首页 -> 2004年第9期
我创造了我凝视的世界
作者：思 晴
让我们随着海伦·凯勒(Helen Keller)的描述，与这个蔑视苦难、战胜苦难的伟大女性一起，踏上这令人耳目一新的体验之旅吧！
走近海伦·凯勒
海伦·凯勒1880年出生于美国的亚拉巴马州，2岁那年由于一场高烧使她失聪失明，从此她进入了一个黑暗和无声的世界。
由于不能交流，没有机会学习，海伦的行为毫无规矩。她随便用手抓饭吃，踢东西，尖声叫喊，无缘无故地大发脾气，还不允许任何人靠近她为她梳头发。
8岁时，海伦的母亲为她找到了一位家庭教师——安妮·萨利文小姐，从此，情况开始发生了变化。
安妮认为海伦之所以表现出种种不守规矩的行为，只是因为她想表达自己的思想和愿望。她给海伦一个布娃娃，然后在海伦的手上拼写出布娃娃的字母，她希望海伦能把布娃娃和字母联系起来。海伦很快就知道了她手上的字母结构和如何拼写。但是她仍然不懂得字母所代表的词是什么意思。
大约4个月以后，安妮带着海伦来到抽水机旁。当安妮把海伦的手放进抽出的水里时，她在海伦的另一只手上拼出“水”字。“突然间语言的秘密在我面前被揭开了。”海伦后来写道。安妮用这种简单的方法创造了一个奇迹。海伦后来非常喜欢触摸她身边所有的东西，并要求知道它们的名字。就这样海伦为自己创造了一个充满声音、色彩的新世界。
海伦很快掌握了字母、阅读盲文和写作。16岁时，海伦进入哈佛大学附属剑桥女子学院学习英文史、德文、拉丁文、数学及许多文学名著。四年后，她如愿进入哈佛大学，开始尝试写作。大学毕业后，海伦把心力集中在推行盲人关怀的社会运动上，使得盲人的心声终于受到社会的重视。1959年，在联合国大会中，各国代表一致称赞她对人类的贡献。1968年，海伦·凯勒平静地走完她艰辛又充满荣耀的一生。
锁 定 原 文
TheFirst Day
On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship（1） have made my life worth living. First I should like to gaze long upon（2） the face of my dear teacher, Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who came to me when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should want not merely to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory（3）, but to study that face and find in it the living evidence（4） of the sympathetic tenderness and patience with which she accomplished the difficult task of my education. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion for all humanity which she has revealed to(5) me so often.
I do not know what it is to see into（6） the heart of a friend through that “Window of the soul”（7）, the eye. I can only “see” through（8） my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces. But I cannot really picture（9） their personalities by touch（10）. I know their personalities, of course, through other means, through the thoughts they express to me, through whatever of their actions are revealed to me. But I am denied that deeper understanding of them which I am sure would come through sight of them, through watching their reactions to various expressed thoughts and circumstances, through noting the immediate and fleeting reactions of their eyes and countenance（11）.
Friends who are near to me I know well, because through the months and years they reveal themselves to me in all their phases; but of casual friends I have only an incomplete impression, an impression gained from a handclasp（12）, from spoken words which I take from their lips with my finger tips, or which they tap into（13） the palm of my hand.
How much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtleties（14） of expression, the quiver of a muscle（15）, the flutter of a hand（16）. But does it ever occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature（17） of a friends？Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually the outward features of a face and let it go at that?
For instance can you describe accurately the faces of five good friends? Some of you can, but many cannot. As an experiment, I have questioned husbands of long standing（18） about the color of their wives' eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. And, incidentally, it is a chronic（19） complaint of wives that their husbands do not notice new dresses, new hats, and changes in household arrangements.
The eyes of seeing persons soon become accustomed to（20） the routine of their surroundings, and they actually see only the startling and spectacular. But even in viewing the most spectacular sights（21） the eyes are lazy. Court records reveal every day how inaccurately “eyewitnesses”（22） see. A given event will be“seen”in several different ways by as many witnesses. Some see more than others, but few see everything that is within the range of their vision（23）.
Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!
The first day would be a busy one. I should call to me all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting upon(24) my mind the outward evidences of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty(25) which precedes the individual's consciousness of the conflicts which life develops.
And I should like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs - the grave, canny little Scottie, Darkie, and the stalwart, understanding Great Dane, Helga, whose warm, tender, and playful friendships are so comforting to me.
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