海伦·凯勒（Helen Keller，1880--1968年），美国盲聋女作家和残障教育家。1880年出生在亚拉巴马州北部一个叫塔斯喀姆比亚的城镇。在她17个月大的时候，一次急性脑充血夺去了她的视力和听力，随后她又丧失了语言表达能力。然而就在这黑暗而又寂寞的世界里，在她和导师安妮·沙利文（Anne Sullivan）的共同努力下，她学会了读书和说话，并开始和其他人沟通。最后以优异的成绩毕业于美国拉德克利夫学院，成为一个学识渊博，掌握英、法、德、拉丁、希腊五种文字的著名作家和教育家。她足迹遍及美国和世界各地，为盲人学校募集资金，把一生献给了盲人福利和教育事业。她赢得了世界各国人民的赞扬和敬重。主要作品有《假如给我三天光明》、《我的生活》、《我的老师》等。
The most important day I remember in all my life is the one onwhich my teacher，Anne Mansfield Sullivan，came to me．I am filled withwonder when I consider the immeasurable contrast between the two liveswhich it connects．It was the third of March，1887，three months before 1was seven years old．
On the afternoon ofthe eventful day，I stood on the porch，dumb，ex—pectant．I guessed vaguely from my mother’S signs and from the hurryingto and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen，SO 1went to the door and waited on the steps．The afternoon sun penetratedthe mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch，and fell on my upturnedface．My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves andblossoms which had just come fornl to greet the sweet southern spring．Idid not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me．Anger and bitterness had preyed upon the continually for weeks and a deep lan—guor had succeeded this passionate struggle．
Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog，when it seemed as if a tan—gible white darkness shut you in，and the great ship，tense and anxious，groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding—line，andhad no way of knowing how near the harbour was？“Light！Give melight！”was the wordless cry of my soul，and the light of love shone onme in that very hour．
I felt approaching footsteps．I stretched out my hand as I supposed to my mother．Someone took it，and 1 was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me，and，more than allthings else，to love me．
The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll．The little blind children at the Perkins Institution had sent it and Laura Bridgman had dressed it；but I did not know this until after。ward．When I had played with it a little while，Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word“d一0—1—1”．1 was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it．When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly 1 was flushed with childish pleasure and pride．Run—ning downstairs tO my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll．I did not know that 1 was spelling a word or even that words exis—ted；1 was simply making my fingers go in monkey—like imitation．In thewed I learned t。spen in tiffs unc。mprehending way a great many words，among them pin，hat，cup and a few verbs like sit，stand and walk．But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I under-stood that everything has a name．
