我在帝国大厦看到了什么？

当你站在帝国大厦上时，你看到了什么？你在想些什么呢？你想知道《假如给我三天光明》的作者海伦·凯勒站在帝国大厦上时看到了什么吗？读一读这封 truly beautiful letter，解密海伦的文字小游戏，相信你会对此多一份更深的理解。

▍背景介绍

海伦·凯勒（Helen Keller，1880－1968），美国著名女作家、教育家、慈善家，美国《时代周刊》评选的“二十世纪美国十大偶像”之一。海伦·凯勒在十九个月时因患病而失去听觉和视觉，幸而遇见人生导师莎莉文老师，从此努力学习生活。多年后致力于为残疾人造福，建立了许多慈善机构。著作有：《假如给我三天光明》《石墙故事》等。

The Empire State Building: 帝国大厦，有 102 层 ，443.5 米，是世界上第 25 高的摩天大楼，也是保持“世界最高建筑地位”最久的摩天大楼（1931-1972年）

▍书信节选

· I will concede that my guides saw a thousand things that escaped me from the top of the Empire Building, but I am not envious. For imagination creates distances and horizons that reach to the end of the world.

concede: vt. 承认；退让（reluctantly admit: 不情愿地承认）

the idea came to my mind

something slipped my mind

envious: adj. 羡慕的；嫉妒的（jealous）

· I was pleasantly surprised to find the Empire Building so poetical. From every one except my blind friend I had received an impression of sordid materialism – the piling up of one steel honeycomb upon another with no real purpose but to satisfy the American craving for the superlative in everything.

bitterly disappointed: 既失望，又痛苦

sordid: adj. very dirty and unpleasant.

materialism: n. 物质主义

honeycomb: 蜂巢（经常用来比喻人们的居所，工作环境）

craving: n. 渴望；热望

superlative: adj. 最高的；最高级的

· Well, I see in the Empire Building something else – passionate skill, arduous and fearless idealism. The tallest building is a victory of imagination. Instead of crouching close to earth like a beast, the spirit of man soars to higher regions, and from this new point of vantage he looks upon the impossible with fortified courage and dreams yet more magnificent enterprises.

arduous: adj. 极难实现的（requiring great much effort）

crouch: vi. 蹲伏；蜷伏

soar: vi. 高飞在天；高耸入云

vantage point / point of vantage: 有利的视角

fortify: vt. 加强；增强

fortified courage and dreams: 加倍的勇气和梦想

· What did I "see and hear" from the Empire Tower? I saw a romantic structure wrought by human brains and hands that is to the burning eye of the sun a rival luminary. I heard the hammer of Thor ring when the shaft began to rise upward. I saw countless skilled workers welding together that mighty symmetry.

wrought：work 的过去分词，文雅的用法

eye：n. 中心；眼睛

a shaft of light: 一道光

weld: vi. 焊接；团结起来（weld into a whole）

Thor（雷神索尔），是北欧神话中负责掌管战争与农业的雷霆与力量之神。海伦凯勒在此用 the hammer of Thor 来指帝国大厦就像是雷神索尔的杰作

· Let cynics and supersensitive souls say what they will about American materialism and machine civilization. Beneath the surface are poetry, mysticism and inspiration that the Empire Building somehow symbolizes. In that giant shaft I see a groping toward beauty and spiritual vision. I am one of those who see and yet believe.

▍补充

a deaf-blind person

a bachelor of arts degree: 艺术学士学位

The Empire State Building: 帝国大厦

Keller is famously both deaf and blind from a very early age.

carousel: n. 旋转木马

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