A Ball to Roll Around
滾球
by Robert G Allman
羅伯特·G·奧爾曼
I lost my sight when I was four years old by falling off a box car in a freight yard in Atlantic City and landing on my head.Now I am thirty-two.I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what colour red is.It would be wonderful to see again,but a calamity can do strange things to people.
4歲那年在大西洋城,我從貨場(chǎng)一輛火車上摔下來(lái),頭先著地,于是雙目失明.現(xiàn)在我已經(jīng)32歲了.我還模糊地記得陽(yáng)光是多么燦爛,紅色是多么鮮艷.能恢復(fù)視覺(jué)固然好,但災(zāi)難也能對(duì)人產(chǎn)生奇妙的作用.
It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do if I hadn' t been blind.I believe in life now.I am not so sure that I would have believed in it so deeply,otherwise.I don' t mean that I would prefer to go without my eyes.I simply mean that the loss of them made me appreciate the more what I had left.
有一天我突然想到,倘若我不是盲人,我或許不會(huì)變得像現(xiàn)在這樣熱愛(ài)生活.現(xiàn)在我相信生活,但我不能肯定如果自己是明眼人,會(huì)不會(huì)像現(xiàn)在這樣深深地相信生活.這并不意味著我寧愿成為盲人,而只是意味著失去視力使我更加珍惜自己其他的能力.
Life,I believe,asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality.The more readily a person is able to make these adjustments,the more meaningful his own private world becomes.The adjustment is never easy.I was bewildered and afraid.But I was lucky.My parents and my teachers saw something in me ——a potential to live,you might call it ——which I didn’t see,and they made me want to fight it out with blindness.
我認(rèn)為,生活要求人不斷地自我調(diào)整以適應(yīng)現(xiàn)實(shí).人愈能及時(shí)地進(jìn)行調(diào)整,他的個(gè)人世界便愈有意義.調(diào)整決非易事.我曾感到茫然害怕,但我很幸運(yùn),父母和老師在我身上發(fā)現(xiàn)了某種東西——可以稱之為活下去的潛力吧——而我自己卻沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn).他們激勵(lì)我誓與失明拼搏到底.
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself.That was basic.If I hadn't been able to do that,I would have collapsed and become a chair rocker on the front porch for the rest of my life .When I say belief in myself I am not talking about simply the kind of self-confidence that helps me down an unfamiliar staircase alone.That is part of it.But I mean something bigger than that:an assurance that I am,despite imperfections,a real,positive person that somewhere in the sweeping,intricate pattern of people there is a special place where I can make myself fit.
我必須學(xué)會(huì)的最艱難的一課就是相信自己,這是基本條件.如做不到這一點(diǎn),我的精神就會(huì)崩潰,只能坐在前門廊的搖椅中度過(guò)余生.相信自己并不僅僅指支持我獨(dú)自走下陌生的樓梯的那種自信,那是一部分.我指的是大事：是堅(jiān)信自己雖然有缺陷,卻是一個(gè)真正的有進(jìn)取心的人；堅(jiān)信在蕓蕓眾生錯(cuò)綜復(fù)雜的格局當(dāng)中,自有我可以安身立命的一席之地.
It took me years to discover and strengthen this assurance.It had to start with the most elementary things.Onc e a man gave me an indoor baseball.I thought he was mocking me and I was hurt ."I can' t use this," I said."Take it with you," he urged me," and roll it around."The words stuck in my head." Roll it around!" By rolling the ball I could hear where it went.This gave me an idea how to achieve a goal I had thought impossible:playing baseball.At Philadelphia' s Overbrook School for the Blind I invented a successful variation of baseball.We called it ground ball.
我花了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間才樹立并不斷加強(qiáng)這一信念.這要從最簡(jiǎn)單的事做起.有一次一個(gè)人給我一個(gè)室內(nèi)玩的棒球,我以為他在嘲笑我,心里很難受.“我不能使這個(gè).”我說(shuō).“你拿去,”他竭力勸我,“在地上滾.”他的話在我腦子里生了根.“在地上滾!” 滾球使我聽(tīng)見(jiàn)它朝哪兒滾動(dòng).我馬上想到一個(gè)我曾認(rèn)為不可能達(dá)到的目標(biāo)：打棒球.在費(fèi)城的奧弗布魯克盲人學(xué)校,我發(fā)明了一種很受人歡迎的棒球游戲,我們稱它為地面球.
All my life I have set ahead of me a series of goals and then tried to reach them,one at a time.I had to learn my limitations.It was no good to try for something I knew at the start was wildly out of reach because that only invited the bitterness of failure.I would fail sometimes anyway but on the average I made progress.
我這一輩子給自己樹立了一系列目標(biāo),然后努力去達(dá)到,一次一個(gè).我必須了解自己能力有限,若開始就知道某個(gè)目標(biāo)根本達(dá)不到卻硬要去實(shí)現(xiàn),那不會(huì)有任何好處,因?yàn)槟侵粫?huì)帶來(lái)失敗的苦果.我有時(shí)也失敗過(guò),但一般來(lái)說(shuō)總有進(jìn)步.