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The soil in the courtyard was dry and rocky. The courtyard had been constructed over a garbage dump, and in order to start my garden, I had to remove a great many rocks to allow the plants room to grow. At the time, some of my comrades joked that I was a miner at heart, for I spent my days in a wasteland and my free time digging in the courtyard.
院子里的土壌很干，而且石頭很多。這個院子在建起來之前是個垃圾場，因此為了開辟園子，我得清除掉大量的石頭，給植物留出生長的空間。當時，一些獄友開玩笑說我骨子里是個礦工，整天待在一片荒地里，把自己的空閑時間都花費在挖院子里的土上了。
The authorities supplied me with seeds. I at first planted tomatoes, chilies, and onions—hardy plants that did not require rich earth or constant care. The early harvests were poor, but they soon improved. The authorities did not regret giving permission, for once the garden began to flourish, I often provided the warders with some of my best tomatoes and onions.
獄方給我提供了種子。開始時，我種了番茄、辣椒和洋蔥——都是些不需要肥沃的土壤或經常照料的生命力很強的植物。早期的收成不好，但很快狀況就有了改善。獄方不會后悔允許我開辟菜園種菜的，因為菜園里的蔬菜長得好起來后，我就經常給看守們一些最好的番茄和洋蔥。
While I have always enjoyed gardening, it was not until I was behind bars that I was able to tend my own garden. My first experience in the garden was at Fort Hare, where, as part of the university's manual labor requirement, I worked in one of my professors' gardens and enjoyed the contact with the soil as an alternative to my intellectual labors. Once I was in Johannesburg studying and then working, I had neither the time nor the space to start a garden.
雖然我一直喜愛園藝，但直到入獄后我才得以照料一片屬于自己的萊園。在園藝方面的第一次經歷是在福特哈爾，那是大學時作為體力勞動要求的一部分，我在一位教授家的園子里干活，在那里我享受著腦力勞動之余和土地之間的接觸。但自從我到約翰內斯堡學習并工作以后，就沒有時間也沒有地方開辟一個菜園了。
I began to order books on gardening. I studied different gardening techniques and learned through trial and error. For a time, I attempted to grow peanuts, and used different soils and fertilizers, but finally I gave up. It was one of my few failures.
我開始訂閱一些關于園藝的書籍，學習了不同的園藝技術，經歷了嘗試和失敗之后，我學到了很多東西。我曾用不同的土壌和化肥來試著種花生，但最終我放棄了。這是我很少的幾次失敗中的一次。
A garden was one of the few things in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction.
菜園是一個人在監獄中所能控制的僅有的幾件事情之一。播下種子，看著它生長，照料它，然后收獲果實，這一過程使人得到一種簡單卻持久的滿足感。
