描述
◎这是一个“身残志坚”的坚韧女子的自传她一共度过了88个春秋，却熬过了87个无光、无声、无语的岁月；她是生活在黑暗中的弱女子，也是给人类带来光明的“女汉子”；她自幼失聪，却考上了哈佛，与马克·吐温成为忘年交。她就是被誉为“精神楷模”的海伦·凯勒。
◎该套装共中英文各一本。中文版，著名翻译家、共同译作，非改写、非删减版；英文版，利用权威版本对书中的英文单词进行了精校，高度还原英文原著。
假如你的一生只有三天能看到光明，你会拿来做什么？海伦说，她会好好看看这个世界，看那绚烂的色彩，看那雄伟的建筑，看至亲之人的面孔……
1880年，海伦在亚拉巴马州的一个小镇出生，一岁半时突患急性脑充血，被连日的高烧折磨，昏迷不醒。苏醒后，她便看不见、听不见，甚至连说话都含糊不清。一开始她拒绝、她绝望，她甚至消沉，直到遇到了安妮·莎莉文小姐。莎莉文小姐教会她如何用双手感受别人说话时的嘴型变化，如何学习，如何记忆，*重要的是教会了她什么是爱。
此后她考入大学，掌握了五种语言，创作了14部著作，创办了基金会……她是世界上少有的女性坚强人物，是本世纪*富感召力的作家之一，她的事迹成为后世的典范，是我们学习的榜样。
目录（中文）
假如给我三天光明
我生活的故事
目录（英文）
Three Days to See
The Story of My life
海伦·凯勒的身体是不自由的，但她的心灵却是无比自由的。
——英国影视演员、编剧 卓别林
十九世纪有两个奇人，一个是拿破仑，一个是海伦·凯勒。拿破仑试图用武力征服世界，他失败了；海伦试图用笔征服世界，她成功了。
——美国作家、演说家 马克·吐温
跨越了盲聋的身体障碍与折磨，海伦·凯勒不屈不挠的坚韧精神，成为强者的永恒象征。
——美国《纽约时报》
我怀着一种诚惶诚恐的心情开始写这本自传。事实上，要掀开那笼罩了我的童年时代如同浓雾般的帷幕，这的确让我疑虑重重，写自传的任务本来就不轻松。尽管我想明确地写出幼年时代的各种印象，但儿时的记忆尘封已久，事实和想象往往交织在一起，我自己也分不清楚了。女性在描绘自己的童年经历时，难免会不知不觉地加上自己的想象成分。在残存的记忆中，某些往事仍然不时鲜明地在我脑中闪现；而另外一些却模模糊糊，了无印象了。况且孩提时的喜怒哀乐如今多半已经淡忘，我早年受教育时的某些极为重要的事件，也因为后来更为激动人心的发现而早已忘怀。因此，为了避免冗长乏味，我在这里只把最有兴趣和最有价值的一些情节，略为陈述一下。
我于1880年6月27日出生在塔斯甘比亚镇，这是阿拉巴马州北部的一个小镇。
我的父系祖先卡斯帕·凯勒来自瑞士，移民定居在美国的马里兰州。在更早的瑞士祖先中，有一位竟然是苏黎世聋哑教育的首创者，他还写过一部关于聋哑教育的专著——这真是一种太不可思议的巧合了；每当我想到这里，心里就不禁大大地感慨一番，命运真是无法预知啊!
The First Day
On
the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness
and companionship have made my life worth living. First, I should like to gaze
long upon the face of my dear teacher, Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who came to me
when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should want not merely
to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory, but to
study that face and find in it the living evidence of the sympathetic
tenderness and patience with which she accomplished the difficult task of my
education. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which
has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion
for all humanity which she has revealed to me so often.
I do
not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “Window of
the soul”, the eyes. I can only “see” through my finger tips the outline of a
face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my
friends from the feel of their faces. But I cannot really picture their
personalities by touch. I know their personalities, of course, through other
means, through the thoughts they express to me, through whatever of their
actions are revealed to me. But I am denied that deeper understanding of them
which I am sure would come through sight of them, through watching their
reactions to various expressed thoughts and circumstances, through noting the
immediate and fleeting reactions of their eyes and countenance.
Friends
who are near to me I know well, because through the months and years they
reveal themselves to me in all their phases; but of casual friends I have only
an incomplete impression, an impression gained from a handclasp, from spoken
words which I take from their lips with my finger tips, or which they tap into
the palm of my hand.
How
much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp
quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtleties of
expression, the quiver of a muscle, the flutter of a hand. But does it ever
occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature of a friend or
acquaintance? Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually the outward
features of a face and let it go at that?
For
instance can you describe accurately the faces of five good friends? Some of
you can, but many cannot. As an experiment, I have questioned husbands of long
standing about the color of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed
confusion and admit that they do not know. And, incidentally, it is a chronic
complaint of wives that their husbands do not notice new dresses, new hats, and
changes in household arrangements.
The
eyes of seeing persons soon become accustomed to the routine of their
surroundings, and they actually see only the startling and spectacular. But
even in viewing the most spectacular sights the eyes are lazy. Court records
reveal every day how inaccurately “eyewitnesses” see. A given event will be
“seen” in several different ways by as many witnesses. Some see more than
others, but few see everything that is within the range of their vision.
Oh,
the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!
The
first day would be a busy one. I should call to all my dear friends and look
long into their faces, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidences of the
beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a
baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty which
precedes the individual’s consciousness of the conflicts which life develops.
And
I should like to look into the loyal, trusting eyes of my dogs—the grave, canny
little Scottie, Darkie, and the stalwart, understanding Great Dane, Helga,
whose warm, tender, and playful friendships are so comforting to me.
On
that busy first day I should also view the small simple things of my home. I
want to see the warm colors in the rugs under my feet, the pictures on the walls,
the intimate trifles that transform a house into home. My eyes would rest
respectfully on the books in raised type which I have read, but they would be
more eagerly interested in the printed books which seeing people can read, for
during the long night of my life the books I have read and those which have
been read to me have built themselves into a great shining lighthouse,
revealing to me the deepest channels of human life and the human spirit.
In
the afternoon of that first seeing day, I should take a long walk in the woods
and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature trying
desperately to absorb in a few hours the vast splendor which is constantly
unfolding itself to those who can see. On the way home from my woodland jaunt,
my path would lie near a farm so that I might see the patient horses ploughing
in the field (perhaps I should see only a tractor! ), and the serene content of
men living close to the soil. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful
sunset.
When
dusk had fallen, I should experience the double delight of being able to see by
artificial light which the genius of man has created to extend the power of his
sight when Nature decrees darkness.
In
the night of that first day of sight, I should not be able to sleep, so full
would be my mind of the memories of the day.
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