自己发出的任何声音都感到无比满足，我也喜欢通过触摸感知猫儿“咕噜咕噜”的哼唱，或者是狗儿欢快的吠叫。有时候，我还会把手放在一个歌唱家的喉咙上，或者是一架正在弹奏的钢琴上面。在我失去视觉和听觉之前，我咿呀学语的速度很快，但是在得病之后，我就停止了讲话，因为我什么都听不见。于是，我整天坐在母亲的腿上，还把手放在她的脸上，因为她嘴唇的移动令我兴味盎然。同时，我也移动自己的嘴唇，不过我早已忘了当时都说了些什么。我的朋友们说，无论是笑是哭，我流露出的情绪都很自然；而且，我还会发出许多声音和模糊的词语。当然，这些声音并不包含与人交流的成分，它只是表明我练习使用发音器官的本能需求。至今我仍然记得学习“water”这个词的过程，一开始，我总是发出“wawa”的声音。显然，这样的发音是令人难以理解的。直到苏立文小姐教我学会用手指拼写后，我便放弃了用发音进行交流的方式。

　　I had known for a long time that the people about me used a method of communication different from mine; and even before I knew that a deaf child could be taught to speak, I was conscious ofdissatisfaction with the means of communication I already possessed. One who is entirelydependent upon the manual alphabet has always a sense of restraint, of narrowness. This feeling began to agitate me with a vexing, forward-reaching sense of a lack that should be filled. My thoughts would often rise and beat up like birds against the wind; and I persisted in using my lips and voice. Friends tried to discourage this tendency, fearing lest it would lead todisappointment. But I persisted, and an accident soon occurred which resulted in the breaking down of this great barrier—I heard the story of Ragnhild Kaata.

　　我很早就知道，人们使用一种与众不同的方式同我交流。我知道一个聋哑孩子是可以学会说话的，因此，我对自己已经拥有的交流手段感到了不满。一个完全依赖手写字母来交流的人总会感觉到处处受限。这种挫折感既令我无比懊恼，又使我进一步意识到，我应该尽快弥补自己的交流缺陷。我的思绪日益高涨，犹如逆风而行的飞鸟；而且，我坚持用自己的嘴唇发音。朋友们则竭力阻止我的热情，他们唯恐我因讲话不成而更加失望。我毫不动摇，随后发生的一件事终于令巨大的障碍轰然倒地——我听说了拉根希尔德·卡塔的故事。

　　In 1890 Mrs. Lamson, who had been one of Laura Bridgman’s teachers, and who had just returned from a visit to Norway and Sweden, came to see me, and told me of Ragnhild Kaata, a deaf and blind girl in Norway who had actually been taught to speak. Mrs. Lamson had scarcely finished telling me about this girl’s success before I was on fire with eagerness. I resolved that I, too, would learn to speak. I would not rest satisfied until my teacher took me, for advice andassistance, to Miss Sarah Fuller, principal of the Horace Mann School. This lovely, sweet-natured lady offered to teach me herself, and we began the twenty-sixth of March, 1890.

　　1890年，刚从挪威和瑞典访问归来的拉姆森夫人来看我，她也是劳拉·布里吉曼的授课教师之一。她对我讲了拉根希尔德·卡塔的故事。拉根希尔德·卡塔是一个又聋又盲的挪威女孩，事实上，她已经成功地学会了开口说话。不等拉姆森夫人把女孩的故事讲完，我的希望之火就已经燃烧起来了。我下定决心，也要学会开口讲话。于是，在他人的建议和协助下，我的老师把我送到了萨拉·富勒小姐那里，她是霍勒斯·曼恩学校的校长。这位和蔼可亲的女士决定亲自为我授课，1890年3月26日是我们的开课日期。