The Story Of My Life By Helen Keller
《我的生活》海伦·凯勒
Chapter I
第一章
It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I shall try to present in a series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important.
我是怀着惴惴不安的心情书写我生活的历史的。在我整个的童年时代，生活犹如笼罩在我身边的一团金色雾霭。冥冥之中，我是懵懂而迟疑地揭开生活的迷帐的。每当我试图分辨孩童时期记忆的时候，我就会发现，往昔的时光美好而真实，它如同一条纽带，同此时此刻的我紧紧相连。女人们通常会以富于想象力的方式来描述自己的童年经历。虽然，那些鲜活而生动的记忆来自我生命的最初时光，但是，“牢房一般的阴暗将伴随着我的余生”。此外，童年时代的欢乐和悲伤大都成为往事前尘，它们已然失去了当时的锋芒；在我接受早期教育过程中的那些重大事件，已经随着更加激动人心的伟大发现而被淡忘。因此，从这个意义上来说，将我生活中那些至关重要的章节做一个全盘性的勾勒，于我倒并不是一件枯燥乏味的工作。
I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.
我于1880年6月27日出生在亚拉巴马州北部的一个叫做图斯康比亚的小镇。
The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education—rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.
我父亲家的先人是来自瑞士的卡斯帕·凯勒家族，他们最初定居在马里兰州。在我的瑞士祖先中，有一个人曾是苏黎世聋哑学校的首位教师，他曾写过一本有关教学生涯的书——这似乎具有某种一脉相承的偶然性；尽管在他的祖先中没有王者，也不曾豢养过一个奴隶，而且，在早期先民之中，也没有奴隶曾隶属于一位王者。