海倫‧凱勒聽不到世界，卻能對它說出可愛的話語；看不到世界，卻能非凡細緻將它感觸──我以為這位失明失聰的女士，比任何人都像人類......
但是，我開始翻譯她的回憶錄，是因為有一天我無意間看到她的一則格言，忽然好奇起來，而想知道：一個在幼年時失明失聰的人，如何依靠那一點點視聽經驗去想像和建構以後的世界，此外，一個視聽不到外在世界的人，或許可能更專注於內心的世界而更加能認識和把握自己….此外，這種回憶錄所表現的口語、圖像、官能的觸覺、心理和意識的活動、生活細節的取捨和意義建構，這樣的書寫，當然也是寫作的好教材。
海倫‧凱勒(1880-1968)因為意外疾病，在幼年就眼瞎耳聾。她在盲人學校就學6年，聾人學校就學4年，1904年從哈佛大學雷地克里夫學院畢業。1946年她擔任美國全球盲人基金會國際關係顧問，曾經訪問了35個國家；爭取各地興建盲人學校。她常去醫院探望病人，也為貧民及黑人爭取權益。她曾在國際獅子會的年會演講，呼籲：協助失明的人戰勝黑暗的武士…..
Helen Adams Keller：The Story of My Life (1)
海倫‧凱勒 著 東年 譯
CHAPTER I
懷著幾分恐懼，我開始寫自己過去的生活。事實確實那樣，我的童年時代緊密蒙著一層薄紗，像金色的霧；要將它掀起，讓我像要碰觸禁忌那樣猶豫。寫自傳，需要精力和技術，很難熬。當我努力要把自己早期的印象和感想分門別類，我發現事實和想像橫越在連繫過去和現在的長久時光中混淆了；就像一個婦人以自己的幻想描繪孩時的體驗。我所囚禁的房舍陰影籠罩我腦海的大部分，只有一些些我生命最初幾年的影像在旁邊生動浮現；此外，童年生活的歡樂欣喜和悲傷不幸大都模糊了；我早期教育中發生的許多重大意外事件，也已經在許多美妙探索的激動中被遺忘了。因此，為了避免讓人讀得乏味，我將嘗試只是系列的寫出我覺得對我最有趣和重要的事。
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.
Helen Adams Keller：The Story of My Life (2) 海倫‧凱勒 著 東年 譯
1880年6月27日，我出生在阿拉巴馬州北方的小鎮：塔斯坎比亞。
我們家的父系是卡斯帕‧凱勒的後裔，他是移民來到馬利蘭州的瑞士人。我的瑞士祖先中，有一個是蘇黎士省第一位教導聾人的教師，他還寫過一本有關聾人教育的書──對於我來說，這是有點奇特的巧合；雖然一個國王的祖先中可能會有人是奴隸，一個奴隸的祖先中可能會有人是國王，這種情況是當然的。
我祖父是卡斯帕‧凱勒的兒子，他從馬利蘭州來到阿拉巴馬州開墾很大片的土地，最後就在這裡安頓下來。據說他會每年一次騎馬去費城為農場採購生活需品，我姑媽珍藏有許多他們家族的通信，關於我祖父那些生動有趣的年度遠行紀事，因此保存著。
我祖母凱勒，她的父親亞歷山大‧摩爾是開國元勳拉法葉將軍的侍從武官之一，她的祖父亞歷山大‧史巴茲伍是早先十三州殖民地時期的維吉尼亞州總督。她還是羅伯特‧愛德華‧李將軍的表姊妹。
我父親亞瑟‧凱勒，內戰時投入南軍從士兵做到軍需官。我母親凱特‧亞當斯比他年輕許多，是他的第二任妻子。她的祖父班傑明‧亞當斯參議員娶了蘇珊娜‧古德飛，他們在麻塞諸塞州的紐布瑞鎮住過好多年。他們的兒子查理‧亞當斯是在紐布瑞港出生的，但是他遷居去阿肯色州的海倫鎮。內戰的時候，查理‧亞當斯為南方而戰，幹到准將，他娶了露西‧艾佛雷；她和愛德華‧艾佛雷、愛德華‧艾佛雷‧赫爾醫生同是艾佛雷家族的人。戰後，他們移居去田納西州的孟非斯市。
一場病，剝奪了我的視覺和聽覺。這之前，我住在一間很小的房子；其中有一個方正的大房間和另一個佣人睡覺用的小房間。南方人習慣在莊園附近增建小屋，以為偶而需用。這樣的小房子是我父親在戰後蓋的，後來他娶我母親就以此為新房。這間小房子被藤蔓完全裹住，還攀緣有玫瑰和金銀花；從庭院望去它看起來像一組藤架，而門廊被黃色的玫瑰和大葉武竹織成的簾幕遮掩。這裡，鳥和蜜蜂特別喜愛，常在此啁啾或嗡嗡作響。
凱樂家族居住的凱樂農莊，離我們的玫瑰小屋只有幾步路；因為這房子、樹圍和柵籬都覆蓋著英格蘭常春藤，所以被稱為常春藤綠。那種舊式的花園是我童年時代的天堂。
I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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