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"My little sister will understand me now," was a thought stronger than all obstacles. I used to repeat ecstatically, "I am not dumb now." I could not be despondent while I anticipated the delight of talking to my mother and reading her responses from her lips. It astonished me to find how much easier it is to talk than to spell with the fingers, and I discarded the manual alphabet as a medium of communication on my part; but Miss Sullivan and a few friends still use it in speaking to me, for it is more convenient and more rapid than lip-reading.
“我的小妹妹将会听懂我的话。”这个强烈的念头已经超越了任何学习上的障碍。我常常出神地重复着一句话：“我不再哑了。”可以预见，我会同母亲快乐地交谈，我可以通过摸她的嘴唇来读懂她的话，我不会再感到沮丧失望了。而且，我惊讶地发现，语言交流要比用手指拼写来得更容易。所以，我会放弃使用手语字母的交流手段。不过苏立文小姐和少数几个朋友仍然用手指拼写的方式同我讲话，因为同唇读相比，这种方式要方便快捷得多。
Just here, perhaps, I had better explain our use of the manual alphabet, which seems to puzzle people who do not know us. One who reads or talks to me spells with his hand, using the single-hand manual alphabet generally employed by the deaf. I place my hand on the hand of the speaker so lightly as not to impede its movements. The position of the hand is as easy to feel as it is to see. I do not feel each letter any more than you see each letter separately when you read. Constant practice makes the fingers very flexible, and some of my friends spell rapidly—about as fast as an expert writes on a typewriter. The mere spelling is, of course, no more a conscious act than it is in writing.
说到这里，我要好好解释一下我们使用手语字母的过程，因为这似乎令很多不了解我们的人感到困惑。如果一个人想为我阅读或者跟我讲话，那么他就会用到聋哑人使用的手拼字母法。我会把自己的手轻轻地放在讲话者的手上，我的动作会轻到不妨碍对方的任何行动。而手对位置的变化很敏感，如同长了眼睛一样。所以，当你为我“读”的时候，我并不会感到辨别字母的速度比你看的速度慢。长期的训练令手指变得异常灵活。在我的朋友们当中，有些人的拼写速度惊人——就像一个熟练使用打字机的行家里手一样快。当然，这种拼写方式只是一种不得已而为之的行为。
When I had made speech my own, I could not wait to go home. At last the happiest of happy moments arrived. I had made my homeward journey, talking constantly to Miss Sullivan, not for the sake of talking, but determined to improve to the last minute. Almost before I knew it, the train stopped at the Tuscumbia station, and there on the platform stood the whole family. My eyes fill with tears now as I think how my mother pressed me close to her, speechless and trembling with delight, taking in every syllable that I spoke, while little Mildred seized my free hand and kissed it and danced, and my father expressed his pride and affection in a big silence. It was as if Isaiah's prophecy had been fulfilled in me, "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands!"
当我能够开口讲话的时候，我几乎无法抑制住迫切的归家心情。终于，最快乐的时刻到来了，我踏上了返乡的旅程。一路上，我不停地和苏立文小姐说话。当然，这并不是为了单纯地说话，我决心提高我的说话水平，直到最后一刻。不知不觉间，火车已经停靠在图斯康比亚车站，全家人都站在月台上迎接我。我的眼中噙满泪水，我想到了母亲是如何把我紧紧地搂在怀里，激动得浑身颤抖不能言语，她仔细地聆听我发出的每一个音节；我想到了小妹妹米尔德莱德抓住我的手又吻又跳；我想到了父亲以长久的沉默来表达他的慈爱和自豪。我们相会的景象就像《以赛亚书》中应验的预言：“大山小山必在你们面前发声歌唱。田野的树木也都拍掌。”
