下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
|
假如给我三天光明 |
|
我们都读过一些扣人心弦的故事，在这些故事里面，主人公面临着死亡，只剩一段有限的时间能活在世上，有时候是一年，有时候只有一天。我们常常很迫切地想知道这个难逃死劫的主人公将以怎样的方式来度过所剩不多的时日。当然，我说的主人公是有人身自由的人，不是那种被判有罪，活动范围受到严格限制的囚犯。
读这样的故事会激发人的思考：要是我们自己面临类似的情形时将会做些什么。哪些事件，哪些经历，哪些联想将会在生命的尽头涌现？回顾已逝的岁月，我们会为哪些事情感到幸福，又会为哪些事情觉得遗憾？
有时候我想，把每一天都当作生命的最后一天应该会是一种很好的生活规则，抱着这样一种生活态度，我们才会真正看重生活的价值。我们会对每一天的生活感到亲切、热心，并且会对生活有一种敏锐的欣赏力，而这种对生活的敏锐欣赏力常常会在日复一日的生活中失去。当然也有一些人抱着伊壁鸠鲁的享乐主义信条“吃，喝，及时行乐”，不过大部分人则会被死亡来临的必然性所折磨。
Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future. When we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude toward life.
The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation ap-ply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the full-est use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sounds hazily, without concentration and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would tech him the joys of sound.
Now and them I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such reposes, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.
How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In the spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep. I feel the delightful, velvety texture of a flower, and dis-cover its remarkable convolutions; and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song. I am delighted to have the cool waters of a brook rush thought my open finger. To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. To me the page ant of seasons is a thrilling and unending drama, the action of which streams through my finger tips.
故事里面本来注定死亡的主人公常常会在最后的关头受到幸运之神的眷顾而得救，而他的价值观念也往往因为与死神邂逅而改变。他更懂得欣赏生活的意义和生活中永恒的精神价值。常常会看到一些正在经受死亡威胁或者曾经与死亡擦肩而过的人，他们对自己所做的每一件事情都注入醇美的心愿。
但是我们很多人认为生命是理所当然的。虽然我们知道总有一天死神会降临到我们头上，但是那一天仿佛遥遥无期。在我们年富力强的时候，死亡是一件永远不会出现在我们头脑中的事情，我们很少会去思考它。日子一天天地来了又去，延伸到了无穷之处，于是我们整天关心那些微不足道的事情，在琐碎无聊当中消磨时光，从不会意识到我们对生活的态度是多么的倦怠和麻木。
对我们所具有的感官能力和其他天赋，我想我们同样是倦怠和麻木的。唯有失聪者才知道拥有听力是多么幸福；只有目盲者知道能看见阳光是多么庆幸。那些在成年以后丧失了视觉和听力的人最能体会这一点，但是那些从未遭受视听障碍的人却几乎不懂得如何去利用这种珍贵的天赋。他们的眼睛粗枝大叶地扫过身边的世界，耳朵则模模糊糊地接受周围的声音，从不会集中起来，带上哪怕是一点点欣赏的意味。失去了才知道珍惜，生病了才想起健康的好，这都是老生常谈了。
我常想，要是能让一个人在即将成年时失明失聪几天就好了，黑暗会让他更加珍惜光明，寂静会教他如何欣赏声响。
我会不时地问问那些看得见的朋友，想发现那些他们看得见的东西。最近，有一个好友来访，她刚从树林散步归来，我问她看到什么没有。她回答说：“没什么特别的。”在很久以前我就相信了有视力的人看见的很少，要不是我对朋友这种熟视无睹的情况已经习以为常，我可能会纳闷呢。
At times my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight. Yet, those who have eyes apparently see little. The pan-orama of color and action which fills the world is taken for granted. It is human, perhaps, to appreciate little that which we have and to long for that which we have not, but it is a great pity that in the world of light the gift of sight is used only as a mere conveniences rather than as a means of adding fullness to life.
If I were the president of a university I should establish a compulsory course in “How to Use Your Eyes”. The professor would try to show his pupils how they could add joy to their lives by really seeing what passes unnoticed before them. He would try to awake their dormant and sluggish faculties.
Perhaps I can best illustrate by imagining what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say, for just three days. And while I am imagining, suppose you, too, set your mind to work on the problem of how you would use your own eyes if you had only three more days to see. If with the on-coming darkness of the third night you knew that the sun would never rise for you again, how would you spend those three precious inter-vening days? What would you most want to let your gaze rest upon?
我心里直犯嘀咕，用了一个小时的时间从林间穿越居然没有看到什么值得注意的东西，这怎么可能啊？像我这种看不见的人光靠触摸还发现了无数有趣的事物呢。我感觉出了树叶精巧的对称性，欣喜地抚摸光滑细腻的白桦树，或者是粗糙坚硬的松树皮。春天里我沿着树枝触摸，希望能找到春回大地后抽出的第一支新芽，这是大自然从寒冬的睡梦中苏醒的信号。我触摸到柔软的花瓣时有说不出的欣喜，还发现它们一圈圈地卷绕着，真不简单，大自然向我展示了它的奇迹。偶尔，要是我比较走运的话，当我把手轻轻地搭在小树上时会摸到一只欢快歌唱的鸟儿。我还喜欢把手伸到小溪里面，感受溪水从指间流过的那份清凉。对我而言，松树叶堆积成的天然地毯或者一片柔柔的青草地都比豪华的波斯地毯来得更惬意一些。春夏秋冬的轮回是一场激动人心、永不落幕的戏剧，这场戏剧中所有的表演都在我的指尖凸现。
有时候我在内心热切地渴望着能把所有的东西看个究竟，我靠触摸就感觉到了如此多的乐趣，能看见的话肯定有很多事物在我面前展现它们的美妙之处吧。但是那些双眼明澈的人却似乎什么都看不见，他们把这个多姿多彩的世界当作是理所当然的。也许，忽视拥有的而追求没有的是人类的一种天性，然而，我们所拥有的视觉天赋若只用来满足生存的便利而不用来缔造更加丰富充实的生活，那是一件多么令人遗憾的事情啊。
如果我是某大学的校长，我要设一门《怎样使用你的眼睛》的必修课。教授们将教学生如何从审视身边那些平淡无奇的事物当中发现生活的乐趣，唤醒他们沉睡呆滞的天赋。
也许，我可以通过想象假如给我三天光明，我将最想看到什么，来对我前面所说的作一个最好的说明。在我展开想象的同时，请你也考虑一下假如只给你三天光明，你将怎样使用你的眼睛。想想看，当第三天的黑夜来临，往后太阳将再也不会在你面前升起了，如此珍贵的三天你将怎样度过？你最想把目光停留在哪里？
I, naturally, should want most to see the things which have become dear to me through my years of darkness. You, too, would want to let your eyes rest on the things that have become dear to you so that you could take the memory of them with you into the night that loomed before you.
If, by some miracle, I were granted three seeing days, to be followed by a relapse into darkness, I should divide the period into three parts.
On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living. First I should like to gaze long upon the face of my dear teacher, Mrs.Anne Sullivan Macy, who came to me when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should want not merely to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory, but to study that face and find in it the living evidence of the sympathetic tenderness and patience with which she ac-complished the difficult task of my education. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion for all humanity which she has revealed to me so often.
I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “Window of the soul”, the eye. I can only “see” through my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces. But I cannot really picture their personalities by touch. I know their personalities, of course, through other means, through the thoughts they express to me, through whatever of their actions are revealed to me. But I am denied that deeper understanding of them which I am sure would come through sight of them, through watching their reactions to various expressed thoughts and circumstances, through noting the immediate and fleeting reactions of their eyes and countenance.
很自然地，我最想看看在我黑暗的岁月里让我感觉亲切的事物。你也是一样的吧，会把目光投向那些最亲切的事物，把他们的形象烙印在记忆中，这样当你浸没在黑暗之中时还能回忆起他们。
若真的出现了奇迹，我得到了三天光明，继而又陷入黑暗，我将把这段时间分成三部分。
第一天，我要去见那些好心亲切的人，因为他们的友谊我的生活才变得有意义。首先我要好好地看看亲爱的安妮·莎莉文·梅西夫人。在我还是一个懵懂孩童的时候，她来到我身边，向我揭示了外面的世界。我不想仅仅模糊地看到她脸庞的轮廓，而要把她仔细端详，从她的脸上寻找深切的同情和耐心，这两种品性让她在教育我的过程中克服了重重困难。如此，就能把她的面容珍藏到我的记忆里面了。我还要凝视她的眼眸，她的眼里定然蕴藏着面对困难时的坚毅，以及她经常对我流露的对整个人类的同情心。
我不知道透过眼睛这“心灵的窗户”去看一个朋友的心意味着什么。我仅能通过指尖“看见”一张脸庞的轮廓。我能觉察出欢笑、伤悲还有很多其他明显的表情。我是通过触摸朋友的脸了解他们的。当然我可以用其他方式来了解他们的个性，比如通过他们向我表达的思想，通过他们与我交流的动作。我并不认为一定要看见他们才能更深地了解他们；不一定要观察到他们对各种思想和环境的反应才能更深地了解他们；不一定要觉察到他们一闪而过的眼神才能更深地了解他们；不一定要捕捉到他们脸上转瞬即逝的表情才能更深地了解他们。
Friends who are near to me I know well, because through the months and years they reveal themselves to me in all their phases; but of casual friends I have only an incomplete impression, an impression gained from a handclasp, from spoken words which I take from their lips with my finger tips, or which they tap into the palm of my hand.
How much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtle-ties of expression, the quiver of a muscle, the flutter of a hand. But does it ever occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature of a friends or acquaintance? Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually the out-ward features of a face and let it go at that?
For instance can you describe accurately the faces of five good friends? Some of you can, but many cannot. As an experiment, I have questioned husbands of long standing about the color of their wives' eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. And, incidentally, it is a chronic complaint of wives that their husbands do not notice new dresses, new hats, and changes in household arrangements.
The eyes of seeing persons soon become accustomed to the routine of their surroundings, and they actually see only the startling and spectacular. But even in viewing the most spectacular sights the eyes are lazy.Court records reveal every day how inaccurately “eyewitnesses” see. A given event will be “seen” in several different ways by as many witnesses. Some see more than others, but few see everything that is within the range of their vision.
Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!
The first day would be a busy one. I should call to me all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidences of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty which precedes the individual’s consciousness of the conflicts which life develops.
和我亲近的朋友我都非常了解，因为随着岁月的流逝，他们在我面前展现了立体的自我，我了解他们的每一方面；但是对于一般的泛泛之交我只有一些不完整的印象，比如一次握手留下的印象，还有我用手指从他们的嘴唇上读到的或者他们写在我手心的零星字句。
通过一个微妙的表情、一次肌肉的颤动、一次握手的摇摆就能发现一个人的素质和修养，这对于你——一个能够在一瞬之间把所有这些看在眼里的人是多么容易，多么让人满意的事情！但是你曾经用眼睛去发现一个朋友或者相识者的内心世界吗？你们之中的大部分人仅仅对面容的外在特点匆匆一瞥就停留在这一刹那的印象上了，不是吗？
比如说，你能准确地描述五个好友的容貌吗？其中一些人或许能，但是大部分人是做不到的。作为一项实验，我曾经问那些结婚多年的丈夫们他们妻子的眼睛是什么颜色，他们经常表现得很尴尬，承认自己并不知道。另外顺便提一下，一直以来，作为妻子的一方经常抱怨她们的丈夫注意不到她们的新衣服、新帽子，还有家里面摆设的改变。
对看得见的人来说，他们的眼睛已经对身边的景物和日常事务都习以为常了，他们只能注意那些让人吃惊的事情和蔚为壮观的景色。但是即使遇上了最轰动的场面他们的眼睛也还是懒散的。法庭记录里面每天都有许许多多不确切的“目击”证词，同一事件会被很多目击者以各种不同的方式“看见”。有人能比其他人看到更多东西，但是几乎没有人能看见视野范围内的全部事物。
噢，假如若给我三天光明，我想看到的事物是何其的多啊。
第一天肯定是忙碌的一天。我会把所有亲爱的朋友叫来，长久地凝视他们的脸，要将能反映他们内在的美与善的姿态和表情镌刻在脑海里。当然了，我还会把目光投向婴儿的脸，捕捉人在婴孩时期所具有的热切和纯洁之美，这种美在人们觉察到生活所蕴涵的矛盾冲突之前才有。
And I should like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs—the grave, canny little Scottie, Darkie, and the stalwart, understanding Great Dane, Helga, whose warm, tender, and playful friendships are so comfort-ing to me.
On that busy first day I should also view the small simple things of my home. I want to see the warm colors in the rugs under my feet, the pictures on the walls, the intimate trifles that transform a house into home. My eyes would rest respectfully on the books in raised type which I have read, but they would be more eagerly interested in the printed books which seeing people can read, for during the long night of my life the books I have read and those which have been read to me have built themselves into a great shining lighthouse, revealing to me the deepest channels of human life and the human spirit.
In the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature trying desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast splendor which is constantly unfolding itself to those who can see. On the way home from my woodland jaunt my path would lie near a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing in the field（perhaps I should see only a tractor!） and the serene content of men living close to the soil. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful sunset.
When dusk had fallen, I should experience the double delight of being able to see by artificial light which the genius of man has created to extend the power of his sight when Nature decrees darkness.
In the night of that first day of sight, I should not be able to sleep, so full would be my mind of the memories of the day.
我还要看我的宠物狗那双忠诚、信任的眼。毛色灰黑、活泼可爱的苏格兰狗小黑，还有体格健壮、善解人意的丹麦大狗海尔格，它们热情、驯服，与我耍玩，让我觉得十分欣慰。
在忙碌的第一天里面我还要看看家里面的那些小东西。我想看看脚底下的地毯温暖的颜色，墙上的字画，还有我喜爱的点心糖果。有了它们，一栋房子才会变成一个家。我将用一种虔诚的目光注视我阅读过的那些凸印书籍，不过明眼人阅读的印刷书籍可能会更加地吸引我。我热爱书籍，因为在我生命中漫长的黑夜里，是那些我自己阅读过的和别人给我读的书籍为我筑起了一座高耸、明亮的灯塔，为我了解人类生活的千姿百态指明了航道，引领我找到人类宝贵的精神宝藏。
在拥有光明的第一天下午，我要在丛林里远足，让眼睛沉醉于自然之美，尽量用几个小时的时间把自然的胜景尽收眼底。这些奇观在明眼人面前变化无穷，而我就只能看见其中的一面了。从树林远足回家的时候，我要路过附近的一个农场，我应该会看到在田间耐心耕作的马儿（也可能我看到的是一台拖拉机！）和与土地紧密相连的农夫脸上淳朴的笑容。另外，我还祈祷能够一睹彩霞满天的夕阳胜景。
当夜幕降临的时候，我能通过人造光源看世界，这将给我一种双倍的喜悦。人类的天才创造了灯光，在自然宣布黑暗来临时拓展了人的视力。
重见光明的第一天夜里，我将会睡不着觉，脑子里肯定塞满了一天来所看见的各种事物。
The next day—the second day of sight—I should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of light with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.
This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world, past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man's progress, the kaleidoscope of the ages. How can so much be compressed into one day? Through the museums, of course. Often I have visited the New York Museum of Natural History to touch with my hands many of the objects there exhibited, but I have longed to see with my eyes the condensed history of the earth and its in-habitants displayed there—animals and the races of men pictured in their native environment; gigantic carcasses of dinosaurs and mastodons which roamed the earth long before man appeared, with his tiny stature and pow-erful brain, to conquer the animal kingdom; realistic presentations of the processes of development in animals, in man, and in the implements which man has used to fashion for himself a secure home on this planet; and a thousand and one other aspects of natural history.
I wonder how many readers of this article have viewed this panorama of the face of living things as pictured in that inspiring museum. Many, of course, have not had the opportunity, but I am sure that many who have had the opportunity have not made use of it. There, indeed, is a place to use your eyes. You who see can spend many fruitful days there, but I with my imaginary three days of sight, could only take a hasty glimpse, and pass on.
My next stop would be the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for just as the Museum of Natural History reveals the material aspects of the world, so does the Metropolitan show the myriad facets of the human spirit. Through-out the history of humanity the urge to artistic expression has been almost as powerful as the urge for food, shelter, and procreation. And here, in the vast chambers of the Metropolitan Museum, is unfolded before me the spirit of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, as expressed in their art. I know well through my hands the sculptured gods and goddesses of the ancient Nile-land. I have felt copies of Parthenon friezes, and I have sensed the rhyth-mic beauty of charging Athenian warriors. Apollos and Venuses and the Winged Victory of Samothrace are friends of my finger tips. The gnarled, bearded features of Homer are dear to me, for he, too, knew blindness.
第二天——拥有光明的第二天——我要在拂晓起床，去看白天替代黑夜那激动人心的一幕。我会以一种敬畏的心理去迎接日出，正是朝阳的万丈光芒把大地从睡梦中唤醒。
这一天我要快速地浏览这个世界，了解它的历史和现状。我要看看人类进步的历史画卷，时代的万花筒。这么多东西怎么能压缩到一天之内看完呢？实际上，我是通过博物馆来了解这些东西的。我经常造访纽约自然历史博物馆，用手抚摸过无数展品，但是我非常渴望能用眼睛看一看浓缩了的地球历史和那里展出的地球生物。包括动物和人类，以及他们的生活场景。那里有躯体庞大的恐龙和乳齿象，这些庞然大物在人类出现以前漫不经心地在地球上荡来逛去，在整个动物王国里面称王称霸。人类虽然身材渺小却有着发达的大脑。此外，还要看看对动物和人类演化的真实介绍，还有人类为保护自己的家园而制造的适合自身使用的工具，还要了解自然历史的其他方方面面。
我不知道读到这篇文章的读者有多少人已经看见过博物馆里面展出的那些图片上的东西。当然，很多人是没有机会的，但是我相信很多人即使有机会也没有抓住，博物馆确实是一个可以让你好好利用眼睛的好地方。明眼的你可以在那里度过几天收获良多的时间，但是在我虚拟的三天光明里，我只能对那里匆匆一瞥就过了。
下一站我将到大都会艺术博物馆，自然历史博物馆向我展现的是世界的物质财富，艺术博物馆则向我展现人类的精神财富。纵观人类历史全程，人的艺术表现欲望几乎和获得食物、住所及繁衍后代的欲望一样强烈。在巨大的大都会博物馆里面，我会欣赏到以艺术形式表达的埃及、希腊和罗马精神。我可以用手抚摸到尼罗河流域的祖先雕刻的神像，触摸到帕台农神庙的仿制品，感觉到雅典勇士像的阳刚之美。阿波罗、维纳斯和萨莫色雷斯岛那长着翅膀的胜利女神像都已经和我的手指成为朋友了。我对满脸胡须的荷马倍感亲切，因为他也是目盲者。
My hands have lingered upon the living marble of roman sculpture as well as that of later generations. I have passed my hands over a plaster cast of Michelangelo's inspiring and heroic Moses; I have sensed the power of Rodin; I have been awed by the devoted spirit of Gothic wood carving. These arts which can be touched have meaning for me, but even they were meant to be seen rather than felt, and I can only guess at the beauty which remains hidden from me. I can admire the simple lines of a Greek vase, but its figured decorations are lost to me.
So on this, my second day of sight, I should try to probe into the soul of man through this art. The things I knew through touch I should now see.More splendid still, the whole magnificent world of painting would be opened to me, from the Italian Primitives, with their serene religious devotion, to the Moderns, with their feverish visions. I should look deep into the canvases of Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt. I should want to feast my eyes upon the warm colors of Veronese, study the myster-ies of E1 Greco, catch a new vision of Nature from Corot. Oh, there is so much rich meaning and beauty in the art of the ages for you who have eyes to see!
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.Artists tell me that for deep and true appreciation of art one must educated the eye. One must learn through experience to weigh the merits of line, of composition, of form and color. If I had eyes, how happily would I embark upon so fascinating a study! 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.
我的手指在古罗马的大理石雕像上抚摸过，也感受过后人的作品。我从米开朗基罗的石膏作品“英雄摩西像”中感受到一种奋进的精神激励，我还感觉出罗丹的雕塑中蕴藏的力量。我钟爱哥特式木雕并且有一种崇敬的心理。这些能够触摸的艺术品对我是非常有意义的，但是它们原本是要通过视觉而非触觉来欣赏，对那些看不见的美我只能靠猜测了。我能欣赏希腊花瓶简单线条的简约之美，但是它那复杂的图纹就与我无缘了。
在拥有光明的第二天，我选择通过艺术来探求人类深层次的精神世界。以前我通过触摸认识的东西现在可以仔细打量了。更让人高兴的是绘画艺术的华丽殿堂将向我敞开，从意大利那带有宗教热情的原始绘画到在视觉上给人震撼的现代作品。对拉斐尔、达芬奇、提香、伦布兰特的油画我要仔细品味，还要用韦罗内塞那色彩艳丽的作品来一饱眼福，还将研究一下爱而·格雷克作品里的神秘，另外从科洛特那里看一种全新的自然。噢，对你，一个视力正常的人，这些古老的作品中包含了多少美的元素和有意义的东西啊！
伟大的艺术世界对你们是开放的，而我在艺术殿堂的这次短暂的参观中，连一小部分都看不到。艺术家曾告诉我，要想真正的欣赏到艺术作品的美，眼睛必须是要经过训练的。你必须通过经验学习衡量线条、构图、形式和颜色的优点。假如我能使用眼睛，我将是多么乐意去学习这么一种有意义的能力啊！然而，据我所知，你们很多能够使用眼睛来看的人，艺术的世界却是漆黑的夜，你们从不去发展这方面的能力，甚至一点不了解。
It would be with extreme reluctance that I should leave the Metropolitan Museum, which contains the key to beauty—a beauty so neglected. See-ing persons, however, do not need a metropolitan to find this key to beauty. The same key lies waiting in smaller museums, and in books on the shelves of even small libraries. 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.
The evening of my second day of sight I should spend at a theatre or at the movies. 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. But how I should like to see with my own eyes the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings! How I should like to follow each movement of the graceful Hamlet, each strut of the hearty Falstaff! And since I could see only one play, I should be con-fronted by a many-horned dilemma, for there are scores of plays I should want to see. You who have eyes can see any you like. 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?
I cannot enjoy the beauty of rhythmic movement except in a sphere re-stricted to the touch of my hands. 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. I can well imagine that cadenced motion must be one of the most pleasing sights in the world. 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.
One of my dearest memories is of the time when Joseph Jefferson al-lowed me to touch his face and hands as he went through some of the gestures and speeches of his beloved Rip Van Winkle. I was able to catch thus a meager glimpse of the world of drama, and I shall never forget the delight of that moment.But, oh, how much I must miss, and how much pleasure you seeing ones can derive from watching and hearing the inter-play of speech and movement in the unfolding of a dramatic performance! If I could see only one play, I should know how to picture in mymind the action of a hundred plays which I have read or had transferred to me through the medium of the manual alphabet.
我肯定会依依不舍地离开大都会博物馆，那里面有通向美的钥匙，那是一种被忽视的美。不过，双眼明澈的人并不需要去大都会寻找通向美的钥匙，因为同样的钥匙在小一些的博物馆，甚至一个小图书馆的书架上都能找到。但是也很自然，我拥有想象中的视力和时间是那样有限，我只有选择能在最短时间内打开最多财富的钥匙。
拥有光明的第二天晚上我将在剧院或者电影院度过。哪怕是现在我也经常关注各种戏剧表演，但是表演的动作得靠陪我的人写到我手里。我是多么希望能够亲眼目睹哈姆雷特迷人的英姿，或者是穿着色彩艳丽的伊丽莎白服饰的福斯塔夫！我是多么想追踪哈姆雷特每一个优雅的动作，还有福斯塔夫每一步夸张的步伐！因为只能看一场戏剧，我还会面临难以取舍的困境，有二十几部戏剧我都想看。眼明的你可以想看多少就看多少，但是我想会有几个人在观赏一出戏剧、一场电影或者其他任何壮观场面的时候，意识到正因为有奇迹般的视力你才能够欣赏到斑斓的色彩和优雅的动作，而又有几个人对这一奇迹心怀感激？
除了在我的手所能接触到的范围内，我欣赏不到任何有节奏的动作的美，我只能对芭芙洛娃优雅的舞姿做一番模糊的想象。我知道一些韵律能带来的乐趣，因为我经常能感觉到地板上传来的音乐节拍所引起的震动。有节拍的运动定是世界上最赏心悦目的场景了，当我用手指顺着大理石雕塑移动时我能体验到这种节律之美，静态的节奏之美都如此可爱，亲眼目睹有节律的动作将会多么激动人心！
约瑟夫·杰弗逊先生允许我在他表演和朗诵他最钟爱的《瑞普·凡·温克尔》的时候抚摸他的脸和手，这是我最亲切的回忆之一，我也因此得以瞥见戏剧艺术的精彩，永远不会忘记那快乐的时光。但是，噢，我错过的何其之多，而你们拥有视力的人能从观看戏剧表演的动作和聆听台词当中获得多少的乐趣啊！要是我能看一场戏剧那多好，我就可以将我读过的和通过手语字母翻译给我的上百部剧本里面的动作想象出来了。
So, through the evening of my second imaginary day of sight, the great fingers of dramatic literature would crowd sleep from my eyes.
The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to dis-cover new delights, for I am sure that, for those who have eyes which re-ally see, the dawn of each day must be a perpetually new revelation of beauty.
This, according to the terms of my imagined miracle, is to be my third and last day of sight. I shall have no time to waste in regrets or longings; there is too much to see. The first day I devoted to my friends, animate and inanimate. The second revealed to me the history of man and Nature. To-day I shall spend in the workaday world of the present, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. And where can one find so many activities and conditions of men as in New York? So the city becomes my destination.
I start from my home in the quiet little suburb of Forest Hills, Long Island. Here, surrounded by green lawns, trees, and flowers, are neat little houses, happy with the voices and movements of wives and children, ha-vens of peaceful rest for men who toil in the city. 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. Busy boasts chug and scurry about the river—racy speed boat, stolid, snorting tugs. If I had long days of sight ahead, I should spend many of them watching the de-lightful activity upon the river.
所以，在我拥有光明的第二天夜里，戏剧文学的魅力将会把睡意从我眼里驱除。
接下来的这天早晨，我会再次黎明就起床，热切寻找新的欣喜，我敢肯定对于那些视力正常而且真正用心看世界的人来说，每一天的黎明始终都会是美的再现。
根据我想象的奇迹，这是我的第三天也是最后一天拥有光明，我没有功夫浪费在遗憾和期盼上面，世界上的东西太多，我是不可能看完了。第一天我留给了我那些有生命和没生命的朋友们，第二天我去探索了人类和自然的历史，今天我要过一回工作日里的生活，融入那些忙碌于商业活动和生活琐事的人群。还有谁能找到比纽约更为繁忙、更多元化的地方呢？所以，纽约将是我的目的地。
我从位于长岛希尔森林的家乡出发，这里是郊区，很宁静。在小巧的房屋周围有如茵的绿草，青翠的树木和盛开的野花，还有妇女和孩子们欢快的身影和幸福的笑声，对在城里奋斗挣扎的人来说，这里是一个安宁的可以歇息的天堂。我驱车从横跨在东河上的钢铁桥上经过，看到人类智慧的神奇力量。繁忙的船只轰隆隆地沿着河流行驶——活波的快艇，古板的、喘着粗气的拖船。要是往后有更多的日子我还能拥有光明，我会花很多时间来欣赏这河流上一派忙碌的场面。
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. What an awe-inspiring sight, these glittering spires, these vast banks of stone and steel-structures such as the gods might build for themselves! This animated pic-ture is a part of the lives of millions of people every day. How many, I wonder, give it so much as a seconds glance? Very few, I fear, their eyes are blind to this magnificent sight because it is so familiar to them.
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. I am anxious to compare my fancy with reality. 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.
Now I begin my rounds of the city. First, I stand at a busy corner, merely looking at people, trying by sight of them to understand something of their live. I see smiles, and I am happy. I see serious determination, and I am proud, I see suffering, and I am compassionate.
I stroll down Fifth Avenue. I throw my eyes out of focus, so that I see no particular object but only a seething kaleidoscope of colors. 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. 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. 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.
From Fifth Avenue I make a tour of the city—to Park Avenue, to the slums, to factories, to parks where children play. I take a stay-at-home trip abroad by visiting the foreign quarters. 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. My eye passes lightly over no single trifle; it strives to touch and hold closely each thing its gaze rests upon. Some sights are pleasant, filling the heart with happiness; but some are miserably pathetic. To these latter I do not shut my eyes, for they, too, are part of life. To close the eye on them is to close the heart and mind.
我向前看去，纽约的高楼大厦已经矗立在我面前，它像是一个从神话世界里面搬出来的城市。那么多摩天大楼，巨大的石头河堤，宏伟的钢筋混泥土结构像是天神给自己造出来的！这些景象是成千上万的人每天生活的一部分，但是有多少人会留意它们，哪怕是多看上一眼呢？几乎没有吧，因为他们的眼睛对这些宏伟的景象太熟悉了，所以视而不见。
我很急切地登上高耸的帝国大厦楼顶，在那里，我可以用极短的时间把下面的城市一览无遗。我急于把先前的想象和眼下的现实做一番对比，我相信面对眼前展现的景象我是不会失望的，因为对我来说，那将是另一个世界的景象。
现在，我开始在城里面到处看了。首先，我站在一个繁忙的角落，仅仅为了看来往的人潮，从他们的衣着形象、举止行为当中推测他们生活里面的一些情况。当我看到别人脸上洋溢的微笑，我会感到高兴；当我看到严肃而坚决果断的表情，我会觉得自豪；当我看到受苦受难的人，我便心存怜悯。
我沿着第五大道往下走，不再把目光会聚到某一特定事物上面，只是随意地看，让形形色色的人和物涌入眼底。我肯定会对人潮中女人穿的各种衣服的颜色百看不厌。但是若我真的拥有视力，可能就像大多数女人一样，过于关心服装的款式和剪裁，以至于不大注意人群中的壮丽色彩。同时我肯定会是一个十足的橱窗主顾，因为看橱窗里展出的各种各样的漂亮衣服应该会是一种莫大的乐趣。
我从第五大道开始要把这个城市游览一遍——公园大道，然后到贫民窟，到工厂，到孩子玩耍的公园。我要通过拜访异邦人士的居所达成周游世界的梦想，我要睁大眼睛去发现生活中的幸福和痛苦，这样我才能更深刻地理解人们是怎样工作和生活的。我心里充满了对各种人和物的想象，我的眼睛不会放过任何一个细微琐碎的事物，目光停留在哪里都想前去抚摸一下。看到愉快的事物让人感觉很开心，但是也会看见一些让人伤悲的东西，对于后者我并不想闭上眼睛，因为它们也是生活的一部分，对它们闭上眼睛同时也就关闭了心扉，停止了思索。
My third day of sight is drawing to an end. Perhaps there are many seri-ous pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining hours, 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.
At midnight my temporary respite from blindness would cease, and per-manent night would close in on me again. Naturally in those three short days I should not have seen all I wanted to see. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen. But my mind would be so crowded with glorious memories that I should have little time for regrets. Thereafter the touch of every object would bring a glowing memory of how that object looked.
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. 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. You would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw would become dear to you. Your eyes would touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at last, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.
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: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. 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. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. 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. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.
第三天的光明即将逝去。也许还有很多严肃的东西，我应该为之付出剩下的这几个小时，但是我想在最后一天的晚上我还是会再一次跑到剧院，去看一场滑稽热闹的喜剧，这样或许能欣赏到人类精神中的喜剧色彩。
在午夜，我从目盲中暂时解脱出来的短暂时光就要结束，永久的黑夜将再一次将我包围。自然，在短短的三天光明里我不能看尽我所希望看到的全部，只有当黑暗再次降临我才会意识到自己来不及看的东西还有很多很多。但是我的头脑中将塞满了光辉的记忆，以至于我没有多少时间去遗憾。此后，我对每一件物品的触觉将会唤起关于它的模样的生动记忆。
或许，你若是知道自己三天后会永远也看不见了，你对这三天光明的使用会与我所做的粗略勾勒并不一致，但是我确信，要是你确实要遭受这样的命运，你也会把目光投向那些你从未见过的事物，为以后漫长的黑暗留下些珍贵的记忆。你会以一种和从前不同的方式来使用眼睛，眼里的一切将会变得格外亲切，你会想把映入眼帘的一切都抚摸一下，拥抱一下，这时，你终于真正看见了东西，一个美丽的新世界将会在你面前展现。
我作为一个目盲之人可以给那些目明者一点建议。对那些想要把视觉天赋充分发挥的人也许是一句警言：使用你的眼睛，好似明天你将完全失明。同样的方法也可以运用到其他感官上。倾听人声的音乐、鸟儿的歌声、管弦乐强有力的旋律，仿佛明天你就会永远失聪；触摸一切你想触摸到的东西，仿佛明天你就会触觉失灵；闻闻花朵散发的清香，每一口食物都津津有味地品尝，仿佛明天你再也没有嗅觉和味觉。让每一种感官都发挥出最大的功能，为世界通过大自然以各种接触的方式给予你的一切欢乐和美的享受而自豪吧。不过在所有的感官当中，我确信视觉是最让人愉快的。