每日听写9.21-9.25中级我的生活汇总

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。
My grandfather, Caspar Keller's son, "entered" large tracts of land in Alabama and finally settled there. I have been told that once a year he went from Tuscumbia to Philadelphia on horseback to purchase supplies for the plantation, and my aunt has in her possession many of the letters to his family, which give charming and vivid accounts of these trips.
我的祖父，卡斯帕·凯勒家族之子，“进入”了亚拉巴马州这片广袤的土地并最终在此定居。我后来得知，曾经有那么一年，祖父骑马从图斯康比亚前往费城，为的是给种植园添置一些耕作用具。在我姑妈寄来的许多家信中，曾对祖父的这些旅行有过生动而清晰的记述。
My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette's aides, Alexander Moore, and granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also second cousin to Robert E. Lee.
我的祖母凯勒是一个侍从武官的女儿，那名军官叫亚历山大·穆尔；祖母也是亚历山大·斯鲍茨伍德的孙女，这位斯鲍茨伍德先生曾是弗吉尼亚州最早的殖民总督。此外，祖母也是罗伯特·E.李将军的二表妹。
My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil War broke out, he fought on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy Helen Everett, who belonged to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
我的父亲，亚瑟·H.凯勒是联邦军队中的一个上尉，而我的母亲凯特·亚当斯是他的第二个妻子，两人年龄相差悬殊。母亲的祖父是本杰明·亚当斯，他娶了苏姗娜·E.古德休为妻，他们在马萨诸塞州的纽伯里住了很多年。他们的儿子查尔斯·亚当斯就出生在马萨诸塞州的纽伯里波特，后来他搬到了阿肯色州的海伦娜。当时正值南北战争爆发，他代表南军参战，后来官至准将军衔。他娶了露西·海伦·埃弗里特为妻，露西同爱德华·埃弗里特和爱德华·埃弗里特·黑尔博士同宗同门。战争结束后，夫妻俩搬到了田纳西州的孟菲斯。
I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept.
我一直住在一个狭小的房子里面，直到疾病令我丧失了视觉和听觉。当时的家园是由一个巨大的四方形房间和一个小房间构成的，仆人们都睡在那个小房间里。
It is a custom in the South to build a small house near the homestead as an annex to be used on occasion. Such a house my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was completely covered with vines, climbing roses and honeysuckles. From the garden it looked like an arbour. The little porch was hidden from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax. It was the favourite haunt of humming-birds and bees.
这源自南方人的习俗，挨着宅第建一座附属的小房子，以备不时之需。宅第是我父亲在内战结束后建造的，在娶了我母亲后，他们就在此定居了。房子完全被葡萄藤、攀爬的蔷薇和金银花覆盖了，从花园望去，那里就像一个巨大的凉亭。而那个小门廊则被满眼的黄玫瑰和南方天冬草所遮蔽。因此这里就变成了蜂雀和蜜蜂最常出没的地方。
The Keller homestead, where the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was called "Ivy Green" because the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with beautiful English ivy. Its old-fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood.
凯勒家的宅第距我们家的玫瑰小凉亭只有几步之遥。这里也被叫做“常春藤绿地”，因为房子和周围的树丛及篱笆被美丽的英格兰常春藤所缠绕覆盖。这个老式的花园正是我童年时代的天堂。
Even in the days before my teacher came, I used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges, and, guided by the sense of smell would find the first violets and lilies. There, too, after a fit of temper, I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass. What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot, until, coming suddenly upon a beautiful vine, I recognized it by its leaves and blossoms, and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here, also, were trailing clematis, drooping jessamine, and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies, because their fragile petals resemble butterflies' wings.
直到我的老师出现之前，我一直习惯于沿着正方形的黄杨木树篱摸索前行。嗅觉是我的向导，通过它，我发现了生命中的第一株紫罗兰花和百合花。正是在这个小花园里，在经历了暴躁情绪的发作之后，我继续寻找令我舒适的感觉，我把自己温热的脸埋进凉飕飕的树叶和草丛之中。将自己迷失在花丛中是如此地令人愉悦，从一个地方寻觅到又一个地方也带给我其乐无穷的快感。就在探寻的过程中，我会突然碰到一枝美丽的藤蔓，我会通过它的叶子和花蕾来辨别其形状，而且我知道，这就是那株覆盖着摇摇欲坠的凉亭，远在花园尽头的葡萄藤！在我身边，还有触手可及的铁线莲，垂落于枝叶间的茉莉花，以及一些叫做蝴蝶百合的稀有花卉，这种花的花瓣因其形似蝴蝶那对脆弱易折的翅膀而得名。