Louis Braille 路易布莱叶

5. One of the most famous blind people in the world was Louis Braille. Braille was born in 1809

in a small town in France where his father had a small leather-making shop. One day, when he was

three years old, the boy was playing in his father's shop. He picked up a tool with a sharp point

and fell on it, blinding, himlf in both eyes. Even though he was only a small child, he had to

learn to walk with a cane in order to feel where he was going. Naturally, the people of the town

felt very sorry for this little boy when they saw him, completely blind, feeling his way along the

streets with his cane.

6. A few years later, Braille went to a special school for the blind in Paris. There he learned to read;

that is, he learned to recognize the twenty-six letters of the alphabet by feeling them with his

fingers. But the letters were veral inches high and veral inches wide, and this was a very

primitive system of reading. A very short article filled veral books, and each book weighed eight

or nine pounds.

7. Later, Braille became a teacher in this same school. By this time in his life, he was also a

musician. His mind was active, and he was always eking to invent a way for' blind people to

become less dependent on people with sight. Braille wanted to find a better system of reading for

the blind, but it wasn't easy. One day, on a visit home, he said to his father, "Blind people are the

loneliest people in the world. I can tell one bird from another by its sound. I can know the door of

the hou by feeling it with my hand. But there are so many things which I cannot hear and cannot

feel. Only books can free the blind."

8. One day, Braille was sitting in a restaurant with a friend. The friend was reading the newspaper

to him. He read an article about a French army captain who had a system of writing which he

could u in the dark. The captain called it "night writing." In this "night writing," he ud a

system of dots and dashes. The dots and dashes were raid on the paper so that a person could

feel them with his or her fingers. When Braille heard this, he realized at once that it was the

answer to the problem of the blind. This was the breakthrough he had hoped and waited for. It was

a turning point in his life, and it would be a turning point in the lives of many people.

9. The next day, Braille went with a friend to visit the army captain, He asked the captain about his

writing system. The captain explained that he ud a tool wi. th a sharp point to make dots and

small dashes in thick paper. A person could feel the dots and dashes on the other side of the

paper. Certain marks meant one thing while other marks meant another. The tool he ud was the

same kind of tool which Braille had blind himlf with.

10. Braille was certain that he could develop the system to help blind people read. His goal was to

give them better books. He worked day and night studying this new idea and trying to find a way

to u it for the blind.

11. After experimenting with many different ways of making dots and dashes on paper, Braille

finally arrived at a simple system. He ud six holes within a small space. With the six holes in

different positions, he could make sixty-three different combinations. Each combination indicated

a letter of the alphabet or a short word. There were even combinations to indicate punctuation

marks. Soon he wrote a book using the "Braille" system.

12. At first people didn't believe that this system was possible or practical: One time, Braille spoke

before a group of people. He showed how he could write by making the holes in paper almost as

fast as someone could read to him. Then he read back easily what he had written. But the people

didn't believe him. They said that it, was impossible to do this--that Braille had learned by

memory what he had read to them.

13. The same thing happened everywhere. For one reason or another, people didn't want to believe

Braille. Even the French government didn't want to hear anything about his system. They said that

they were already doing everything possible for the blind.

14. Braille was now devoting all his time to his new system, but no one was listening. He

continued to work on the system, but by the 1850s he was a very sick man, and each year he

became sicken Somehow, even with all this disappointment, he continued to work on his system to

make it better.

15. Braille worked out a system of marks for mathematics and music. One day, a girl who was

congenitally blind played the piano beautifully before a large audience. Everyone in the audience

was very plead. Then the girl got up and said that the people should not thank her for playing so

well. They should thank Louis Braille. It was Braille, she said, who had made it possible for her to

learn music and to play the piano. She also told them that he was a very sick man and that he was

dying.

16. Suddenly, after so many years, everyone became interested in Louis Braille. The newspapers

wrote articles about him. The governmont also became interested in his system of reading for the

blind. Some of Braille's friends went to his home to e him. He was sick in bed. They told him

what had happened. Braille began to cry. He said, "This is the third time in my life that I have

cried; first, when I became blind; cond, when I heard about 'night writing,' and now becau I

know that my life has not been a failure." A few days later Braille died. He was only forty-three

years old.

17. Braille's dream of giving books to the blind did not die with him. Most of the world's great

books are now available in Braille editions so that people who cannot e can at least read. Blind

people may still be lonely, but they aren't as lonely as they were before Louis Braille.

5．世界上最著名的盲人之一叫做路易斯·布莱叶。布莱叶1809年出生于 法国的一个小镇，

他父亲在那里开了一间小的制革作坊。三岁时的某一天， 这个孩子在他父亲的店里玩耍。

他拿着一件有锋利尖头的工具时突然跌倒， 双目因此失明。尽管他还是个小孩子，他也必

须学着用手杖走路，通过手杖 探知自己走向何处。很自然，当镇上的居民看见这个双目完

全失明、拄着手 杖在街上行走的小男孩时都很为他难过。

6．几年后，布莱叶来到巴黎一所为盲人开设的特殊学校。在那里，他学 会了阅读。也就是

说，他学会通过手指的触觉去辨认二十六个字母。但是， 这些字母有几英寸长和几英寸宽。

这是一种非常原始的阅读系统，一篇很短 的文章就要用好几本书，而且每本书重达八九磅。

7．后来，布莱叶成为这所学校的老师。在他一生中的这个时期，他还成 为了一名音乐家。

他思维活跃，总在寻求发明一种方法，以减少盲人对有正 常视力的人的依赖。布莱叶希望

能够为盲人发明一种更好的阅读系统。当然， 此非易事。有一天，探亲回家，他对他的父

亲说：“盲人是这个世界上最孤独 的人。我可以通过一只鸟儿的叫声区别它与其他鸟儿，我

可以通过我的手感 觉到自家房门。但是，还有太多东西是我所不能够听见和感觉到的。只

有书 才能使盲人自由。”

8．一天，布莱叶与一位朋友坐在一个餐厅里，这个朋友为他读报。他读 到一篇关于一位法

军上尉(发明)的文章，这位上尉发明了一种使他能在黑 暗中使用的书写系统。上尉将之称

为“夜书”。在“夜书”中，他使用了一套 圆孔和凹痕系统。这些圆孔和凹痕都坐落在纸上，

因此，人们可以通过手指 来感觉它们。当布莱叶听到这些，他立刻意识到，这就是解决盲

人问题的答 案。这正是他期望和等待已久的突破。这是他一生的转折点，这也将是众多 人

一生的转折点。

9．第二天，布莱叶叫了一个朋友同他一起去拜访这位上尉。他向上尉咨 询他的这套书写系

统。上尉解释说，他使用一种锋利带尖的工具在厚纸上打 出圆孔和小的凹痕。人们可以在

纸的另一面感觉到这些圆孔和凹痕。某组符 号代表某种事物，而另外一组符号则代表其他

事物。他所使用的工具正是导 致布莱叶双目失明的工具。

10．布莱叶确信他能够开发这种系统去帮助盲人阅读。他的目标是给他们 更易阅读的书籍。

他夜以继日地研究这个新方法，试图为盲人找到一种途径 厶实现这个方式。

11．布莱叶在纸上试验各种不同的制造圆孔和凹痕的方式方法。最后，他 选定一个简单系

统。他在很小的空间内用六个洞，通过六个洞位置之不同， 他可以做出63种不同组合。每

种组合代表了字母表的一个字母或者一个短语。 甚至有的组合代表标点符号。很快，他用“布

莱叶系统”写了一本书。

12．最初人们不相信这个系统可行或实用。有一次，布莱叶在一群人前演 讲。他演示他如

何在纸上打洞书写，其速度能跟上给他念书的人。然后，他 能轻松地念出刚才他书写的内

容。但是人们不相信他。他们认为这是不可能 做到的，而是布莱叶已经用记忆记住了他念

给他们的内容。

13．同样的事情在各地发生。出于种种原因，人们不愿相信布莱叶。甚至 法国政府也不想

听任何有关他的系统的事情。官员们说他们已经为盲人做了一切可能做的事。

14．此时，布莱叶已经为他的新系统奉献了他的全部的时间。但是，没人， 倾听。他继续

改善新系统，但是1850年后，他已经是一个身患重病的人，而且每年他的病情都在恶化。

尽管所有的情形都令人沮丧，布莱叶坚持改进他 的系统，使其完善。

15．布莱叶还为数学和音乐研制了一种符号系统。有一次，一个先天失明 的女孩，在大群

观众面前弹奏出美妙的钢琴曲。所有观众为之震惊。盲女缓 缓起身对人们说，他们不应感

谢她的演奏如此之好，他们应当感谢路易斯·布莱叶先生。她说，是布莱叶先生使她有可能

去学习音乐、去演奏钢琴。她还 告诉人们布莱叶先生已经是个重病之人，濒临死亡。

16．刹那间，经过了这么多年，(如决堤之水)，人人开始关注路易斯·布 莱叶先生。报纸撰

写关于他的文章。政府也开始对他的盲人阅读系统产生兴 趣。布莱叶的一些朋友到他家看

望他。他重病在床。他们告诉他发生的事情。 布莱叶哭了起来。他说 “这是我一生中第三

次哭：第一次，当我成了瞎子， 第二次，是当我听说„夜书‟，还有现在，因为我知道了我

的生命不是一次失败。” 几天后，布莱叶先生去世，年仅43岁。

17．布莱叶先生让盲人拥有书的梦没有随他一起死去。今天，绝大多数世界名著都有盲人使

用的布莱叶版，这样不能看的人至少还可以阅读。盲人也许依然是孤独的，但是他们不再如

布莱叶先生之前那样孤独。