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Chapter XXI
第二十一章
I have thus far sketched the events of my life, but I have not shown how much I have depended on books not only for pleasure and for the wisdom they bring to all who read, but also for that knowledge which comes to others through their eyes and their ears. Indeed, books have meant so much more in my education than in that of others, that I shall go back to the time when I began to read.
至此，我已经把生活中所发生的事件做了简要描述，可是我并没有向人们展示我对书籍的依赖度有多么大——这不仅仅是因为书籍带给人们愉悦和智慧，而且，它还能使人们通过自身的眼睛和耳朵获得知识。事实上，在我接受教育的过程中，书籍的功效要远远大过其他求知方式，所以，我要从最初的阅读经历开始讲起。
I read my first connected story in May, 1887, when I was seven years old, and from that day to this I have devoured everything in the shape of a printed page that has come within the reach of my hungry finger tips. As I have said, I did not study regularly during the early years of my education; nor did I read according to rule.
我第一次阅读故事的时间是在1887年5月，那时我七岁。自此以后，我便如饥似渴地攫取任何印有文字的纸张，凡是在我“饥饿的指尖”所触及的范围之内，我都不会放过。但是正如我说过的那样，在我接受教育的早期阶段，我并没有进行有规律的学习，也没有依照任何原则来阅读。
At first I had only a few books in raised print—"readers" for beginners, a collection of stories for children, and a book about the earth called "Our World." I think that was all; but I read them over and over, until the words were so worn and pressed I could scarcely make them out. Sometimes Miss Sullivan read to me, spelling into my hand little stories and poems that she knew I should understand; but I preferred reading myself to being read to, because I liked to read again and again the things that pleased me.
最初，我手头只有很少几本凸版（盲文）书籍——几册启蒙读物，一本儿童故事集，还有一本有关地球知识的书，叫做《我们的世界》。我想这就是我全部的家当，尽管如此，我还是把这些书翻来覆去地读了又读，直到那些文字被磨损得几乎无法辨认。有时候，苏立文小姐会把一些我能听懂的小故事和诗歌拼写在我的手上，但是我更愿意独自沉浸在阅读之中，我喜欢一遍又一遍地读我喜欢的那些故事。
It was during my first visit to Boston that I really began to read in good earnest. I was permitted to spend a part of each day in the Institution library, and to wander from bookcase to bookcase, and take down whatever book my fingers lighted upon. And read I did, whether I understood one word in ten or two words on a page. The words themselves fascinated me; but I took no conscious account of what I read. My mind must, however, have been very impressionable at that period, for it retained many words and whole sentences, to the meaning of which I had not the faintest clue; and afterward, when I began to talk and write, these words and sentences would flash out quite naturally, so that my friends wondered at the richness of my vocabulary. I must have read parts of many books (in those early days I think I never read any one book through) and a great deal of poetry in this uncomprehending way, until I discovered "Little Lord Fauntleroy," which was the first book of any consequence I read understandingly.
在我第一次游览波士顿期间，我才真正开始了阅读生涯。那时，我被允许每天在学院图书馆里消磨一段时间。于是，我徘徊在一个个书架之间，也不管碰到了什么样的书，我拿起来就读。当然，也许在每一页里我只认识一两个词。可以说，令我着迷的正是那些词语本身，而书的内容反倒不在我的考虑之列。即使这样，我对知识的感知能力却十分强大，因为我的很多词汇和句式都是在那时掌握的。虽然对那些词句的含义不甚明了，但是在后来，当我开始学习说话和写字的时候，这些词句竟然自然而然地脱口而出，以至于朋友们对我丰富的词汇量大为惊讶。正是以这种不知不觉的方式，我阅读了大量的书籍（当然，在早期的阅读中，我从来没有把一本书完整地读完）和诗歌，直到我发现《小爵爷方特勒罗伊》——这是我完全读懂的第一本书——我的阅读生涯才算正式开始。
