Helen Keller—Tragedy to Triumph
海伦·凯勒——从悲剧走向成功
Imagine that you couldn't see any word or hear any sound， but you could still talk， write， read， and make friends. In fact， you went to college， wrote nearly a dozen books， traveled all over the world， even met twelve U.S. presidents， and lived to 88. Well， there was such a person， and she was born over a hundred years ago！
Helen Keller， a woman from the small farm town of Tuscumbia， Alabama who taught the world how to respect people who are blind and deaf. Her mission came from her own life： when she was one year and a half， she was extremely ill， and she lost both her vision and hearing. It was like entering a totally different world， with completely new rules that she could not adjust to and she got very frustrated. By the time she was seven， her parents realized they needed help， so they hired a tutor named Anne Sullivan.
Later on Anne became Helen's tutor. Anne Sullivan had lost the majority of her sight at the age of five. Then she had two operations on her eyes， which led to her regaining enough sight to be able to read normal print for short periods of time. Anne graduated from Perkins in 1886 and began to search for work. Finding work was terribly difficult for Anne， due to her poor eyesight， and when she received the offer from Helen's parents to work as the teacher of Helen Keller， a deaf-blind mute， although she had no experience in this area， she accepted willingly. There she taught the seven-year-old Helen Keller， and managed to break through her isolation by spelling out words on her hand. For the rest of her life she remained Helen's companion. She always called her “Teacher”. “The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher came to me，” Keller later said.
Anne was strict， but she had a lot of patience. In just a few days， she taught Helen how to spell words with her hands. The trouble was， Helen didn't understand what the words meant—until one morning at the water pump she got a whole new attitude. Anne had Helen hold one hand under the water. Then she spelled “W-A-T-E-R” into Helen's other hand. It was wonderful for Helen！ The feeling turned into a word. “That living word awakened my soul， gave it light， hope， joy， set it free.”Immediately， Helen bent down and tapped the ground， Anne spelled “earth”. Helen's brain flew； that day， she learned 30 words.
Helen's progress from then on was astonishing. Her ability to learn was far in advance of anything that anybody had seen before in someone without sight or hearing. When she was ten Helen was first taught to speak by Sarah Fuller of the Horace Mann School. She learned to speak by feeling her teacher's mouth when she talked. Often people found it hard to understand her， but she never gave up trying. Eventually Helen learned to use sign language， to read Braille， even to type. Meanwhile， she learned to read French， German， Greek， and Latin in Braille！ She attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York， the Cambridge school for Young Ladies， and graduated from Radcliffe College with honors.
In her autobiographies Midstream and The Story of My Life， Helen depicted how she was hungry for the words， “Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet， gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness”. The Story of My Life， Helen's famous autobiography of her triumph over deafness and blindness， appeared when she was twenty-two， and it was translated into 50 languages. She used two typewriters in the book writing： one regular， one Braille. Helen even wrote the text with her Braille machine to make corrections. Her manuscripts hardly contained typographical errors.
Helen also did researches， gave speeches， and helped raise money for many organizations， such as the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind， which is now called Helen Keller Worldwide. From 1946 to 1957， she went around the world， speaking about the experiences and rights of people who are blind. She had visited 39 countries on five different continents. Helen also inspired many works of art， including two Oscar-winning movies， and received dozens of awards， such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom， the highest honor that an American civilian can receive. She died in her sleep in 1968. Helen finally became an exceptional leader， once she saw the potential in her own mind.
In An Intimate History of Humanity (1994) Theodore Zeldin wrote that “no history of the world can be complete which does not mention Helen Keller... whose overcoming of her blindness and deafness were marguably victories more important than those of Alexander the Great， because they have implications still for every living person.”
试想一下，如果你双目失明、双耳失聪，而你仍能讲话、写作、读书以及交友；你还曾读过大学、写过近十二本书、周游过世界，甚至还见过十二位美国总统，一直活到了88岁。历史上真的出现过这样一位人物，她就生活在一百多年前。
海伦·凯勒，一位来自美国阿拉巴马州塔斯坎比亚小镇上一个小农场的女性，正是她教会了整个世界如何去尊重聋哑人士。海伦的人生经历造就了她的这一使命：在她一岁半那年，一场重病夺走了她的视觉和听觉。失去了视觉和听觉的海伦仿佛置身于一个完全不同的世界，这里有着截然不同的新法则，使她无法适应，甚至倍感沮丧。海伦七岁那年，她的父母意识到需要有人来帮助小海伦，为此他们为她请了一位名叫安妮·苏利文的家庭教师。
不久之后，安妮便成了海伦的家庭教师。安妮·苏利文五岁的时候几近失明，随后的两次手术虽然给她带来了光明，但只能使她在短时间内读一些印刷规范的文字。1886年安妮于帕金斯盲校毕业后便开始找工作。然而对于安妮这样一位视力不佳的人来说，找份工作的确不是件易事。当她得知海伦的父母请她做小海伦的家庭教师时，尽管在这方面毫无经验，她还是欣然接受了为这个聋哑的盲孩子当老师的工作。安妮开始给七岁的小海伦上课，为了能够使海伦不再与人隔绝，安妮便在海伦的手上拼写单词，教她认字。安妮的后半生一直陪伴在海伦身边，海伦始终称她为“老师”。“我一生中最重要的时刻便是我的老师来到我身边的那一天”，海伦后来曾这样说道。
安妮是一位严厉但却极富耐心的老师。没过多久她便用手教会了海伦如何去拼写单词。然而问题在于海伦无法领会到这些词的实际含义。直到一天清晨，海伦在喷水池旁得到了一种全新的认识。安妮把海伦的一只手放在了水中，接着便在海伦的另一只手心写下“水”这个单词。这对于海伦来讲真是妙不可言！感觉转化成了字符。“这个有了生命的单词唤醒并释放了我的灵魂，给我带来了光亮、希望和快乐。”随即，海伦弯下腰轻轻拍打地面，安妮便在她手心拼出了“大地”这个词。海伦的大脑飞速转动，那一天她学会了三十个单词。
此后，海伦的学习突飞猛进。人们在她之前从未见过一个聋哑人能有如此这般的学习能力。海伦十岁时便开始在霍勒斯曼学校学习说话，萨拉·傅乐瓦成为了她的第一位口语老师。通过触摸感知老师说话时的嘴唇，她开始学习说话。尽管人们很难理解海伦所表达的话语，但她却从未放弃尝试。最终，海伦学会了手语、盲人点字法，甚至还学会了盲文打字。同时海伦还学会了用盲人点字法去阅读法语、德语、希腊语以及拉丁语的文章！海伦曾就读过纽约的怀特·赫玛森聋校和剑桥女子学校，并最终以优异的成绩从拉德克利夫学院毕业。
海伦在她的自传《中流》以及《我的生活》中曾这样描述过她对文字的如饥似渴：“文学作品便是我的乌托邦。在这里我不会被剥夺任何的权利。书籍就是我的朋友，任何感官的残障都不能阻碍我和这些朋友的深切交往。和它们对话我毫无窘迫、尴尬之感。”二十二岁时，海伦出版了她著名的自传《我的生活》。书中，她讲述了自己战胜聋哑和失明的经历。这本书被译成了五十种语言文字。写这本书时，海伦用了两种打字机，一种是常人使用的打字机，另一种是盲人所使用的盲人点字法打字机。海伦甚至还用盲人打字机去进行校对。她的手稿中几乎没有任何排版错误。
海伦还进行了很多研究、发表演讲并为许多组织筹募善款。她曾为美国盲人基金会和美国海外盲人基金会组织募捐，如今美国海外盲人基金会已更名为国际海伦·凯勒协会。1946至1957年间，海伦奔走于世界各地，讲述她的人生经历，向人们呼吁盲人应有的权益。她曾走访过五大洲的三十九个国家。海伦同样创作了许多艺术作品，其中包括两部奥斯卡获奖影片以及诸多其他奖项，她被授予的“总统自由勋章”便是美国公民的最高荣誉。1968年，海伦·凯勒在睡梦中告别了这个世界。她最终成为了一名优秀的领袖，这正是她的潜质所在。
1994年，席奥多·采丁在他的《人性亲密史》中这样写道：“谈及世界历史时如果不提及海伦·凯勒的名字，那么这部历史就不能说是完整的……海伦·凯勒战胜了她视觉和听觉障碍的事实是勿庸置疑的胜利，比起亚历山大大帝的丰功伟绩，海伦·凯勒胜利的意义更为重大，这是因为她的精神仍能教化每一个活着的人。”
译者感言
海伦·凯勒，这个在黑暗中找到了光明、用爱心拥抱世界的传奇女性，缔造了一个属于她的、不可复制的人生奇迹。美国的《时代周刊》将其评选为20世纪美国十大英雄偶像，而这样一位生活在无光、无声近九十载春秋的柔弱女性所勾勒出的生命轨迹却是如此这般绚丽，仿佛是一扇敞开的彩虹之门，为后人指引着人生方向。虽然丧失了听觉和视觉，海伦从未有过自暴自弃，也从未怨恨过这个赐予她生命的世界。在她的老师、人生知己安妮·苏利文的教导下，海伦学会了写字、说话，并完成了大学学业。海伦的后半生都致力于为盲人、残障人士的权益服务。她四处奔走、进行演讲、筹募善款，为的就是要将自己在黑暗中摸索到的一丝光明带给全世界所有的盲人。1968年6月1日，海伦·凯勒走完了她艰辛又充满荣耀的一生，但她的名字却永远载入史册。正如著名作家马克·吐温所说：“19世纪出现了两个了不起的人物，一个是拿破仑，一个就是海伦·凯勒。”
