Helen Adams Keller：The Story of My Life (13)

海倫‧凱勒 著  東年 譯

因此，我就像是出了埃及去到西奈山，靈魂被神力擊觸而恢復了視力，所以能夠看到許多奇觀。而且，從這聖山我聽到一種聲音說：知識是愛、光亮和夢想。

CHAPTER IV

我記得的，在我全部生命中最重要的一天，是我的老師蘇利文小姐來看我的那一天(Anne Mansfield Sullivan)，那是1887年3月3日，我七歲生日的前三個月。

在那個重大日子的下午，我站在門廊下，笨笨的，盼望著；從我母親的動靜和在屋內匆忙的來來回回，我猜想當是不尋常事終於要發生了，所以我走到門口，在台階上等候。午後的陽光穿透攀爬在門廊上的金銀花叢，落在我仰望的臉上。我的手幾乎是不自覺的摸著我熟悉的樹葉和花兒；它們剛冒出來迎接可愛的南方的春天。我不知道將來對我會發生什麼意外和奇蹟；幾個星期來，焦急和苦悶不停的吞噬我，這樣激烈的掙扎後我已經完完全全累了。

你曾經待過濃霧中的海上沒?那看起來像是有一種蒼白的黑暗把你、那艘大船、緊張和焦慮都一起封閉了。你小心翼翼的以鉛錘和聲納探測水深，向海岸緩緩前進，忐忐忑忑，等著甚麼好運。在我開始受教育之前，我就像那艘船，僅有的不同是我沒有指南針和深納，也無法知道港口近在何處。光啊！給我光啊！是我靈魂啞口的哭喊，就是在那個時刻愛的亮光照耀在我身上。

我感覺有腳步即將來到，就伸出手去；我以為是我母親，但那是另外的人。她接住我的手、抓著我，緊緊的把我抱在臂彎裡。這就是要來向我啟示一切事物的人；此外，還有更好的，她要來親愛我。

Thus I came up out of Egypt and stood before Sinai, and a power divine touched my spirit and gave it sight, so that I beheld many wonders. And from the sacred mountain I heard a voice which said, "Knowledge is love and light and vision."

CHAPTER IV

THE most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.

On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother's signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future hold of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle.

Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. "Light! give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.

I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother. Some one took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arm s of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.