For a long time I was still—I was not thinking of the beads in my lap, but trying to find a meaning for "love" in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had been brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendour.

　　有很长时间，我并没有把心思放在腿上的珠子上。随着新念头的迸发，我试图找到“爱”的含义。当时，太阳已经被云层遮盖，随后还下了一阵雨，可是顷刻之间，南方的太阳便喷薄出它那特有的光芒。

　　Again I asked my teacher, "Is this not love?"

　　我又一次问我的老师：“这个是爱吗?”

　　"Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," she replied. Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she explained: "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play."

　　“在太阳出来之前，爱有点像天上的云彩。”老师回答道。显然，如此简单的回答还是使我无法理解。老师继续解释道：“要知道，你无法摸到云彩，可是你能感知雨水的降落;你也知道，在经历了整天的酷热后，那些花儿和干旱的土地是多么渴望雨露的滋润。虽然你不能触摸到爱，但是你能感觉到雨水滋养万物的美好。所以说，如果没有爱，你一定不会快乐，也没有心思玩耍了。”

　　The beautiful truth burst upon my mind—I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.

　　真理之美蓦然出现在我的头脑里——在我的灵魂和其他人的灵魂之间，延伸出一条条看不见的连线。

　　From the beginning of my education Miss Sullivan made it a practice to speak to me as she would speak to any hearing child; the only difference was that she spelled the sentences into my hand instead of speaking them. If I did not know the words and idioms necessary to express my thoughts she supplied them, even suggesting conversation when I was unable to keep up my end of the dialogue.

　　从我接受教育的第一天开始，苏立文小姐就像对待那些具有听力的孩子那样跟我讲话，唯一的不同是，她在我手上拼写句子，而不是直接说出来。假如我理解不了她给我的那些词汇和成语，乃至于无法进行对话的时候，我甚至想同老师直接交谈。

　　This process was continued for several years; for the deaf child does not learn in a month, or even in two or three years, the numberless idioms and expressions used in the simplest daily intercourse. The little hearing child learns these from constant repetition and imitation. Theconversation he hears in his home stimulates his mind and suggests topics and calls forth thespontaneous expression of his own thoughts. This natural exchange of ideas is denied to the deaf child. My teacher, realizing this, determined to supply the kinds of stimulus I lacked. This she did by repeating to me as far as possible, verbatim, what she heard, and by showing me how I could take part in the conversation. But it was a long time before I ventured to take the initiative, and still longer before I could find something appropriate to say at the right time.

　　这种过程持续了好几年之久。对于那些失聪儿童来说，在日常交流中使用的最简单的成语和表达方式真是难以计数，你根本无法在短短一个月，乃至两三年的时间里掌握它们。那些有听力的孩子可以从不断的重复和模仿中学习这些语言。他们在家里听到大人们的交谈，这些谈话无形中刺激了他们思维的发展，而交谈的话题也是他们感兴趣的，因此无须刻意学习，他们自然而然地就会表达出自己的思想。这种天生的交流思想的方式在失聪儿童那里是行不通的。我的老师意识到了这一点，于是她决心弥补我身上缺失的这部分本能。她逐字逐句，反反复复地教我，告诉我怎样参与同人们的对话。这是一个漫长的过程，后来我终于能主动同人交谈了;又过了很长时间，我才掌握了在恰当的时间说出恰当的话。

　　The deaf and the blind find it very difficult to acquire the amenities of conversation. How much more this difficulty must be augmented in the case of those who are both deaf and blind! They cannot distinguish the tone of the voice or, without assistance, go up and down the gamut of tones that give significance to words; nor can they watch the expression of the speaker’s face, and a look is often the very soul of what one says.

　　对于一个盲人或者聋人而言，掌握对话的技艺确实很难。而对于那些既盲又聋的人而言，其遭遇的阻碍可谓难上加难!他们不能辨别语气的快慢、声调的高低，也无法观察讲话者的面部表情，而一个眼神通常能展示出讲话者的内心世界。