我要仔细端详拉斐尔、达芬奇、提香和瑞姆布兰特的油画。

I should want to feast my eyes upon the warm colors of Veronese, study the mysteries of E1 Greco, catch a new vision of Nature from Corot.

我要让我的眼睛饱享维勒内兹那炽烈的色彩，研究埃尔·格列科的神秘，从科罗那里领略大自然的新视觉。

Oh, there is so much rich meaning and beauty in the art of the ages for you who have eyes to see!

啊！对你们有眼能看的人来说，在那些时代的艺术中有多么丰富的意义和美感。

Upon my short visit to this temple of art I should not be able to review a fraction of that great world of art which is open to you. I should be able to get only a superficial impression.

在我对这座艺术殿堂的短暂访问中，我不应只能看到那对你开放的伟大艺术世界的一个部分，我只能是获得一个表面的印象。

Artists tell me that for deep and true appreciation of art one must educated the eye.

艺术家告诉我，要能真正深刻地鉴赏，他得要训练他的眼力。

海伦•凯勒.jpgOne must learn through experience to weigh the merits of line, of composition, of form and color.

 

他必须通过经验学会衡量线条构图，形态和色彩的价值。

If I had eyes, how happily would I embark upon so fascinating a study!

如果我有眼睛，我会多么幸福地从事如此迷人的研究！

Yet I am told that, to many of you who have eyes to see, the world of art is a dark night, unexplored and unilluminated.

但是，有人告诉我，对你们有眼睛可看的许多人来说，艺术的世界是一片黑暗，未曾开发，未曾照亮。

It would be with extreme reluctance that I should leave the Metropolitan Museum, which contains the key to beauty—a beauty so neglected.

多么不情愿，我要离开大都会博物馆，那里有开启美的钥匙，这种美又被忽视了。

Seeing persons, however, do not need a metropolitan to find this key to beauty.

而能看见的人却不需要到大都会博物馆去找到这开启美的钥匙。

The same key lies waiting in smaller museums, and in books on the shelves of even small libraries.

这相同的钥匙也在较小的博物馆，甚至小图书馆的书架上的书中等待着。

But naturally, in my limited time of imaginary sight, I should choose the place where the key unlocks the greatest treasures in the shortest time.

当然，在我想象的能看见的有限时间里，我该选择那在尽短的时间内打开最伟大宝库的钥匙所在的地方。

The evening of my second day of sight I should spend at a theatre or at the movies.

我能看见的第二天晚上我该在剧院或电影院度过。

Even now I often attend theatrical performances of all sorts, but the action of the play must be spelled into my hand by a companion.

甚至现在，我还是经常去看各种戏剧表演，但剧情需要由一个同伴拼写在我手上。

But how I should like to see with my own eyes the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings!

我多么想亲眼看到哈姆雷特的迷人形象，或者是那在艳丽多彩的伊丽莎白时代服饰中刮大风的伏尔斯塔夫！

How I should like to follow each movement of the graceful Hamlet, each strut of the hearty Falstaff!

我多想领会优雅的哈姆雷特的每个动作，热忱的伏尔斯塔夫的每一个昂首阔步地样子！

And since I could see only one play, I should be confronted by a many-horned dilemma, for there are scores of plays I should want to see.

既然我只能看一个戏，我就会面临进退两难的困境，因为有几十部剧我都想看。

You who have eyes can see any you like.

你们有眼能看的人可以看你喜欢的任何一部剧。

How many of you, I wonder, when you gaze at a play, a movie, or any spectacle, realize and give thanks for the miracle of sight which enables you to enjoy its color , grace, and movement?

我不知道，当你们注视着这一部剧，一场电影，或任何奇观时，你们中间有多少人意识到并感激使你们享受到它的色彩、优雅和动作的视力奇迹？

I cannot enjoy the beauty of rhythmic movement except in a sphere restricted to the touch of my hands.

除非在我的手能触摸到的范围内，我不能享受那节奏感很强的动作的优美。

I can vision only dimly the grace of a Pavlowa, although I know something of the delight of rhythm, for often I can sense the beat of music as it vibrates through the floor.

尽管我懂得一些节奏的愉快，因为当音乐通过地板振动时，我经常能感觉到它的节拍，可是我也只能模糊地想象到一个巴甫洛娃的优美。

I can well imagine that cadenced motion must be one of the most pleasing sights in the world.

我能很好地想象到，有节拍的动作一定是世上最令人愉快的景象之一。

I have been able to gather something of this by tracing with my fingers the lines in sculptured marble; if this static grace can be so lovely, how much more acute must be the thrill of seeing grace in motion.

我已能用我的手指来摸索出大理石雕刻中的线条轮廓从而获得这样的一些感受；如果这种静态的雅致都是这么可爱，那么，看见那动态的雅致所感受到的激动该是多么强烈。

One of my dearest memories is of the time when Joseph Jefferson allowed me to touch his face and hands as he went through some of the gestures and speeches of his beloved Rip Van Winkle.

我最宝贵的记忆之一是那次约瑟夫·杰佛逊表演完他心爱的角色瑞普·范·温克尔的动作和对白后让我摸他的脸和手。

I was able to catch thus a meager glimpse of the world of drama,

这样，我可以获得对梦幻世界微弱的一瞥。

and I shall never forget the delight of that moment.

我将永志不忘那个时刻的愉快。

But, oh, how much I must miss, and how much pleasure you seeing ones can derive from watching and hearing the interplay of speech and movement in the unfolding of a dramatic performance!

但是，啊，我可能失去了多少，你们能看的人从戏剧表演中看动作，听语言的相互作用中产生了多少喜悦！

If I could see only one play, I should know how to picture in my \mind the action of a hundred plays which I have read or had transferred to me through the medium of the manual alphabet.

如果我能哪怕是只能看一部剧，我都会知道怎样在我脑海中描绘我曾经读过的或通过手势字母的媒介向我转述的１００部剧的动作。

So, through the evening of my second imaginary day of sight, the great fingers of dramatic literature would crowd sleep from my eyes.

这样，通过我设想的能看见的第二天的夜晚，我用手指读过的大量戏剧文学会因我的眼睛看了后又在我的睡梦中都涌现出来。

The Third Day

第三天

The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, for I am sure that, for those who have eyes which really see, the dawn of each day must be a perpetually new revelation of beauty.

接下来这一天的早上，我再次迎接黎明，迫切地要发现新的愉快，因我确信，对那些有眼睛能真正看见的人来说，每天的黎明一定是一种美的永恒新展露。

This, according to the terms of my imagined miracle, is to be my third and last day of sight.

按我设想出现奇迹的条件，这将是我能看见的第三天，也是最后的一天。

I shall have no time to waste in regrets or longings; there is too much to see.

我没有时间去浪费在后悔中或渴望中，要看的东西太多了。

The first day I devoted to my friends, animate and inanimate.

第一天我献给了我的朋友们，有生命的和无生命的。

The second revealed to me the history of man and Nature.

第二天向我展示了人类和自然的历史。

Today I shall spend in the workaday world of the present, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life.

今天我将在当今的平凡世界里度过，在为生活事务忙碌的人们常去的地方度过。

And where can one find so many activities and conditions of men as in New York?

而何处人们才能找到像在纽约的人这样多的活动和条件呢？

So the city becomes my destination.

所以，纽约便成了我的去处。

I start from my home in the quiet little suburb of Forest Hills, Long Island.

我从我在长岛森林岗静静的小郊区的家出发，

Here , surrounded by green lawns, trees, and flowers, are neat little houses, happy with the voices and movements of wives and children, havens of peaceful rest for men who toil in the city.

这里，芳草绿树鲜花环绕着整洁的小住房，妻子和孩子欢声笑语，其乐融融，是城里辛劳的人们安宁的避风港。

I drive across the lacy structure of steel which spans the East River, and I get a new and startling vision of the power and ingenuity of the mind of man.

我驾车通过那跨越东河的带花边的钢铁建筑，从而对人类头脑的独创性和威力获得一个新的令人震惊的视觉。

Busy boasts chug and scurry about the river - racy speed boat, stolid, snorting tugs.

繁忙的船只在河上鸣叫着来来往往－高速快艇和笨头笨脑喘着气的拖驳。

If I had long days of sight ahead, I should spend many of them watching the delightful activity upon the river.

如果我能看见的日子更长些，我要花更多的时间看看这河上快乐的景象。

I look ahead, and before me rise the fantastic towers of New York, a city that seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy story.

我展望前头，纽约的高楼大厦在我前面升起，似乎是从童话故事的篇章中出现的一座城市，

What an awe-inspiring sight, these glittering spires.these vast banks of stone and steel-structures such as the gods might build for themselves!

多么令人敬畏的景象，这些闪闪发光的尖塔，这些巨大的石头与钢铁的建筑群，就像众神为他们自己而建的！

This animated picture is a part of the lives of millions of people every day. How many, I wonder, give it so much as a seconds glance?

这幅生气勃蓬的图景是千百万人每天生命的一部分。我不知道，到底有多少人再对它多看一眼？

Very few, I fear, Their eyes are blind to this magnificent sight because it is so familiar to them.

我怕很少，他们的眼睛对这辉煌的景象却是熟是无睹，因为这对他们太熟悉了。

I hurry to the top of one of those gigantic structures, the Empire State Building, for there , a short time ago, I saw the city below through the eyes of my secretary.

我赶紧来到这些巨大建筑之一的顶端-帝国大厦，因为在那里，不久以前，我通过我的秘书的眼睛能看过下面的城市。

I am anxious to compare my fancy with reality.

我焦切地把我的想象同现实作一番比较。

I am sure I should not be disappointed in the panorama spread out before me, for to me it would be a vision of another world.

我确信，我对展现在我面前的景观不会失望，因为它对我来说是另一个世界的景象。

Now I begin my rounds of the city.

现在我开始周游这座城市。

First, I stand at a busy corner, merely looking at people, trying by sight of them to understand something of their live.

首先，我站在一个热闹的角落，仅仅是看着人们，试图以审视他们来理解他们生活的某些东西。

I see smiles, and I am happy.

看到笑容，我就高兴。

I see serious determination, and I am proud, I see suffering, and I am compassionate.

我看到严肃的决心，我就骄傲。我看到苦难，我就同情。

I stroll down Fifth Avenue.

我漫步在第五大道上,

I throw my eyes out of focus, so that I see no particular object but only a seething kaleidoscope of colors.

我的目光没有聚焦，以致我没有看到特别的目标，仅仅是那川流不息的彩色万花筒。

I am certain that the colors of women's dresses moving in a throng must be a gorgeous spectacle of which I should never tire.

我相信那成群女人们的服装颜色一定是一种华丽的奇观，我会百看不厌的。

But perhaps if I had sight I should be like most other women-too interested in styles and the cut of individual dresses to give much attention to the splendor of color in the mass.

或许，如果我有视力，我也会像其他大多数女人一样-也对个人服装的式样和剪裁很感兴趣，以使人群中的华丽色彩有更多的吸引力。

And I am convinced, too, that I should become an inveterate window shopper, for it must be a delight to the eye to view the myriad articles of beauty on display.

我也相信，我也会成为一个有瘾的橱窗浏览者，因为看那陈列的无数美好的商品一定是赏心悦目之事。

From Fifth Avenue I make a tour of the city-to Park Avenue, to the slums, to factories, to parks where children play.

从第五大道起我浏览这座城市-到派克大道，到贫民窟，到工厂区，到儿童游乐的公园去。

I take a stay-at-home trip abroad by visiting the foreign quarters.

我以参观外国居民区来作不出国的国外旅行。

Always my eyes are open wide to all the sights of both happiness and misery so that I may probe deep and add to my understanding of how people work and live. my heart is full of the images of people and things.

我总是睁大眼睛看所有的景象，既看幸福的，也看悲哀的，以便我可以深入探究和加深理解人们是如何工作和生活的。

My eye passes lightly over no single trifle; it strives to touch and hold closely each thing its gaze rests upon.

我心中充满了人和事物的形象，我的目光不轻易地忽略任何一件小事，它力求触及并紧紧抓住所见的每件事。

Some sights are pleasant, filling the heart with happiness; but some are miserably pathetic.

有些景象是愉快的，让心里充满快乐，而有些是悲惨的，

To these latter I do not shut my eyes, for they, too, are part of life.

对这些事，我并不闭上我的眼睛，因为这也是生活的一部分，

To close the eye on them is to close the heart and mind.

对此闭起双目就是关闭起心灵与头脑。

My third day of sight is drawing to an end. Perhaps there are many serious pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining hours,

我能看的第三天慢慢地结束了。也许还有许多强烈的愿望我应花最后的几个小时去实现，

but I am afraid that on the evening of that last day I should again run away to the theater, to a hilariously funny play, so that I might appreciate the overtones of comedy in the human spirit.

但是，我怕这最后一天的晚上我该又逃到戏院去了，去看一部欢快有趣的戏剧。这样我可以欣赏到人类精神上喜剧的含蓄意义。

At midnight my temporary respite from blindness would cease, and permanent night would close in on me again.

午夜，我那短暂的失明后的重见状态就终止了，永恒的黑夜重又回到我身上。

Naturally in those three short days I should not have seen all I wanted to see.

当然，在这短短的３天中，我并没有看到我想看的所有事情，

Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen.

唯有在黑暗重又降临在我身上之时，我才意识到我留下多少事情没有看到。

But my mind would be so crowded with glorious memories that I should have little time for regrets.

但我的脑海里充满了这么多美好的记忆，以至我没有什么时间去后悔。

Thereafter the touch of every object would bring a glowing memory of how that object looked.

此后，对每个东西的触摸都将留下一个强烈的记忆，那东西看起来是怎样的。

Perhaps this short outline of how I should spend three days of sight does not agree with the program you would set for yourself if you knew that you were about to be stricken blind.

也许，我的这篇简短的关于怎样度过这能看的３天的概述和你们自己在遭致失明的情况下所设想的不一致。

I am, however, sure that if you actually faced that fate your eyes would open to things you had never seen before, storing up memories for the long night ahead.

然而，我确信，如果你真的面临那不幸的命运，你的双眼一定对你们过去从未看见过的事情睁大眼睛，为你今后的漫漫长夜保存下回忆，

You would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw would become dear to you.

你将以过去从未有过的方式去利用你的眼睛。

Your eyes would touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision.

你所看到的每件事会变得对你珍贵起来，你的眼睛会触及并抓住在进入你视线范围之内的每件事物。

Then, at last, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.

然后，你最终真正地看见了，于是，一个美的新世界在你面前展开了。

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see-one admonition to those who would make full use of the gift of sight:

我，一个盲人，可以给那些能看见的人一个提示,对想充分利用视力天赋的人的一个忠告：

Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind.

用你的双眼，就好像你明天就会遭致失明一样。

And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow.

这同样的方法也能用于其它的感觉上，去听悦耳的乐声，鸟儿的鸣唱，乐队的强劲旋律，就好像你明天就遭致失聪一样。

Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail.

去触摸你想摸的每个物体，就像你明天会推动触觉意识一样。

Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again.

去闻花朵的芳香，津津有味地去尝美味佳肴，就好像你明天会再也不能闻到，尝到一样。

Make the most of every sense: glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides.

更多地体验每种感觉；所有的愉快和美感方面的天福，世界通过自然提供的几种接触方式将它展露给你。

But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.

但是，在所有的感觉之中，我相信视觉可能是最愉快的。