Câu Chuyện Đời Tôi - Helen Keller - Chương 1

                            

So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Chừng nào ký ức về những người bạn yêu quý nhất định còn sống trong trái tim tôi, tôi sẽ nói rằng cuộc sống vẫn tốt đẹp.

-  Helen Keller.

I. The Story of My Life

 Listen this chapter:

      Dedicated to ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

  Who has taught the deaf to speak

  and enabled the listening ear to hear speech

  from the Atlantic to the Rockies,

  I dedicate this Story of My Life.

   CHAPTER ONE 

    It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious¹superstitious (tính từ): mê tín hesitation²hesitation (danh từ): sự do dự in lifting the veil³veil (danh từ): màn that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography⁴autobiography (danh từ): tự truyện is a difficult one. When I try to classify⁵classify (động từ): phân loại my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences⁶experience (danh từ): kinh nghiệm, ký ức in her own fantasy⁷fantasy (danh từ): khả năng tưởng tượng . A few impressions stand out vividly⁸vividly (trạng từ): sống động from the first years of my life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy⁹poignancy (danh từ): tính sâu sắc, tính cảm động ; and many incidents¹⁰incident (danh từ): biến cố, sự việc xảy ra bất ngờ of vital¹¹vital (tính từ): sống động importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement¹²excitement (danh từ): sự sôi nổi of great discoveries¹³discovery (danh từ): sự khám phá . In order, therefore, not to be tedious¹⁴tedious (tính từ): buồn chán I shall try to present in a series of sketches¹⁵sketch (danh từ): bức vẽ phát only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important.

I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama.

The family^(*)family (n): gia đình
on my father's side is descended^(*)descend (ngọai động từ): xuống from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled¹⁶settle (động từ): định cư in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors¹⁷ancestor (danh từ): tổ tiên was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education—rather a singular coincidence¹⁸concidence (danh từ): sự trùng khớp ; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave¹⁹slave (danh từ): nô lệ among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

My grandfather, Caspar Keller's son, "entered" large tracts²⁰tract (danh từ): vùng of land in Alabama and finally settled there. I have been told that once a year he went from Tuscumbia to Philadelphia on horseback²¹horseback (danh từ): ngồi trên ngựa to purchase supplies²²supply (danh từ): sự cung cấp for the plantation²³plantation (danh từ): vườm ươm, thuộc địa , and my aunt has in her possession²⁵possession (danh từ): quyền sỡ hữu many of the letters to his family, which give charming and vivid accounts of these trips.

My Grandmother Keller was a daughter of one of Lafayette's aides, Alexander Moore, and granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, an early Colonial Governor of Virginia. She was also second cousin to Robert E. Lee.

My father, Arthur H. Keller, was a captain in the Confederate Army, and my mother, Kate Adams, was his second wife and many years younger. Her grandfather, Benjamin Adams, married Susanna E. Goodhue, and lived in Newbury, Massachusetts, for many years. Their son, Charles Adams, was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and moved to Helena, Arkansas. When the Civil War broke out, he fought²⁵fought (danh từ): sự đấu tranh on the side of the South and became a brigadier-general. He married Lucy Helen Everett, who belonged²⁶belong (nội động từ): thuộc về to the same family of Everetts as Edward Everett and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. After the war was over the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.

I lived, up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing, in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one, in which the servant slept. It is a custom in the South to build a small house near the homestead²⁷homestead (danh từ): ấp, trại, nhà dân as an annex²⁹annex (danh từ): phụ thuộc to be used on occasion³⁰occassion (danh từ): dịp, cơ hội . Such a house my father built after the Civil War, and when he married my mother they went to live in it. It was completely covered with vines³¹vine (danh từ): dây nho
, climbing roses and honeysuckles³²honeysuckles (danh từ): cây kim ngân
. From the garden it looked like an arbour³³arbour (danh từ): lùm cây . The little porch was hidden from view by a screen of yellow roses and Southern smilax^(*)simlax (danh từ): giống cây khúc khắc
. It was the favourite haunt³⁴haunt (danh từ): nơi hay tới of humming-birds and bees.

The Keller homestead, where the family lived, was a few steps from our little rose-bower. It was called "Ivy Green"^(*)Ivy Green

because the house and the surrounding trees and fences^(*)fence (n): hàng rào
were covered with beautiful English ivy^(*)English ivy (n): dây thường xuân
. Its old-fashioned garden was the paradise⁽³⁵⁾paradise (danh từ): thiên đường, nơi tuyệt vời nhất of my childhood.

Even in the days before my teacher came, I used to feel along the square stiff⁽³⁶⁾stiff (tính từ): cứng đơ boxwood hedges^(*)boxwood (n): cây hoàng dương, hedge (n) hàng rào cây, gỗ
, and, guided by the sense of smell would find the first violets^(*)violet (n): cây hoa tím
and lilies. There, too, after a fit of temper, I went to find comfort and to hide my hot face in the cool leaves and grass. What joy it was to lose myself in that garden of flowers, to wander happily from spot to spot, until, coming suddenly upon a beautiful vine, I recognized⁽³⁶⁾recognize (động từ): nhận ra, thừa nhận it by its leaves and blossoms^(*) , and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble-down summer-house at the farther end of the garden! Here, also, were trailing clematis^(*)clematis (n): cây ông lão (thực vật)
, drooping jessamine^(*)jessamine (n): cây hoa nhài
, and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies, because their fragile petals resemble butterflies'^(*)fragile petals resemble butterfiles: cánh hoa dễ vỡ như bươm bướm
wings. But the roses—they were loveliest of all. Never have I found in the greenhouses of the North such heart-satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home. They used to hang in long festoons⁽³⁷⁾festoon (danh từ): tràn hoa
from our porch^(*)porch (n): hành lang, hiên nhà, filling the whole air with their fragrance⁽³⁸⁾fragrance (danh từ): hương thơm ngát, untainted⁽³⁹⁾untained (tính từ): còn tươi mới by any earthy smell; and in the early morning, washed in the dew, they felt so soft, so pure, I could not help wondering if they did not resemble the asphodels^(*)asphodels (n): cây nhựt quang lan
of God's garden.

The beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life. I came, I saw, I conquered, as the first baby in the family always does. There was the usual amount of discussion as to a name for me. The first baby in the family was not to be lightly named, every one was emphatic⁽³⁹⁾emphatic (tính từ): nhấn mạnh about that. My father suggested the name of Mildred Campbell, an ancestor whom he highly esteemed⁽⁴⁰⁾esteemed (tính từ): có uy tín , and he declined to take any further part in the discussion. My mother solved the problem by giving it as her wish that I should be called after her mother, whose maiden name was Helen Everett. But in the excitement of carrying me to church my father lost the name on the way, very naturally, since it was one in which he had declined to have a part. When the minister asked him for it, he just remembered that it had been decided to call me after my grandmother, and he gave her name as Helen Adams.

I am told that while I was still in long dresses I showed many signs of an eager⁽⁴¹⁾eager (tính từ): hăm hở , self-asserting disposition. Everything that I saw other people do I insisted upon imitating. At six months I could pipe out "How d'ye," and one day I attracted every one's attention by saying "Tea, tea, tea" quite plainly. Even after my illness I remembered one of the words I had learned in these early months. It was the word "water," and I continued to make some sound for that word after all other speech was lost. I ceased⁽⁴²⁾ceased (tính từ): liên tục, không ngớt making the sound "wah-wah" only when I learned to spell the word.

They tell me I walked the day I was a year old. My mother had just taken me out of the bath-tub and was holding me in her lap, when I was suddenly attracted by the flickering⁽⁴³⁾flickering (tính từ): rung rinh shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor. I slipped from my mother's lap and almost ran toward them. The impulse⁽⁴⁴⁾impulse (danh từ): sự đẩy tới gone, I fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms.

These happy days did not last^(*)last (tính từ): bền lâu long. One brief spring, musical with the song of robin and mocking-bird, one summer rich in fruit and roses, one autumn of gold and crimson⁽⁴⁵⁾crimson (danh từ): đỏ thẫm sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager, delighted child. Then, in the dreary month of February, came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness⁽⁴⁶⁾unconsciousness (danh twf0: sự bất tỉnh of a new-born baby. They called it acute congestion⁽⁴⁷⁾congestion (danh từ): sự tắc nghẽn of the stomach and brain. The doctor thought I could not live. Early one morning, however, the fever left me as suddenly and mysteriously⁽⁴⁸⁾myteriously (trạng từ): (một cách) bí ẩn as it had come. There was great rejoicing in the family that morning, but no one, not even the doctor, knew that I should never see or hear again.

I fancy I still have confused recollections⁽⁴⁹⁾confuse (động từ) rối rắm, recollections (danh từ): sự hồi tưởng of that illness. I especially remember the tenderness⁽⁵⁰⁾tenderness (danh từ): sự âu yếm with which my mother tried to soothe⁽⁵¹⁾soothe (ngoại động từ): xoa dịu, dỗ dành me in my waling hours of fret and pain, and the agony⁽⁵²⁾agony (danh từ): sự đau đớn and bewilderment⁽⁵³⁾sự hoang mang with which I awoke after a tossing⁽⁵⁴⁾toss (n): sự tung lên half sleep, and turned my eyes, so dry and hot, to the wall away from the once-loved light, which came to me dim and yet more dim each day. But, except for these fleeting⁽⁵⁵⁾fleeting (danh từ): lướt qua memories, if, indeed, they be memories, it all seems very unreal, like a nightmare⁽⁵³⁾nightmare (danh từ): ác mộng . Gradually I got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me and forgot that it had ever been different, until she came—my teacher—who was to set my spirit free. But during the first nineteen months of my life I had caught glimpses⁽⁵⁶⁾glimps (danh từ): cái nhìn thoáng qua of broad, green fields, a luminous⁽⁵⁷⁾luminous (tính từ): sự sáng chói sky, trees and flowers which the darkness that followed could not wholly blot out⁽⁵⁸⁾wholly (trạng từ): hoàn toàn, blot (động từ) xóa đi . If we have once seen, "the day is ours, and what the day has shown."^(*)Mỗi ngày là của chúng ta, và những gì trong ngày đã ta thấy điều đó.

Chương kế tiếp: The Story of My Life - Helen Keller - Chương 2

Danh sách chương: The Story of My Life by Helen Keller.