海伦·凯勒自传《我的生活》第17期

　　第八章

　　The first Christmas after Miss Sullivan came to Tuscumbia was a great event. Every one in the family prepared surprises for me, but what pleased me most, Miss Sullivan and I prepared surprises for everybody else. The mystery that surrounded the gifts was my greatest delight andamusement. My friends did all they could to excite my curiosity by hints and half-spelled sentences which they pretended to break off in the nick of time. Miss Sullivan and I kept up a game of guessing which taught me more about the use of language than any set lessons could have done. Every evening, seated round a glowing wood fire, we played our guessing game, which grew more and more exciting as Christmas approached.

　　对于我们家来说，苏立文小姐在图斯康比亚过第一个圣诞节可是件大事。家里每一个人都筹划着让我大吃一惊，但是最令我兴奋的是，我和苏立文小姐也筹划着让别人大吃一惊。对于那些神秘的礼物，我心里充满了巨大的喜悦感和好奇心。我的朋友们极尽所能，通过种种暗示和故意拼写了一半的句子来吊我的胃口。而我和苏立文小姐则继续玩猜谜游戏，同课堂所学的知识相比，这种寓教于乐的方式让我掌握了更多的语言技巧。每天晚上，我们坐在燃烧的炉火旁玩猜谜游戏。随着圣诞节的日益临近，我的心情也变得越来越兴奋。

　　On Christmas Eve the Tuscumbia schoolchildren had their tree, to which they invited me. In the centre of the schoolroom stood a beautiful tree ablaze and shimmering in the soft light, its branches loaded with strange, wonderful fruit. It was a moment of supreme happiness. I danced and capered round the tree in an ecstasy. When I learned that there was a gift for each child, I was delighted, and the kind people who had prepared the tree permitted me to hand the presents to the children. In the pleasure of doing this, I did not stop to look at my own gifts; but when I was ready for them, my impatience for the real Christmas to begin almost got beyond control. I knew the gifts I already had were not those of which friends had thrown out such tantalizing hints, and my teacher said the presents I was to have would be even nicer than these. I was persuaded, however, to content myself with the gifts from the tree and leave the others until morning.

　　圣诞前夜，图斯康比亚的学童们也有自己的圣诞树，他们邀请我去参加庆祝活动。在教室中间，矗立着一棵美丽的圣诞树，在柔和的光线下，它闪烁着晶莹的微光，它的枝桠上缀满了奇特的果实。这的确是一个普天同庆的欢乐时刻，我忘乎所以地绕着圣诞树又蹦又跳。当我得知每一个孩子都会得到一件礼物时，我更高兴了。那些装饰圣诞树的热心人允许我把礼物分发给别的孩子。在派发礼物的同时，我也忍不住在想着自己的那一份儿。其实我早就做好准备了，我激动得难以自抑，一心盼着尽快见到自己的礼物。我知道我的礼物不会是像朋友们暗示的那些东西，我的老师告诉我，我得到的礼物要比传言中的东西好得多。终于，到快天亮的时候，我心满意足地得到了圣诞树上的礼物。