評論
打印
"Richard, don't mention his to the other white men," he said.
"理查德，不要對別的白人提這件事，"他說。
"I understand," I said. "I won't say a word."
"我明白，"我說。"我一個字也不會說。"
A few days later he called me to him.
幾天以后，他把我叫了去。
"I've got a card in my wife's name," he said. "Here's mine."
"我已經(jīng)以我妻子的名義弄了張借書證，"他說。"我的給你。"
"Thank you, sir."
"謝謝你，先生。"
"Do you think you can manage it?"
"你覺得你行嗎?"
"I'll manage fine," I said.
"一定行，"我說。
"If they suspect you, you'll get in trouble," he said.
"如果他們懷疑你，你就要遇到麻煩了，"他說。
"I'll write the same kind of notes to the library that you wrote when you sent me for books," I told him. "I'll sign your name."
"我會寫張便條到圖書館的，跟你派我借書時寫的一樣，"我告訴他說，"我將簽?zāi)愕拿帧?quot;
He laughed.
他笑了。
"Go ahead. Let me see what you get," he said.
"去吧，讓我看看你借的什么書，"他說。
That afternoon I addressed myself to forging a note. Now, what were the name of books written by H. L. Mencken? I did not know any of them. I finally wrote what I thought would be a foolproof note: Dear Madam: Will you please let this nigger boy -- I used the word "nigger" to make the librarian feel that I could not possibly be the author of the note—have some books by H.L. Mecken? I forged the white man's name.
那天下午，我下工夫偽造了一張便條。可是，H·L·門肯寫的書的名字是什么呢？我一本都不知道。最后，我寫了一張我認(rèn)為是絕對保險的條子：親愛的夫人：請你讓這個小黑鬼——我用了"黑鬼"這個詞，以使圖書管理員覺得我不會是寫這張條子的人——借幾本H·L·門肯的書。我偽造了這位白人的簽名。
I entered the library as I had always done when on errands for whites, but I felt that I would somehow slip up and betray myself. I doffed my hat, stood a respectful distance from the desk, looked as unbookish as possible, and waited for the white patrons to be taken care of. When the desk was clear of people, I still waited.
我像往常替白人當(dāng)差那樣，進(jìn)了圖書館，但我總覺得我會莫名其妙地出差錯而露餡的。我脫了帽子，離辦公桌一段相當(dāng)距離恭恭敬敬地站著，盡量裝出不是讀書人的樣子，等候白人讀者先借。當(dāng)桌旁已經(jīng)無人時，我仍然等著。
