海倫·凱勒自傳《我的生活》第20期

One day spent with the blind children made me feel thoroughly at home in my new environment, and I looked eagerly from one pleasant experience to another as the days flew swiftly by. I could not quite convince myself that there was much world left, for I regarded Boston as the beginning and the end of creation.

同我的盲童朋友們待上一天後，我完全適應了新環境，感覺就像在家一樣。一天過去，我就盼着又一天的到來，我渴望在每天都獲得愉悅的經歷。我並不想弄清楚周圍是不是還有更加廣闊的天地，我把波士頓當做萬物的起始點和終結地。

While we were in Boston we visited Bunker Hill, and there I had my first lesson in history. The story of the brave men who had fought on the spot where we stood excited me greatly. I climbed the monument, counting the steps, and wondering as I went higher and yet higher if the soldiers had climbed this great stairway and shot at the enemy on the ground below.

在波士頓的時候，我們參觀了邦克山，我在那裏學到了我的第一堂歷史課。我們的腳下就是勇士曾經戰鬥過的陣地，他們的無畏氣概令我激動不已。在去山頂紀念碑憑弔的途中，我一邊數着臺階，一邊想象着當年的士兵爬到高坡，居高臨下向敵人射擊時的情景。

The next day we went to Plymouth by water. This was my first trip on the ocean and my first voyage in a steamboat. How full of life and motion it was! But the rumble of the machinery made me think it was thundering, and I began to cry, because I feared if it rained we should not be able to have our picnic out of doors. I was more interested, I think, in the great rock on which the Pilgrims landed than in anything else in Plymouth. I could touch it, and perhaps that made the coming of the Pilgrims and their toils and great deeds seem more real to me. I have often held in my hand a little model of the Plymouth Rock which a kind gentleman gave me at Pilgrim Hall, and I have fingered its curves, the split in the centre and the embossed figures "1620," and turned over in my mind all that I knew about the wonderful story of the Pilgrims.

第二天，我們經由水路前往普利茅斯，這是我第一次乘坐汽船在海上航行。真想不到汽船能裝那麼多人！不過這個隆隆作響的機器讓我想起了雷電，我開始哭了起來，我擔心一旦下雨，我們就不能去野餐了。在普利茅斯，我對清教徒登陸的巨大礁石最感興趣。我能夠觸摸到這些岩石，也許這讓我更真切地體會到了先民們的艱辛和偉大功績。我經常會把一小塊“普利茅斯巖”模型拿在手裏，這是清教徒紀念堂中的一位友善的紳士送給我的；我能用手指摸到它彎曲的形狀，中間的裂紋，以及“1620”字樣的浮雕數字。當時，我滿腦子裏裝的都是清教徒先民們開疆拓土的神奇故事。

How my childish imagination glowed with the splendour of their enterprise! I idealized them as the bravest and most generous men that ever sought a home in a strange land. I thought they desired the freedom of their fellow men as well as their own. I was keenly surprised and disappointed years later to learn of their acts of persecution that make us tingle with shame, even while we glory in the courage and energy that gave us our "Country Beautiful."

我童年的想象力是如此地多姿多彩！我理想化地把先民們視做最勇敢、最有氣魄的開拓者，因爲他們要在一片陌生的土地上尋找家園。我想，他們不但要爲自己爭取自由，還要爲民族利益爭取自由。多年後，我才瞭解到他們的出走是由於受到了*，這讓我深感震驚和失望，我爲人類的非理性行爲感到羞愧，尤其是當我們以先輩們建立的“美麗新世界”引以爲豪的時候。

Among the many friends I made in Boston were Mr. William Endicott and his daughter. Their kindness to me was the seed from which many pleasant memories have since grown. One day we visited their beautiful home at Beverly Farms. I remember with delight how I went through their rose-garden, how their dogs, big Leo and little curly-haired Fritz with long ears, came to meet me, and how Nimrod, the swiftest of the horses, poked his nose into my hands for a pat and a lump of sugar. I also remember the beach, where for the first time I played in the sand. It was hard, smooth sand, very different from the loose, sharp sand, mingled with kelp and shells, at Brewster. Mr. Endicott told me about the great ships that came sailing by from Boston, bound for Europe. I saw him many times after that, and he was always a good friend to me; indeed, I was thinking of him when I called Boston "the City of Kind Hearts."

威廉·恩迪考特先生和他的女兒也是我在波士頓結交的朋友。他們的友善如同播撒在我心底的種子，隨着時光的流逝，許多美好的回憶也慢慢開花結果。有一天，我們去貝弗利農莊拜訪他們美麗的家。我依然記得當時的情景：我如何興高采烈地穿過他們家的玫瑰花園；如何遇到了他們家的大狗利奧，還有捲毛長耳小狗弗裏茨；行動敏捷的大馬寧錄又如何伸着鼻子吃我手裏的黃油和糖塊。我還記得那片海灘，我就是在那裏第一次玩沙子的。那是一種質地堅硬、手感爽滑的沙子，同布魯斯特的摻雜着海藻和貝殼，鬆軟扎手的沙子截然不同。恩迪考特先生還跟我講了有關巨輪從波士頓起航駛往歐洲的事。後來我又見過他許多次，他一直是我的好朋友。事實上，每當我把波士頓叫做“慈愛之城”的時候，我就會想起他。