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Three Days to SeeHelen Keller The text is excerpted from the original version of Three Days to See, which was published in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1933.close1RT All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly confined.假如拥有三天光明海伦凯勒我们都读过一些扣人心弦的故事，主人公将不久于人世，长则1年，短则24小时。而我们总是很感兴趣，这个即将辞世的人会如何度过他最后的时日。当然，我指的是拥有选择权利的自由人，不是那些活动范围受到严格限制的死囚。close2RT Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations, should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?这一类故事会促使我们思考，在类似的处境下，我们自己会做些什么？身为生命有限的人类，我们会把什么样的事件、经历、联想，塞进这最后的时光里？回首往事，我们又会有哪些快乐和遗憾呢？close3RT Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the value of life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor, and a keenness of appreciation which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the motto of Eat, drink, and be merry, but most people would be punished by the certainty of death.有时我想，把每天都当作生命的最后一天来度过，会是一个很好的原则。这样的态度将更能凸显人生的价值。每一天我们都会怀着柔情、充满活力、心存感激，而这些，在来日方长时却常被我们所忽视。当然，也有一些人会奉行享乐主义 吃喝玩乐，但是绝大多数人在得知死期将至时都会更加珍惜生命。close4RT Most of us 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 good health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out endlessly. So we go about our petty tasks, hardly aware of our listless attitude towards life.我们大多数人都不珍惜生命。我们知道有一天自己定会死去，但是总觉得这一天很遥远。我们身体健康时，死亡是完全无法想象的，我们很少会加以考虑。日复一日，没有尽头。所以我们忙于琐事，几乎不曾意识到自己对生活的态度有多么冷漠。close5RT The same listlessness, I am afraid, characterizes the use of all our faculties and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the blessings that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered loss of sight or hearing damage seldom make the fullest 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.在运用所有的感官时我们的态度恐怕同样冷漠。只有聋人才珍惜听力，只有盲者才知道能见光明的幸运。对于那些成年后才失明失聪的人来说尤其如此。但是那些听力或视力从未遭受损失的人却很少充分利用这些幸运的能力。他们眼睛看见的、耳朵听到的，都是模糊的，不专心，也不带感激。这个道理，就是常说的失去才懂得珍惜，生病才知健康可贵。close6RT 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 teach him the joys of sound.我常想，如果每一个人在刚成年时，有几天突然既盲又聋，也不失为一件幸事。黑暗会令他更感激光明；寂静会教他领会声音的乐趣。close7RT Now and then 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 shown disbelief had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.有时我会试探视力正常的朋友，问他们看见了什么。最近，一位非常要好的朋友来看我，她刚刚在树林里走了很长时间，我问她看见了什么。“没什么，”她回答说。我本应觉得难以置信，不过我早已习惯类似回答，因为很久以前我就知道视力正常的人看到的东西很少。close8RT 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 bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winters sleep. I feel the delightful texture of a flower, and discover its remarkable folds; and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently in a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song. I am delighted to have cool waters of a brook rush through my open fingers. To me a thick carpet of pine needles or soft grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. To me the colorful seasons are a thrilling and unending drama, the action of which streams through my finger tips.我问自己，在树林里散步一个小时，看不到任何值得注意的东西，这怎么可能呢？我看不见东西，只凭触摸，却也能发现数以百计的有趣的东西。我感觉到树叶的精巧对称。我的手爱抚着白桦树光滑的树皮，或是松树粗糙的树干。春天里，我怀着希望触摸着树枝寻找新芽，那是大自然从冬眠中苏醒后的第一个征象。我感受花朵的悦人纹理，发现它的可爱褶皱，大自然的神奇一角展现在我的面前。偶尔，如果幸运的话，当我把手轻轻地放在一棵小树上，会感到放声歌唱的小鸟欢快的颤动。张开手指，让清凉的溪水从指间冲过，我会很开心。对我来说，厚厚的松针或松软的草坪比奢华的波斯地毯更惹人喜爱。对我来说，多彩的季节如同一场动人心魄的不会完结的戏剧，剧中情节从我的指尖流过。close9RT 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 panorama 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 convenience rather than as a means of adding fullness to life.我的心不时地在呐喊，渴望能亲眼看到这一切。仅仅通过触摸，我就能获得如此多的喜悦，那光明又将展示多少美啊。然而，有眼睛的人看到的却分明不多。整个世界色彩缤纷、生机勃勃，人们却都漫不经心。也许，已经拥有的不加珍惜，还没得到的却想拥有，这是人之常情，但是在光明的世界里只把视物的天赋作为使生活方便的工具，而不是丰富生活的工具，这实在是太令人遗憾了。close10RT Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for three days!啊，假如拥有三天光明，我将能看见多少事物啊！close
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