The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, for I am sure that, for those who have eyes which really see, the dawn of each day must be a perpetually new revelation of beauty.
This, according to the terms of my imagined miracle, is to be my third and last day of sight. I shall have no time to waste in regrets or longings; there is too much to see. The first day I devoted to my friends, animate and inanimate. The second revealed to me the history of man and Nature. Today I shall spend in the workaday world of the present, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. And where can one find so many activities and conditions of men as in New York? So the city becomes my destination.
I start from my home in the quiet little suburb of Forest Hills, Long Island. Here , surrounded by green lawns, trees, and flowers, are neat little houses, happy with the voices and movements of wives and children, havens of peaceful rest for men who toil in the city. I drive across the lacy structure of steel which spans the East River, and I get a new and startling vision of the power and ingenuity of the mind of man. Busy boasts chug and scurry about the river - racy speed boat, stolid, snorting tugs. If I had long days of sight ahead, I should spend many of them watching the delightful activity upon the river.
I look ahead, and before me rise the fantastic towers of New York, a city that seems to have stepped from the pages of a fairy story. What an awe-inspiring sight, these glittering spires. these vast banks of stone and steel-structures such as the gods might build for themselves! This animated picture is a part of the lives of millions of people every day. How many, I wonder, give it so much as a seconds glance? Very few, I fear, Their eyes are blind to this magnificent sight because it is so familiar to them.
I hurry to the top of one of those gigantic structures, the Empire State Building, for there , a short time ago, I "saw" the city below through the eyes of my secretary. I am anxious to compare my fancy with reality. I am sure I should not be disappointed in the panorama spread out before me, for to me it would be a vision of another world.
Now I begin my rounds of the city. First, I stand at a busy corner, merely looking at people, trying by sight of them to understand something of their live. I see smiles, and I am happy. I see serious determination, and I am proud, I see suffering, and I am compassionate.
I stroll down Fifth Avenue. I throw my eyes out of focus, so that I see no particular object but only a seething kaleidoscope of colors. I am certain that the colors of women's dresses moving in a throng must be a gorgeous spectacle of which I should never tire. But perhaps if I had sight I should be like most other women -- too interested in styles and the cut of individual dresses to give much attention to the splendor of color in the mass. And I am convinced, too, that I should become an inveterate window shopper, for it must be a delight to the eye to view the myriad articles of beauty on display.
From Fifth Avenue I make a tour of the city-to Park Avenue, to the slums, to factories, to parks where children play. I take a stay-at-home trip abroad by visiting the foreign quarters. Always my eyes are open wide to all the sights of both happiness and misery so that I may probe deep and add to my understanding of how people work and live. my heart is full of the images of people and things. My eye passes lightly over no single trifle; it strives to touch and hold closely each thing its gaze rests upon. Some sights are pleasant, filling the heart with happiness; but some are miserably pathetic. To these latter I do not shut my eyes, for they, too, are part of life. To close the eye on them is to close the heart and mind.
My third day of sight is drawing to an end. Perhaps there are many serious pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining hours, but I am afraid that on the evening of that last day I should again run away to the theater, to a hilariously funny play, so that I might appreciate the overtones of comedy in the human spirit.
At midnight my temporary respite from blindness would cease, and permanent night would close in on me again. Naturally in those three short days I should not have seen all I wanted to see. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen. But my mind would be so crowded with glorious memories that I should have little time for regrets. Thereafter the touch of every object would bring a glowing memory of how that object looked.
Perhaps this short outline of how I should spend three days of sight does not agree with the program you would set for yourself if you knew that you were about to be stricken blind. I am, however, sure that if you actually faced that fate your eyes would open to things you had never seen before, storing up memories for the long night ahead. You would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw would become dear to you. Your eyes would touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at last, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself before you.
I who am blind can give one hint to those who see -- one admonition to those who would make full use of the gift of sight: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense: glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight must be the most delightful.
第三天
接下來這一天的早上，我再次迎接黎明，迫切地要發現新的愉快，因我確信，對那些有眼睛能真正看見的人來說，每天的黎明一定是一種美的永恒新展露。
按我設想出現奇跡的條件，這將是我能看見的第三天，也是最後的一天。我沒有時間去浪費在後悔中或渴望中，要看的東西太多了。第一天我獻給了我的朋友們，有生命的和無生命的。第二天向我展示了人類和自然的曆史。今天我將在當今的平凡世界裏度過，在為生活事務忙碌的人們常去的地方度過。而何處人們才能找到像在紐約的人這樣多的活動和條件呢？所以，紐約便成了我的去處。
我從我在長島森林崗靜靜的小郊區的家出發，這裏，芳草綠樹鮮花環繞著整潔的小住房，妻子和孩子歡聲笑語，其樂融融，是城裏辛勞的人們安寧的避風港。我駕車通過那跨越東河的帶花邊的鋼鐵建築，從而對人類頭腦的獨創性和威力獲得一個新的令人震驚的視覺。繁忙的船隻在河上鳴叫著來來往往－－－高速快艇和笨頭笨腦喘著氣的拖駁。如果我能看見的日子更長些，我要花更多的時間看看這河上快樂的景象。
我展望前頭，紐約的高樓大廈在我前麵升起，似乎是從童話故事的篇章中出現的一座城市，多麽令人敬畏的景象，這些閃閃發光的尖塔，這些巨大的石頭與鋼鐵的建築群，就像眾神為他們自己而建的！這幅生氣勃蓬的圖景是千百萬人每天生命的一部分。我不知道，到底有多少人再對它多看一眼？我怕很少，他們的眼睛對這輝煌的景象卻是熟是無睹，因為這對他們太熟悉了。
我趕緊來到這些巨大建築之一的頂端－－－帝國大廈，因為在那裏，不久以前，我通過我的秘書的眼睛能“看”過下麵的城市。我焦切地把我的想象同現實作一番比較。我確信，我對展現在我麵前的景觀不會失望，因為它對我來說是另一個世界的景象。
現在我開始周遊這座城市。首先，我站在一個熱鬧的角落，僅僅是看著人們，試圖以審視他們來理解他們生活的某些東西。我看到笑容，我就高興。我看到嚴肅的決心，我就驕傲。我看到苦難，我就同情。
我漫步在第五大道上（譯注：第五大道是紐約曼哈頓區的最繁華最壯觀的商業大道，有許多高檔精品商店，洛克菲勒中心就在該大道附近。）我的目光沒有聚焦，以致我沒有看到特別的目標，僅僅是那川流不息的彩色萬花筒。我相信那成群女人們的服裝顏色一定是一種華麗的奇觀，我會百看不厭的。或許，如果我有視力，我也會像其他大多數女人一樣－－－也對個人服裝的式樣和剪裁很感興趣，以使人群中的華麗色彩有更多的吸引力。我也相信，我也會成為一個有癮的櫥窗瀏覽者，因為看那陳列的無數美好的商品一定是賞心悅目之事。
從第五大道起我瀏覽這座城市－－－到派克大道，到貧民窟，到工廠區，到兒童遊樂的公園去。我以參觀外國居民區來作不出國的國外旅行。我總是睜大眼睛看所有的景象，既看幸福的，也看悲哀的，以便我可以深入探究和加深理解人們是如何工作和生活的。我心中充滿了人和事物的形象，我的目光不輕易地忽略任何一件小事，它力求觸及並緊緊抓住所見的每件事。有些景象是愉快的，讓心裏充滿快樂，而有些是悲慘的，對這些事，我並不閉上我的眼睛，因為這也是生活的一部分，對此閉起雙目就是關閉起心靈與頭腦。
我能看的第三天慢慢地結束了。也許還有許多強烈的願望我應花最後的幾個小時去實現，但是，我怕這最後一天的晚上我該又逃到戲院去了，去看一部歡快有趣的戲劇。這樣我可以欣賞到人類精神上喜劇的含蓄意義。
午夜，我那短暫的失明後的重見狀態就終止了，永恒的黑夜重又回到我身上。當然，在這短短的３天中，我並沒有看到我想看的所有事情，唯有在黑暗重又降臨在我身上之時，我才意識到我留下多少事情沒有看到。但我的腦海裏充滿了這麽多美好的記憶，以至我沒有什麽時間去後悔。此後，對每個東西的觸摸都將留下一個強烈的記憶，那東西看起來是怎樣的。
也許，我的這篇簡短的關於怎樣度過這能看的３天的概述和你們自己在遭致失明的情況下所設想的不一致。然而，我確信，如果你真的麵臨那不幸的命運，你的雙眼一定對你們過去從未看見過的事情睜大眼睛，為你今後的漫漫長夜保存下回憶，你將以過去從未有過的方式去利用你的眼睛。你所看到的每件事會變得對你珍貴起來，你的眼睛會觸及並抓住在進入你視線範圍之內的每件事物。然後，你最終真正地看見了，於是，一個美的新世界在你麵前展開了。
我，一個盲人，可以給那些能看見的人一個提示－－－對想充分利用視力天賦的人的一個忠告：用你的雙眼，就好像你明天就會遭致失明一樣。這同樣的方法也能用於其它的感覺上，去聽悅耳的樂聲，鳥兒的鳴唱，樂隊的強勁旋律，就好像你明天就遭致失聰一樣。去觸摸你想摸的每個物體，就像你明天會推動觸覺意識一樣。去聞花朵的芳香，津津有味地去嚐美味佳肴，就好像你明天會再也不能聞到，嚐到一樣。更多地體驗每種感覺；所有的愉快和美感方麵的天福，世界通過自然提供的幾種接觸方式將它展露給你。但是，在所有的感覺之中，我相信視覺可能是最愉快的。
