One day spent with the blind children made me feel thoroughly at home in my new environment, and I looked eagerly from one pleasant experience to another as the days flew swiftly by. I could not quite convince myself that there was much world left, for I regarded Boston as the beginning and the end of creation.
同我的盲童朋友们待上一天后,我完全适应了新环境,感觉就像在家一样。一天过去,我就盼着又一天的到来,我渴望在每天都获得愉悦的经历。我并不想弄清楚周围是不是还有更加广阔的天地,我把波士顿当做万物的起始点和终结地。
While we were in Boston we visited Bunker Hill, and there I had my first lesson in history. The story of the brave men who had fought on the spot where we stood excited me greatly. I climbed the monument, counting the steps, and wondering as I went higher and yet higher if the soldiers had climbed this great stairway and shot at the enemy on the ground below.
在波士顿的时候,我们参观了邦克山,我在那里学到了我的第一堂历史课。我们的脚下就是勇士曾经战斗过的阵地,他们的无畏气概令我激动不已。在去山顶纪念碑凭吊的途中,我一边数着台阶,一边想象着当年的士兵爬到高坡,居高临下向敌人射击时的情景。
The next day we went to Plymouth by water. This was my first trip on the ocean and my first voyage in a steamboat. How full of life and motion it was! But the rumble of the machinery made me think it was thundering, and I began to cry, because I feared if it rained we should not be able to have our picnic out of doors. I was more interested, I think, in the great rock on which the Pilgrims landed than in anything else in Plymouth. I could touch it, and perhaps that made the coming of the Pilgrims and their toils and great deeds seem more real to me. I have often held in my hand a little model of the Plymouth Rock which a kind gentleman gave me at Pilgrim Hall, and I have fingered its curves, the split in the centre and the embossed figures "1620," and turned over in my mind all that I knew about the wonderful story of the Pilgrims.
第二天,我们经由水路前往普利茅斯,这是我第一次乘坐汽船在海上航行。真想不到汽船能装那么多人!不过这个隆隆作响的机器让我想起了雷电,我开始哭了起来,我担心一旦下雨,我们就不能去野餐了。在普利茅斯,我对清教徒登陆的巨大礁石最感兴趣。我能够触摸到这些岩石,也许这让我更真切地体会到了先民们的艰辛和伟大功绩。我经常会把一小块“普利茅斯岩”模型拿在手里,这是清教徒纪念堂中的一位友善的绅士送给我的;我能用手指摸到它弯曲的形状,中间的裂纹,以及“1620”字样的浮雕数字。当时,我满脑子里装的都是清教徒先民们开疆拓土的神奇故事。
How my childish imagination glowed with the splendour of their enterprise! I idealized them as the bravest and most generous men that ever sought a home in a strange land. I thought they desired the freedom of their fellow men as well as their own. I was keenly surprised and disappointed years later to learn of their acts of persecution that make us tingle with shame, even while we glory in the courage and energy that gave us our "Country Beautiful."
我童年的想象力是如此地多姿多彩!我理想化地把先民们视做最勇敢、最有气魄的开拓者,因为他们要在一片陌生的土地上寻找家园。我想,他们不但要为自己争取自由,还要为民族利益争取自由。多年后,我才了解到他们的出走是由于受到了*,这让我深感震惊和失望,我为人类的非理性行为感到羞愧,尤其是当我们以先辈们建立的“美丽新世界”引以为豪的时候。
Among the many friends I made in Boston were Mr. William Endicott and his daughter. Their kindness to me was the seed from which many pleasant memories have since grown. One day we visited their beautiful home at Beverly Farms. I remember with delight how I went through their rose-garden, how their dogs, big Leo and little curly-haired Fritz with long ears, came to meet me, and how Nimrod, the swiftest of the horses, poked his nose into my hands for a pat and a lump of sugar. I also remember the beach, where for the first time I played in the sand. It was hard, smooth sand, very different from the loose, sharp sand, mingled with kelp and shells, at Brewster. Mr. Endicott told me about the great ships that came sailing by from Boston, bound for Europe. I saw him many times after that, and he was always a good friend to me; indeed, I was thinking of him when I called Boston "the City of Kind Hearts."
威廉·恩迪考特先生和他的女儿也是我在波士顿结交的朋友。他们的友善如同播撒在我心底的种子,随着时光的流逝,许多美好的回忆也慢慢开花结果。有一天,我们去贝弗利农庄拜访他们美丽的家。我依然记得当时的情景:我如何兴高采烈地穿过他们家的玫瑰花园;如何遇到了他们家的大狗利奥,还有卷毛长耳小狗弗里茨;行动敏捷的大马宁录又如何伸着鼻子吃我手里的黄油和糖块。我还记得那片海滩,我就是在那里第一次玩沙子的。那是一种质地坚硬、手感爽滑的沙子,同布鲁斯特的掺杂着海藻和贝壳,松软扎手的沙子截然不同。恩迪考特先生还跟我讲了有关巨轮从波士顿起航驶往欧洲的事。后来我又见过他许多次,他一直是我的好朋友。事实上,每当我把波士顿叫做“慈爱之城”的时候,我就会想起他。